Tall Tales of the Track – Faith Fulfilled on Derby Day

“This is ‘the winner of the Kentucky Derby of 1909’!” – Jerome B. Respess (maybe) in 1906.

The colt was born with a big circle of white on his forehead, his blood bay color and conformation catching his owner’s eye when he was just a weanling. Spying the excellence promised in the form of this young horse, Respess supposedly made his claim and then bent his resources to prepare his hopeful for the big race in 1909. 

Foundation

Jerome Bristow Respess loved horses from his earliest days. The son of a farmer, he drove a milk wagon and later became a partner in a poolroom in Covington, Ky. Like his contemporary John E. Madden, Respess started out driving and training harness horses before investing in Thoroughbreds. The money he made from poolrooms, where he served as a bookie, allowed him to buy Highland Stock Farm in Boone County, Ky., and then lease a farm in Woodlawn, Ohio. 

Respess’s natural horsemanship brought him success as both an owner and a trainer, and his career had no better example of that skill than the speedy Dick Welles. Named for his friend Richard Welles—who also happened to be the father of future Oscar-winning writer, director, and actor Orson—the colt set two world records in 1903 and then went on to become a successful sire. He stood at Highland and also sired Billy Kelly, the Hall of Fame stablemate of Sir Barton, America’s first Triple Crown winner. In 1905, his first season at stud, Dick Welles covered Winter, “one of the most consistent mares that ever looked through a bridle,” as the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote in 1909. She foaled her owner’s prized Derby hopeful at his Woodlawn, Ohio farm in 1906.

Put in the hands of trainer Charles Mack, Wintergreen ran ten times at age two, winning five of those, no stakes. His lone stakes placement was in the Hurricane Stakes at Belmont Park, but the colt did set a track record for five furlongs at Latonia that season. At season’s end, Respess did something he had not done before: he sent Wintergreen to Memphis for the winter, the milder weather ideal for preparing the Dick Welles colt for his three-year-old season and a try at a rosy prize. 

Realization 

The 1909 Kentucky Derby was the 35th edition, coming at a time when the race was still a few years away from gaining its familiar national prominence, but it was nevertheless a prize that owners like Respess wanted to win. The field of ten was the largest it had been since 1886 and included Miami, who had beaten Wintergreen in a one-mile race at the Kentucky Association track in late April. Other candidates included Friend Harry from California and Michael Angelo from Tennessee.

Wintergreen’s name remained at the top of the list, his trials from Montgomery Park at Memphis including a mile in 1:44, leaving Respess surprised and pleased at the performance, though, as the Daily Racing Form reported, “he has contended all along that he had a colt of exceptional class in Wintergreen.” 

Derby Day 1909 started off with rain, enough to keep the crowd on the smaller side until just before the big race. The rain left the track slow, but that was not enough to keep Wintergreen from going off as the favorite, breaking from post six, in the middle of the field. In the paddock, Respess and friend Wayne Joplin, from whom Respess had claimed Winter during her racing days, stood in the colt’s stall as trainer Charles Mack saddled Wintergreen. Someone asked the owner if he was going to tell jockey Vincent Powers to go to the front. “Guess I might as well,” Respess said, and that is just what Powers did.

Dr. Barkley collided with Wintergreen early in the race, but the jockey was able to keep his colt straight and true as he maintained at least a length advantage throughout the race. Clearly the best horse on the day, he was able to hold off Miami and canter to a four-length win, giving Respess his first win in the Kentucky Derby with the first horse he ever entered. This would be Wintergreen’s lone win of 1909, though he did finish second in the Saranac Handicap and the Saratoga Cup at Saratoga that summer. 

Eventually gelded as his career languished, Wintergreen would continue racing, passing into the ownership of Dodo Fisk around August 1912. Though he never quite regained the form that brought him a win in the Kentucky Derby, the son of Dick Welles amassed a record of 61-16-14-8, giving his all throughout his six seasons on the track. Sadly, the 1909 Derby winner was competing in selling races by 1914 and then died in a barn fire at Latonia. His name etched on a list of winners of the sport’s most famous race, Wintergreen’s story remains a reminder of what one owner’s faith in a young horse can bring.