Kelso Given Rare Honor at Horse Racing Museum

Kelso, the gelding who was voted horse of the year five times from 1960 to 1964, was honored at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Kelso became only the fourth horse to have a day set aside for him at the museum, joining three other greats: Secretariat, Ruffian and Forego.

“All you had to do was push the gas and he would go . . . like a Cadillac,” said Milo Valenzuela, Kelso’s jockey. “I think about him all the time . . . I miss him a lot and wish he was still alive.”

Kelso won the 1 1/8-mile Aqueduct Stakes by 5 1/2 lengths in 1963 while carrying 134 pounds, a handicap seldom seen these days. The next year, he won the 1 1/8-mile Straight Face Handicap at Aqueduct by 1 1/4 lengths under 136 pounds.

Trainer Carl Hanford said that Kelso showed his courage in the 1961 Metropolitan Handicap at Aqueduct under 130 pounds.

“At the head of the backstretch he was 10 or 12 lengths in back and on the inside,” he said. “Then he went outside and came back on the inside and finally won.”