Print size 17″ X 22″, Image Size 9.5″ X 14.5″

This print has been in storage since 1967 and has slight discolorations around the print border which does not distract from the beauty of the print and would be easily covered up when matted and framed.

KELSO, br. g., 1957, by Your Host – Maid of Flight, by Count Fleet.
Owner, Bohemia Stable;
Breeder, Mrs. Richard C. DuPont; Trainer, C. H. Hanford.

Kelso (April 4, 1957 – October 16, 1983) was an American thoroughbred race horse considered among the best racehorses of the 20th century. In the list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by The Blood-Horse magazine, Kelso ranks 4th, behind only Man o’ War (1st), Secretariat (2nd) and Citation (3rd). In his long career, Kelso defeated many leading Thorougbred racehorses including Carry Back, Gun Bow, Bald Eagle, Tompion, Never Bend, Beau Purple, Quadrangle, Roman Brother, Crimson Satan, Jaipur, Ridan and Pia Star, often conceding weight under handicap conditions.

Not even a starter during the season at the time the three-year-old classics were run and still a virtual unknown until August, Bohemia Stable’s Kelso staged a whirlwind late campaign to become the unanimous choice of the various polls as “Horse of the Year” for 1960. There were some dissenters to his selection for this honor; but it was difficult to argue against his record-smashing speed from a mile to two miles, his ability to defeat top older horses, and his consistent seasonal record of eight wins in nine starts.

Home-bred by Mrs. Richard C. DuPont’s Bohemia organization, the brown gelding by Your Host – Maid of Flight, by Count Fleet, won one of three starts at two and was twice second to earn $3,380. All his juvenile starts came in September.

A sore stifle kept him out of action until June, when he won a six-furlong race at Monmouth Park by 10 lengths. He followed with a 12-length victory at Aqueduct in 134 1/5, the fastest mile time ever recorded by a three-year-old in New York.

The Arlington Classic in Chicago was his first stakes engagement. He threw in a poor race to finish unplaced after being blocked. But he did not lose again in six more starts, all in stakes, the rest of the year.

Back at Monmouth for the Choice Stakes, he prevailed by seven lengths.

Returning to New York, he closed with a tremendous rush to win the Jerome Handicap by a head. His margin in the Discovery Handicap was 1 ¼ lengths under top weight of 124 pounds, and he set a new Aqueduct record of 1:48 2/5 for 1 1/8 miles. In his last race in his own age division, he beat Tompion by 4 ½ lengths in 2:40 4/5, equaling the Belmont Park record for 1 5/8 miles, in the Lawrence Realization.

Then Kelso ventured to Chicago again and challenged older horses for the first time in the Hawthorne Gold Cup through the mud with a six-length decision over Heroshogala and the four-year-old On-andOn.

At Aqueduct once more, the Your Host gelding concluded his campaign with a new American record of 3:19 2/5 for two miles in the Jockey Club Gold Cup; his margin over such senior stars as *Don Poggio, Bald Eagle, Dotted Swiss and Harmonizing wa 3 ½ lengths.

That brought Kelso’s earnings for the season to $ 293,310 and for his lifetime to $296,690 from nine wins and two seconds in a dozen starts over two active years.