Comments on: Count Turf wins the Kentucky Derby, 1951

By: ben

ben — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:43:06 +0000

he’s my great grandpa

By: ROYCE MCCREARY

ROYCE MCCREARY — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:09:54 +0000

Thank you for the article about my father. I was four years old when my father couldn’t get a mount and had to ask trainers if he could exercise their horses for free. The gloom in our house was thick.
I met Jack Amiel years later as an adult, and you would have thought we had been friends for years. I got a call from my father that Jack wanted to see me at the restaurant, Jack Dempsey’s. There was a mural of the winner’s circle he wanted me to have. Unfortunately, it was impossible to remove. The restaurant was closing it’s doors. He did give me one of the last, best cheese cakes ever. Jack was a class act.
My brother is the custodian of the trophy. Both Derby wins are inscribed on it, 1944 and 1951.

By: Rick Meli

Rick Meli — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:41:25 +0000

John,
Growing up with you and knowing your father as I did was truly a special experience in my life. It is easy to see why he accomplished what he did and left such great legacy for you to follow.

By: Bob Caito

Bob Caito — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:58:47 +0000

After reading “Jack Amiel’s Big Day” in Turf & Sport Digest in 1967, I became a horse racing fan for life. Jack had faith in his horse and jockey Conn McCreary.
He refused to listen to the so-called experts and he was rewarded for his determination. I remember when Thoroughbred Record published it’s 1971 Kentucky Derby edition and stated, “Has it really been twenty years since Jack Amiel ran across the track at Churchill Downs like a man on a pogo stick?”. And I remember when Blood Horse reprinted a Red Smith column describing the scene at Penn Station that Joseph Amiel mentions above. Jack Amiel was extraordinary man and an inspiration to all people who refuse to give up–in spite of the odds.
Joseph, if you are reading this entry, I would like to ask if you have Count Turf’s Kentucky Derby trophy that your father was so proud of.

By: Joseph Amiel

Joseph Amiel — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:19:12 +0000

John, I remember your dad with great affection. He often rode my dad’s horses, but my most vivid recollection is greeting him and my dad with my mother and sister when their train from Louisville arrived at Penn Station. My dad insisted on opening the wooden case carrying the derby cup for us all to see. He and your dad had been staring at it in their train compartment all the way to New York.

In the absence of the Sol Rutchik, the trainer, my dad, an experienced horseman, had been training Count Turf himself. The night before the race he phoned us and said Count Turf was working so well, he believed the colt would win and that he had just gotten off the phone after vainly imploring Rutchik to take a morning plane that would get him to the track in time for the race. My dad’s feeling and mine as well was that Sol feared the embarrassment of not having a competitive horse in the country’s most prestigious race. Not being there for what would have been the peak of his career remained a much greater embarrassment for the rest of his life.

My dad felt that previous jockeys had ridden Count Turf incorrectly by staying near the lead and using him up. Conn was a great come-from-behind rider with the guts to wait until the very last, but precisely the right moment to make his move. In the full newsreel of the race, you can see him elbowing his way through traffic to a good position at the first turn, sure that he had powerhouse under him. As he later said, he could have moved at any time because he had so much horse. It was the greatest moment of my father’s life in racing and, I suspect, of Conn’s as well.

Thank you, Kevin, for describing again their extraordinary victory