Look Back: An American Derby to Ponder

In conjunction with Tom Hall's Throwback Thursday features in BloodHorse Daily, BloodHorse.com each Thursday will present corresponding race stories from the pages of the magazine. 

This week is a race recap of the 1949 American Derby at Washington Park won by Ponder written by Blood-Horse staff titled "Ponder: He Sprints to Conquer." The story ran in the Sept. 3, 1949 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine.

For the most part, interest in the American Derby of August 27 was not so much concerned about 'Who will win?' as about 'How fast?'

It was fast enough. Calumet Farm's Ponder turned the mile and a quarter in 2:00 2/5. This was faster than ten furlongs had ever been run at Washington Park, and faster than any 3-year-old had ever run it anywhere, or so it is said.

In winning the Derby, Ponder reasserted a Calumet practice, for Whirlaway, Fervent, and Citation previously had carried it off for the devil red and blue. It also was the third time Warren Wright's stable had succeeded in the Kentucky Derby-American Derby double—Whirlaway and Citation were earlier vehicles.

There were other similarities: It was the second consecutive Saturday that a Calumet horse had lowered a Washington Park track record, and in the case of Ponder it was just a question of substituting one name for another. The record he lowered by one-fifth of a second had belonged to Fervent, which set it up in 1947 and in doing so had moved it away from Armed (2:01), also from the Calumet stable.

Ponder has not excited the imagination as other Derby winners have done, but he is steadily gaining in reputation. Besides the two Derbys, he has won the Peter Pan Handicap and the Arlington Classic, and has been second in three other stakes. Contrasted to his record at 2, when he was once second and earned only $400 in four starts, he doesn't look like the same horse. This can be explained: He has been polished by those master lapidaries, Ben and Jimmy Jones.

The American Derby was perhaps his most shining performance. Victory came as it usually does to him. He let the pack take off in full cry, and when he got ready with his late run, nothing could stay in front of him. But this race he won in what may be called the hard way. He was, to all appearances, securely boxed in on the rail as the field rounded the far turn. But he seems to be an easy colt to handle during a race, and Jockey Steve Brooks was able to take him back and send him around the outside.

Once clear, he took off with the rush that had gained the Kentucky Derby for him, and won by 2 1/4 lengths drawing away. Ky. Colonel was second, Johns Joy third. The latter was a length behind the second horse. Ponder, at 126, gave eight pounds to the others.

The race was set up as a record-breaker for a colt like Ponder. Ky. Colonel, one of his opponents, had shortly before made a world record of 1:21 2/5 for seven furlongs. Johns Joy had run a mile in 1:34 1/5, which was within a fifth of the world mark established by Coaltown. It was not likely that either of these colts could hold his speed for the mile and a quarter of the Derby, but there seemed a good chance that a strong finisher, carried along in their eddy, might turn the early foot to his advantage. 

The pace was not scorching, but it was attritive, as Ky. Colonel and Johns Joy were to learn. Ky. Colonel led for three quarters in 1:11 3/5, Johns Joy finished the mile in 1:36 2/5. In quarters it was :23, :23 4/5, :24 4/5, and :24 4/5. The fifth quarter, the one in which Ponder gobbled up the pacemakers, was run in :24. He had won the Arlington Classic with a last-quarter sprint in :25 2/5, and the Kentucky Derby with a final quarter in :25 3/5. In every instance, of course, Ponder's actual (final quarter) time has been faster because he never has been in front at the quarter pole.

Ponder now is the leading money-winning 3-year-old, with earnings this year of $267,525. Olympia has about $215,000 for the season, Capot has $181,000, Palestinian $122,000.

Washington Park has three new records on its books: for seven furlongs, eight furlongs, ten furlongs. (Plus a new mark on the turf course—Volcanic clipped the 1 3/16-mile mark to 1:54 4/5 on August 25.)