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Exterminator by Lew Koch 
At the 1916 Saratoga yearling sales a French-bred colt named Sunday was purchased
by Commodore Willish Sharp Kilmer. Renamed Sun Briar, the colt won the two-year-old
championship in 1917, winning five of nine starts which so delighted his owner that
a January 1 birthday party was given at Sun Briar Court, Kilmer's lavish estate in
Binghamton, New York.
Although a newspaper publisher by profession, Kilmer had made his fortune with a questionable patent medicine called Swamp Root. The man was touchy about his background, and according to those who knew him, quick to anger. Howeer, during Sun Briar's party Kilmer managed to curb his ill temper. For this festive occasion many of his proud possessions were on display. William Robertson wrote that in "additon to a large oil painting of Sun Briar, there was the $5,000 cup which had been his trophy for the Saratoga Special, the shoes he wore in the Hopeful Stakes, and the whip which jockey Willie Knapp had carried during his 1917 campaign." Guests were treated to this memorabilia in a fancy clubhouse and then toured a new covered exercise track. Also in attendance was the guest of honor, Sun Briar, now the winter-book favorite for the Kentucky Derby. The future seemed bright for Kilmer's colt until he ran a dull third in a prep race April 27 at Lexington. Trainer Henry McDaniel decided he needed a horse to work with Sun Briar. Kilmer was so eager to win the Derby he authorized the trainer to go ahead "if the price was right." So McDaniel paid $12,000 to J. C. Milam for a three-year-old chestnut gelding with a reputation for speed who had won two out of four races the year before. Originally, a man named F.D. Knight bred the son of McGee out of Fair Empress and sold him to Milam for $1,500. Because of a wild disposition, the colt was gelded; because of his speed Mrs. Milam named him Exterminator. There are many versions of what happened next. My favorite is one told by the man who served as vice-president, general manager, and president of Churchill Downs from 1902 to 1949, the man who witnessed every Kentucky Derby from 1875 through the Diamond Jubilee renewal in 1949 -- Colonel Matt J. Winn. In his 1945 autobiography Down The Stretch (as told to Frank G. Menke), Winn described the first workout held in Louisville between Sun Briar and Exterminator. "It was a short jog, and Sun Briar finished well in front of Exterminator who didn't have getaway speed. Kilmer had a lot of sharp things to say to Henry for agreeing to pay $12,000 for a 'truck horse.'" The next time the two horses worked, over a longer distance, Exterminator pushed Sun Briar to the limit. A surprised Kilmer insisted his Derby contender wasn't fit. Before the big race Sun Briar was given a final sharpener with Exterminator over a heavy track. Sun Briar's work was not impressive. Something was wrong. Indeed, the colt suffered from ringbone and went lame. Kilmer found out and was forced to scratch the horse. The bitter owner had always taken exception to comparisons between his colt and gelding. He went so far as to make a public statement, "I do not consider Exterminator in the same class as Sun Briar," he declared. Matt Winn wrote about his conversation with Kilmer after that fateful workout. He offered the man his sympathies then asked, "Who was that horse you had working with Sun Briar?" "A truck horse named Exterminator that Henry McDaniel bought and got me hooked for $12,000," Kilmer snapped. "He ran very well," said Winn. "If the boy hadn't been checking him down when he tried to run past Sun Briar..." Kilmer cut him off. "That horse isn't fast enough to run past me!" That evening Kilmer moaned to Winn about having to miss the Derby. "Why don't you start Exterminator," Winn asked, and was told, "He's no race horse regardless of what you think!" Two hours later Kilmer phoned Winn. "You still think Exterminator is a Derby horse?" "Yes," came the reply. "If he were your horse would you start him in the Derby?" "I certainly would." "All right. He starts." Thus began one of the most amazing careers in thoroughbred history. On a muddy track, in his first start as a three-year-old, Exterminator with Willie Knapp aboard moved from fifth place after going three-quarters, slipped through on the rail, and outstayed Escoba by a length to win the 44th Kentucky Derby. Exterminator started 15 times as a three-year-old, winning seven races and $36,147 -- a tidy sum considering he picked up only $1,350 the year before. But that's only the beginning of a long, glorious career. After eight seasons of racing Exterminator retired with 50 victories from 100 starts and earnings of $252,996. He was second 17 times, third 17 times, and unplaced 16 times. Both as a five and seven-year-old Exterminator won 10 out of 17 races, but the latter year was considered his best. That year, 1922, he earned $71,075, an enormous sum for a horse of that age, and more than a 14 thousand dollar increase over the previous year. In fact, he led the handicap division in money won four years in a row. Versatility seems to be the key word in describing Exterminator's encounters with trainers, jockeys, distances, weights, records, and competition. Old Bones, as Exterminator became affectionately known, won races for nine different trainers during his career, thanks to owner Kilmer who was always hiring and firing. He was ridden by more different jockeys than any other stakes horse of his time. Matt Winn wrote that the gelding "corrected the mistakes many of them made, chose his own pace, picked his own openings, and won." He won at 16 different tracks in three countries spending almost as much time in railroad cars as he spent in barns. Races were won in thick mud and greasy slop as well as on the dry. Under weights up to 138 pounds, he won at distances from five furlongs up to two and a quarter miles. Although he did win at six furlongs and one mile, Exterminator showed his best speed over a distance of ground. He set an American record for the 2-mile Autumn Gold Cup at Belmont; he established the record in winning the 1 3/4-mile Saratoga Cup; and another record fell in the 2 1/4-mile Pimlico Cup. Repeat wins included the Saratoga Cup four times; Pimlico Cup three times; and the Autumn Gold Cup, Toronto Autumn Cup, and Hartford Handicap each twice. While Sun Briar played second-fiddle to Exterminator Derby time in 1918, the horse did come back later in the year to beat his stablemate in the Travers -- the fastest mile (1:36 1/5) ever run in actual competition -- and again beat Exterminator by a length the following year carrying 128 pounds to Old Bone's 120. Four-year-old former Derby winner Sir Barton beat the five-year-old Exterminator in the 1920 Saratoga Handicap setting a track record. In 1918 Exterminator had faced two more Derby winners. The five-year-old George Smith won over the four-year-old import Omar Khayyam, while Exterminator finished third. Later, at seven, Bones gave handicap star Grey Lag his only loss. In the Brooklyn Handicap the four-year-old Grey Lag under 126 pounds took the lead in the stretch and began pulling away. William Robertson wrote, "Exterminator, ridden by Albert Johnson and carrying 135 pounds, had been in close pursuit all the way, and he roared up in the stretch to challenge his younger rival. Grey Lag was a head in front at the stretch call, but it was Exterminator by a head at the end." Another forminable competitor was Boniface. An article in the November 19, 1921 Thoroughbred Record reported: "Willis Sharpe Kilmer's Exterminator and the J.K.L. Ross Stable's Boniface repeated their performance of a year ago when they finished heads apart under a hard drive, Exterminator winning the $10,000 Pimlico Cup with only a head to spare this afternoon. It was a great a race as anyone ever saw over a distance of ground, for there never was a time from start to finish of the long journey of two miles and a quarter that Exterminator and Boniface were more than a length apart." On August 30, 1919, when he was four, Exterminator won his first Saratoga Cup just before the thunderstorm in which a two-year-old colt named Man o' War carried 130 pounds to a four length victory in the Hopeful Stakes. A year later racing fans were clamoring for Man o' War to meet the great gelding and settle once and for all who was best. Kilmer was anxious to take on the super horse; it was Sam Riddle, Man o' War's owner, who appeared to duck the issue. Exterminator shipped from Saratoga to Canada where he won a staks on August 28. Riddle immediately announced that Man o' war would contest the Saratoga Cup three days later figuring the coast was clear. When Kilmer got wind of this Exterminator was quickly brought back. Racing writer David Alexander put it this way: "Exterminator came back to win the Saratoga Cup, despite the face he had had a hard race three days before. When the frightening news of Exterminator's return readed Riddle, however, he withdrew Man o' War from the weight-for-age event." The Autumn Gold Cup in mid-September appeared to be a logical place for the match, but this time Riddle considered the purse of $2,500 too small for the demands the race would make on his horse. So it was not to be. No matter how persistent Kilmer pursued Riddle the horses never met. Of course, each had their supporters. Derby jockey Willie Knapp summed it up: "When he was at his best, Exterminator could have beaten Man o' War or Citation or Kelso." High praise from an old friend. The final race came in 1924 when Exterminator, age nine, finished third racing at Dorval, and obscure Canadian track. His record that year was three wins from seven starts. By the time he retired Exterminator had acquired legendary status -- a "Paul Bunyanish hero of folk tales," wrote Alexader. It began with the Cinderella story and grew because of both racing prowess and personality. In his prime the 16.3 hands muddy chestnut received many colorful and fond comments on his appearance. Writers called him "rangy, lean and hungry-looking," "high in bone and low in flesh," and "slabsided, knobby and ungainly." Admirer David Alexander described the gelding as a throwback, "rough-hewn like the earliest Thoroughbreds of the eighteenth century." No wonder he was dubbed Old Bones by an admiring public. One of Exterminator's idiosyncasies which began during his racing days and continued until his death was a great love for Shetland ponies. He would not eat unless "Peanuts" ate alongside him. As you might imagine, there were more Shetlands named Peanuts than all the Triggers and Champions put together. Stable help reported that Exterminator grieved for days when each of his companions died, but was too polite to ignore the replacement, "putting up a pretense of believing the new recruit was the same pony." Matt Winn told of Exterminator's gentlemanly behavior at the post. "There were times when he would seem to frown at fretting horses and try to stare them into settling down so the barrier could be snapped for a getaway." In his book A Sound of Horses David Alexander wrote that starter Mars Cassidy purposely placed Exterminator next to a bad actor at the post "because the bony gelding would lean against the fractious horse and hold him still." He also mentioned the great horse's habit of bowing "politely to the crowds in recognition of the applause his winning performances received." The late writer also described Exterminator as "one of those deceptively mild-mannered, affectionate horses... Lincolnesque, completely determined, utterly dependable." After many years of quiet retirement with his various ponies on Kilmer's lush pastures, Old Bones, age 28, made his last public appearance. Vanned from New Market, Virginia to Belmont Park (October 2, 1943), Exterminator and Peanuts paraded down the Belmont stretch and helped sell $25 million worth of War Bonds. The beloved old war horse lived to be 30. In his autobiography Matt Winn wrote an affectionate tribute: "When he was young, he met older horses, and he whipped them. As the years began to pile onto him, he met the sprightly youngsters, and whipped them. He received no handicapping favors in any year of his career; never needed any. He cared not abot distance, or track conditions, climate, or geography. He always knew where the finish line was, and a long distance view of it was the only inspiration he needed for a gallant stretch charge that made every audience roar: 'Here comes Exterminator.'" Exterminator Born: 1915 Died: 1945 Trainer: Henry McDaniel and 8 other trainers Owner: Willis Sharpe Kilmer (from Kentucky Derby throughout rest of career) Jockey: Buddy Ensor, Albert Johnson, Willie Knapp, Pony McAtee Breeder: Dixie Knight Pedigree:
Racing Record:
Career Highlights: at 3: at 4: at 5: at 6: at 7: at 8: at 9: |