A LEGEND AT AGE 33 : Round Table Won 43 Races, $1.7 Million, Hearts of Many

At the top of a hill deep in blue grass country stands a yellow and white barn.

From it, as you look out across the paddocks and pastures, the meandering streams and flowering dogwoods of Claiborne Farm, you can see another barn, a black one, also bestriding a hill about half a mile distant.

The black barn is where, on the night of April 6, 1954, lightning, figuratively speaking, struck twice in the same spot.

On that night, two of thoroughbred racing’s all-time greats were born, scant yards and scant hours apart.

One was Bold Ruler, whose remains lie buried in the place of honor reserved for the greatest of Claiborne Farm’s long and distinguished list of thoroughbreds, the farm’s equine cemetery.

The other was Round Table, who, at the venerable age of 33, is very much alive, a symbol of everything for which Claiborne Farm stands.

The yellow and white barn is where Round Table lives, surrounded by yearlings who will be lucky to achieve even half as much as he did on the track and, later, as a sire.

It seems astonishing that a horse who ran his first race more than three decades ago, who went on to become one of the greatest runners of his era, should still be alive. But Round Table is, and very much so.

He looks a lot different today, of course, than when he battled Iron Liege, Gallant Man and Bold Ruler in the 1957 Kentucky Derby, or when he scored a string of 11 consecutive victories en route to Horse of the Year honors in 1958.

The once-strong back has sagged a little, and his muzzle and forehead are flecked with gray. But as John Sosby, Claiborne Farm’s manager and Round Table’s greatest admirer, says, Round Table has not lost the fighting spirit that characterized his racing career.

This, then, is a look at an American racing legend--present, past and future.

THE PRESENT

The polished brass plate on the door of Round Table’s stall gleams in the mid-morning sunlight. The figure inscribed upon it immediately catches the eye: $1,749,869.

Even by today’s standards, it is an impressive total, one good enough even in this era of inflated purses to leave Round Table high on the list of all-time money-winning horses in North America.

But on a farm encompassing 3,114 manicured acres, a farm whose fences alone stretch for 86 miles, a farm with 26 miles of roadway and 161 employees, a farm whose stallion barn just down the hill includes the likes of Secretariat, Nijinsky II and Spectacular Bid, a million dollars is just so much horse feed.

No, it is not his earnings that make Round Table special to the Hancock family, or the fact that he won 43 of the 66 races in which he ran, or the fact that he sired an impressive string of stakes winners. It is the horse himself.

“He means a lot to these people (the Hancocks, owners of Claiborne Farm),” Sosby said. “Hell, he’s just like family. He is family. And we treat him that way. I’m sure there are other places where when a horse gets into his (later) years like this--which is kind of rare--I’m not sure they get the type of care they do here.”

A horse can be spoiled simply by living at Claiborne, but Round Table gets additional treats--soft peppermints or mashed carrots, for example, when one of the Hancocks, either Seth or sisters Dale and Clay, visits his barn.

“Right now, he’s on the same schedule as the yearlings are,” Sosby said. “He comes in at 7 or 7:30 in the morning. It all depends what time Ronnie (Cameron, Round Table’s handler) wants to put him up.

“Of course, you’d think Ronnie was taking care of a Triple Crown winner. He is taking care of our champion. He’ll brush him, clean him off. He’ll give him a softer food than the others . . . those soft oats.

“At 2:30 in the afternoon, (Round Table) will go out and stay out there during the night, (but) if a storm comes up, the night man is to put him in (his stall).

“That’ll happen here in the summer with about six or seven stallions--when you turn them out, and one of these Kentucky summer storms blows in on you. The first appearance of a storm, he comes in.”

Sosby, 49, was born here in Paris and has spent virtually his entire life at Claiborne. His father went to work there in 1941, and the younger Sosby followed after graduating from high school in 1956. He rose from yearling groom to farm manager.

His career, therefore, has paralleled Round Table’s. He watched the horse leave Claiborne as a 2-year-old to embark on a racing career and he watched him return to stand at stud four years later.

Now in retirement, Round Table still amazes Sosby on occasion, like the time last year when, at age 32, he still was frisky--and determined--enough to break free from his handler and gallop off.

Retirement hasn’t slowed Round Table any, it seems.

“He’ll lay down and roll,” Sosby said. “Maybe he don’t get up as quick as he used to, but who does?”

THE PAST

At the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assn. library in Arcadia, it is possible to obtain a computer printout of a horse’s career record. Round Table’s printout provides impressive reading. A brief synopsis:

--Horse of the Year in 1958.

--Champion grass horse in 1957, 1958 and 1959.

--Champion handicap horse in 1958 and 1959.

--Leading stakes winner in 1957 and 1958, the first horse to win the honor twice.

--Leading money winner in 1957 and 1958, the first horse to repeat that feat, too.

--Winner of 43 of 66 career starts, with 8 second-place and 5 third-place finishes.

--Total earnings of $1,749,869, making him the world’s leading money-winning thoroughbred when he retired.

--Leading sire in 1972.

Clearly, the son of Princequillo and Knight’s Daughter was something special, and A.B. (Bull) Hancock Jr., Seth’s father, recognized that when he sold the bay colt. The elder Hancock retained a 20% breeding interest in Round Table.

All the same, Round Table’s sale proved to be one of the great bargains of turf history. He was purchased for $175,000 by Travis M. Kerr and, in the green colors of the Kerr Stable, went on to earn 10 times that amount.

The $175,000, meanwhile, came in handy at Claiborne.

“At that time, Mr. Hancock was trying to put some things together,” Sosby said, “and this horse sold for what was a lot of money back in those days. It helped pay some bills around here, they tell me.”

What did this phenomenon look like? Why was he so good? The 1957 edition of American Racing offers a few clues:

“Round Table measured 15.2 (hands) at the withers, only a half-inch more than Gallant Man. He was wiry and tough, with a constitution which enabled him to regain full strength quickly after a tiring series of races. Like most of Princequillo’s offspring, he was better as he grew older.

“He wore blinkers regularly, but his temperament presented no problem. He had all the competitive spirit a horseman could ask for, and more soundness than a horseman should ever expect. His best performances were confined to fast, firm tracks; on any other kind of going he ceased to be a first-class runner.”

Round Table did not like off tracks, it is true, but that last judgment might be a trifle harsh. Just look at Round Table’s year-by-year record:

1956: 10 starts, 5 firsts, 1 second, 0 thirds, earnings of $73,326.

1957: 22 starts, 15 firsts, 1 second, 3 thirds, earnings of $600,383.

1958: 20 starts, 14 firsts, 4 seconds, 0 thirds, earnings of $662,780.

1959: 14 starts, 9 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 thirds, earnings of $413,380.

Along the way, Round Table tied or broke 16 American and world records.

His 43 victories included 12 stakes wins in races worth $100,000 or more, among them the 1957 Hollywood Gold Cup and the 1958 Santa Anita Handicap.

“He ran when $100,000 was a big race,” Sosby said. “There weren’t these half-million or million-dollar races with bonuses (where) if you won two you got a million-dollar bonus. There was nothing like that.”

Equally impressive was the fact that Willie Molter, Round Table’s trainer, did not confine the horse to one or two tracks. Round Table raced everywhere, competing at 15 tracks in the United States and Mexico.

Molter called him “the greatest horse I’ve ever seen,” and it was some measure of the trainer’s respect that while the other horses in his stable traveled by train, Round Table went by air. It was estimated that he flew 35,000 miles during his career.

Looking back, Sosby can’t put a finger on exactly why Round Table proved to be so good.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” he said. “This horse had a lot of determination. He was a champion. He was a horse who always dug in. He always gave that 110%, 120%. He was just an exception, and he has been throughout his life.

“As a yearling, he was very tough. Any time he wanted to run away from the people who were handling him, he would get away.

“He was a small horse, probably no more than 1,100 pounds, but with a heart. He ran from Maine to Spain, so to speak.”

Round Table ran in only one Triple Crown race, the 1957 Derby, the race in which Bill Shoemaker, aboard Gallant Man, misjudged the finish line and stood up, a move that cost his horse the race, he later admitted.

Iron Liege won, with Gallant Man second, Round Table third and Bold Ruler, who later would be voted 1957’s Horse of the Year, fourth. Gallant Man won the Belmont Stakes that year, and Bold Ruler took the Preakness Stakes.

“There’s probably never been another race in the history of the Derby that had three stallions come out of it like that,” Sosby said, referring to Bold Ruler, Gallant Man and Round Table.

After finishing second in the California Stakes at Hollywood Park three weeks after the Kentucky Derby, Round Table began an incredible string that saw him win 11 races in a row and 19 of 20 between May 30, 1957 and May 11, 1958.

The only loss during that streak came when he was third in the Trenton Handicap at Garden State Park on Nov. 9--behind Bold Ruler and Gallant Man.

Gallant Man, incidentally, is also still alive, living just a few miles down the road from Round Table at Spendthrift Farm.

Round Table was heavily weighted, often running with 130 pounds or more, but still won. On one occasion, in the United Nations Handicap at Atlantic City in 1959, he carried a 136-pound impost and still won by 1 lengths.

“Now, if you put 130 pounds on some of these horses today, why the trainer will squawk and scream and they wouldn’t run them,” Sosby said.

Two dates among the many memorable moments in Round Table’s career stand out:

On May 11, 1958, Round Table joined Citation and Nashua as thoroughbred racing’s third millionaire by winning the Agua Caliente Handicap by 9 lengths in track-record time.

On Oct. 11, 1958, Round Table won the Hawthorne Gold Cup in Chicago by 2 1/2 lengths in track-record time to surpass Nashua and become racing’s all-time money winner.

Once his racing days were over--he ran for the last time on Oct. 31, 1959, finishing second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Aqueduct--Round Table came home, returning to Claiborne to stand at stud.

“He was just an outstanding sire,” Sosby said. “Anybody that ever bred to him was more than repaid for whatever they invested in the season or the share.”

Royal Glint, one of Round Table’s successful offspring, was foaled in 1970 and won more than $1 million. King Pellinore, another one, had earnings in the United States and Europe that topped $600,000.

But, again, these successes as a sire, like all those victories on the race track, now seem secondary. The affection that is felt for the horse stems from Round Table’s longevity, the fact that he has been a part of the farm for so long.

“He means a lot because he represented Claiborne and he represented us just like he was, a champion,” Sosby said.

“We’ve been so lucky here. Since 1954, we’ve had 49 champions foaled in these two barns above us here. But this horse, back when things were tougher, he was No. 1.”

THE FUTURE

It is a peaceful spot, Claiborne’s equine cemetery, tree-shaded and sun-dappled, with only the bright chatter of the songbirds and the murmur of nearby Kennedy Creek disturbing the silence.

The hand-hewn headstones, each identical, are arranged in an orderly rectangle around a walkway. There are 16 of them in all, each inscribed with a horse’s name, the year it was foaled and the year it died:

Sir Gallahad III 1920-1949, Johnstown 1936-1950, Gallant Fox 1927-1953. . . . The list goes on, each name triggering a racing memory, a moment of greatness long ago. . . . Nasrullah 1940-1959, Princequillo (Round Table’s father) 1940-1964, Bold Ruler 1954-1971, Buckpasser 1963-1978 and, finally, Swale 1981-1984.

The future is not something that John Sosby likes to dwell upon, but he is realistic about it. Round Table, after all, is 33.

“When the time comes, whenever that day might be, he will be buried beside Swale out here, in an oak coffin built by the farm people, and he’ll get all the ceremony he deserves,” Sosby said softly.

“It will be (a sad day), and we know it’s coming and we know we’re going to lose some of these other stallions, too. It’s just the law of average and the balance of nature. That’s just the way it is.”

But, Sosby agrees, it is better to lose them when they’re in their 30s than when they’re 3 or 4.

“That’s right. That’s right. Like we lost Swale. We never had the chance to enjoy him. He gave me the most thrill and the most disappointment of any animal that I’ve ever fooled with in my life.

“I can still watch the Derby, which I’ll show tonight at a speech I’m going to make. I’ll show the ’84 Derby, and I’m not sure a tear won’t come to my eye.

“I cried, I laughed, I ran, hell, I could fly, the day we won the Derby. By the time we hit the finish line, I had about six or seven of these people in my arms, and I mean I put a squeeze on them. By this time I’m crying, I’m so happy.

“And the day we buried him, I cried again.

“Round Table? Yes, we’ll probably shed a tear. But it’s because, ‘Hey, old friend, that’s the way it is.’

“He means a lot to us. He always has. Like I say, he’s family. He’s family.”