OFF-TRACK MISHAP : New Version: Native Dancer Injured in Train Wreck Before ’53 Derby Loss

The only defeat in the remarkable career of Native Dancer is getting a historical footnote.

Ralph Kercheval, who managed Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s Sagamore Farm just outside Baltimore during the Native Dancer years, has supplied another reason why the pure-gray colt was beaten by Dark Star in what is arguably the biggest upset in the history of the Kentucky Derby.

Kercheval, who before entering racing was a star collegiate football player and a 7-year veteran during the salad days of the National Football League, was reluctant to tell the story about Native Dancer’s 1953 Derby, as though the statute of limitations hadn’t expired. Finally, Kercheval, 77, offered an explanation during an interview at his home in Lexington, Ky. about how the horse was injured on the way to Churchill Downs in a train wreck.

Native Dancer won 11 straight races before the Derby and 10 straight afterward. Recurring foot problems forced him into retirement with 21 victories in 22 starts, after Native Dancer had accomplished almost everything: Best 2-year-old of 1952, champion 3-year-old in 1953 and horse of the year in 1954.

“I’ve never seen anyone better,” Kercheval said. “He could have beaten any horse.”

But in the Derby, which was to be Native Dancer’s finest hour, he lost by a clear head to Dark Star, the 24-1 longshot who would never win another race.

For all these years, the culprit in the 1953 Kentucky Derby has been Money Broker, a 45-1 outsider who clobbered Native Dancer on the first turn, causing the 7-10 favorite to fall about 15 lengths behind.

Native Dancer ran coupled with Social Outcast and was ridden by Eric Guerin. The rider of Native Dancer in all but one of his races, Guerin blamed the incident on the first turn for the Derby defeat, and the Daily Racing Form’s chart footnotes, which contain a rare editorial opinion, agreed. It read:

Native Dancer, roughed at the first turn by Money Broker, was eased back to secure racing room, raced wide during the run to the upper turn, then saved ground entering the stretch and finished strongly, but could not overtake the winner, although probably best.

That year, first place in the Derby was worth $90,050 and the second-place horse earned $10,000. Native Dancer went on to win the Preakness--as Dark Star broke down in the race--and the Belmont Stakes, and won 4 more stakes, including the Travers, before the year ended. Only a horse such as Tom Fool--10 starts, 10 victories, 4 of them under imposts of 130 to 136 pounds--could have deprived Native Dancer of horse-of-the-year honors that year.

But back to the Derby. Ralph Kercheval has another explanation for the loss.

He said the horse was not 100% ready to run in the Derby, after having a rougher trip getting to Louisville than he did around the oval at Churchill Downs.

All of Native Dancer’s 9 victories as a 2-year-old were in New York. After the ninth victory, in October, he was sent with the other Vanderbilt horses to Santa Anita, where his tender ankles were cared for by trainer Bill Winfrey.

As a young 3-year-old, Native Dancer gave the fans at Santa Anita an exhibition gallop around the track, but he didn’t make his 1953 debut until he was back in New York. In an 8-day stretch in April, Native Dancer easily won a division of the Gotham Stakes as well as the Wood Memorial.

The Wood was run only a week before the Derby, and Kercheval suggested that Native Dancer be driven by van to Louisville.

“But Alfred (Vanderbilt) wanted to send him by train,” Kercheval said.

When Native Dancer arrived at Churchill Downs, Winfrey, Vanderbilt and Kercheval were shocked at the size of one of the colt’s ankles.

“It was this big around,” Kercheval said, and with his hands he formed a sphere the size of a grapefruit.

“What had happened was that there was a train wreck on the way down to Kentucky,” Kercheval said. “The Dancer was the only horse on the train, and he was knocked down in his car. He wasn’t in the best of shape when he got to Churchill Downs.”

Even before he saw Native Dancer’s bulbous ankle, Kercheval had a bad feeling about the Derby.

“When I checked into my hotel in Louisville, I threw my hat on the bed,” Kercheval said. “Right after I did it, I said to myself, ‘Boy, you know that’s bad luck.’ ”

After Native Dancer recovered from the first-turn bump, Kercheval didn’t feel that Guerin gave him the best of rides. Because he was so far back, Native Dancer had to expend an extra amount of energy to move into contending position going down the backside.

Dark Star was leading all the way, with Native Dancer pulling within 2 lengths at the top of the stretch. Dark Star ran strongly that final quarter of a mile; his margin was 1 1/2 lengths at the eighth pole, less than a length a sixteenth of a mile before the wire.

“Guerin panicked,” Kercheval said. “He should have stayed on the inside, instead of going around horses in the stretch.”

At the University of Kentucky in the early 1930s, Kercheval was one of collegiate football’s best punters. He remembers kicking a ball--which was shaped like a pumpkin then--75 yards in the air during his sophomore year and his coach, Harry Gamage saying to him: “You’re going to start from now on, and we’re going to kick every time on first down.”

Apparently Gamage was not exaggerating, because Kercheval once punted 17 times against Alabama. The legendary Shipwreck Kelly, a teammate at Kentucky, was prone to exaggeration. Kelly said--and Kercheval does not disclaim--that Kercheval once kicked a ball out of Florida’s stadium, and into the bay, although such a feat would require a kick of several miles.

Kercheval had an unorthodox punting style. He would hold the ball one-handed before releasing it, and the motion gave the appearance that he was slamming the ball on his foot, instead of dropping it.

“I never thought about how I kicked,” Kercheval said. “But whenever I’d try to hold the ball with both hands, it would be tough for me to balance it.”

Kercheval smiles at the mention of Shipwreck Kelly. In an era not long after the campus tradition of swallowing goldfish, Kelly was a flagpole sitter, trying to set records for time at the top of the pole. Kelly preceded Kercheval to the pros, and they were teammates again for the old Brooklyn Dodgers of the NFL.

At parties, Kelly seldom mingled with guests, but spent the night sitting on the piano.

“Hey, Shipwreck,” Kercheval finally asked Kelly one night, “how come you always park yourself there and never move around?”

“They’ve come to see me,” was Kelly’s explanation.

Running the ball and catching passes besides kicking, Kercheval played football with the Dodgers until 1940. Pro football was financial folly then. Dan Topping was one of the owners of the Dodgers, before he became an owner of the New York Yankees in baseball.

Kercheval remembers the Dodgers playing the last 2 games of a season with only 17 players because of payroll considerations. The seasons would be 10 games and the standard rate for most players would be $175 a game for a back and $125 for a lineman. Kercheval said that after he got established, he was the only player on the team with a guaranteed contract, at a salary of $3,600 for a season.

A major in animal husbandry at Kentucky, Kercheval mucked stalls during the off-seasons at C.V. (Sonny) Whitney’s farm in Kentucky. Before going into the Army during World War II Kercheval began training horses. Kercheval, who became a lieutenant colonel and post commander, served with the Army Remount Service, which had 13,000 horses at Ft. Robinson, Neb.

After the war, Kercheval managed farms and trained and raced horses, once having as a client Elizabeth Arden, of cosmetics fame. Almost everybody eventually trained for the quirky Arden, who by one estimate used 35 trainers and insisted that a trainer use her “8-hour health cream” on the horses.

Now retired, Kercheval plays a lot of golf and dabbles with a few horses as an owner at Keeneland. He says that in his rookie year with football’s Dodgers, he was credited with punting a ball 91 yards in the air, against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field. NFL records show that Kercheval had a kick in that game that went 86 yards.

Perhaps the ball hit the ground and bounced back in Kercheval’s direction.

“No, Beattie Feathers caught it on the fly and ran it back a few yards,” Kercheval said.

How could Feathers have gotten back fast enough to field a 91-yard punt?

“Oh, Beattie played at Tennessee, and he knew me from Kentucky,” Kercheval said. “He was about 70 yards deep before I ever hit the ball.”