Tall Tales of the Track: Honoring the Memory of a Rider Long Gone

By the late 19th century, the Kentucky Derby had become a fixture on the American stakes calendar, but its home track struggled with its finances and with attracting good horses for its list of feature races. When Chant arrived in Louisville for the 1894 Derby, he would face a short field, but a victory would give his young jockey a place in the sport’s history books and preserve his memory for years to come. 

Firm Foundation 

Falsetto had an abbreviated racing career, but he left little doubt about his quality, even with only five starts to his credit. He was second in the 1879 Kentucky Derby and then won the Clark and Travers Stakes, defeating that year’s Belmont Stakes winner Spendthrift, in his only season on the track. He then passed on that ability to his foals, including two Kentucky Oaks winners, Miss Dixie and Etta, and three Kentucky Derby victors, sons who were able to improve on their sire’s runner-up performance. The first of those was a colt named Chant.

Bred by A.J. Alexander at his Woodburn Stud, which once was home to the great Lexington, Chant was first sold to James E. Pepper, bourbon distiller and prominent owner, for $850, who then sent the colt through the sales ring at the 1892 Tattersalls' sale in New York, where Robert Rose bought him for $6,000. To start his preparation for the racetrack, Rose sent Chant to the barn of Charles Hughes. Later that year, Eugene Leigh, a lifelong horseman and son of a horse dealer, bought into the colt, one of many he would own in partnership with Rose, and took over training Chant. 

As a juvenile, the son of Falsetto raced 25 times, winning eight and finishing in the top three another eight times, but none were stakes of any note. He raced mostly in the Chicago area, making him what was known as a ‘Western’ horse for the Midwest circuit, including Kentucky, which carried that colloquial designation during this era of racing. Fortunately, for Rose and Leigh, as the colt looked toward his three-year-old season and the big stakes contested in Louisville, Pepper had nominated the son of Falsetto for the Kentucky Derby, an opportunity the pair were more than happy to capitalize on.

Winning Ways

By 1894, the Kentucky Derby was experiencing a dip in its fortunes. Since its inception in 1875, the race had enjoyed a few good years as one of the sport’s well-known prizes, but changing conditions had brought it to a nadir. The Louisville Jockey Club had paid its stockholders only once in its two decades, and still, at 12 furlongs, its signature race was seeing fewer and fewer entrants as owners and trainers were reluctant to race their young horses at that distance in late spring. When Chant met the starter for the 20th Derby, he faced only four others at the barrier. 

In the saddle was Frank Goodale, a Brooklyn native and son of a tailor who had started his riding career ten years earlier after a stint working in a law office. He had intended to study for the bar, but “he was of a roving disposition, however, and struck out for Denver, Colorado, where he continued his studies,” according to a May 19, 1894, Louisville Courier-Journal article. Out there, he started riding competitively and then moved back east to ride at tracks like Guttenberg, the infamous New Jersey racetrack, and built his reputation on his honesty, to the point that his nickname was ‘Goody Two Shoes.’ By age 28, he was riding for prominent turfmen like Eugene Leigh and had the mount on Chant in the Phoenix Hotel Stakes in early May.

The Phoenix Hotel was a nine-furlong stakes that had been part of the Kentucky Association’s stakes calendar since 1831. Chant’s sire Falsetto was among the long list of good horses, including Derby winners Vagrant, Fonso, and Kingman, who had won the feature, a valuable prize that boosted a horse’s stature in the days leading up to the big race. Carrying 117 pounds, Chant had no trouble outpacing the five other starters, bringing home the prize by four lengths. Arriving in Louisville with wins in Lexington, Little Rock, and Memphis, Chant was tapped as the favorite for the 12-furlong Kentucky Derby.

The field for the 20th edition was short—only five horses—so Goodale and Chant had no trouble running away with the Derby, taking command before the half-mile mark, essentially winning for fun. Leigh and Rose came away with the $4,020 purse and a spot in the annals of history, as did their jockey. The Derby was Tuesday, May 15, and Goodale was back in the saddle a couple of days later, focused once again on the next ride.

Untimely End

After finishing third in the day’s first race, Goodale was aboard the gelding Judge Payne for a seven-furlong dash. The field was bunched together as they swung into the far turn, with Tremona, Mollie Pitcher, and Judge Payne at the front. The gelding stumbled, Goodale falling to the ground, and the horse rolled over him. The horse got up and seemed uninjured, but his rider was not so lucky. His wife, Mamie, was on hand as Goodale succumbed to his injuries.

The following Monday, just six days after he won the Kentucky Derby with Chant, Frank Goodale’s mother and brother were on hand for his funeral in Louisville. A large contingent of racetrackers was on hand to pay their respects, including Eugene Leigh, a large floral arrangement bearing the message ‘One of Us’ from his fellow jockeys standing near their fallen friend’s coffin. 

More than a century later, Frank Goodale is one of a long list of riders who have been a part of the Kentucky Derby’s story. Though his story ended tragically, he is part of an exclusive fraternity of riders who tasted victory in America’s most famous race and deserves a moment of remembrance each May.