It’s been 31 years since a plucky chestnut gelding named Slew of Damascus pulled the rope-a-dope on a small but stout field in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup out in California. Grabbing the lead straight out of the gate, he made every pole a winning one, holding off a furious late charge by Fanmore to win by a head.
Slew of Damascus was ridden with precision by Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, which you may be aware is this coming Saturday. While the horse doesn’t have anything to do with Knoxville, he does have to do with the state. Slew of Damascus was the last thoroughbred racehorse of significance bred in Tennessee.
In equine parlance, where a horse is bred is where it is foaled. And in his case, Slew of Damascus was born at Fulmer Farm outside Memphis in 1988. He was sold for $4,500 at an Arkansas two-year-old sale in 1990. He was gelded because he lacked a fancy pedigree, despite being a grandson of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. He was tough and versatile, could sprint or run long, on dirt or on turf, and earned over $1.4 million with a 16-9-8 record from 48 starts. He was hickory.
Tennessee bred Slew of Damascus on the cover of The Blood-Horse, 1994.
I think about him often. As a fan of and someone who works in, even if just nominally now, the world of thoroughbreds, I cheered for the son of a gun every time he ran. He was the living embodiment of what might have been.
In the early years of the 20th century, Tennessee was grand marshal of the fun sucker party pooper parade. We were 10 years ahead of the rest of the country and first in line to pass statewide prohibition in 1909. A century after the first notable horse race in the state, the general assembly outlawed gambling on horse racing. Now, you don’t HAVE to have gambling to race horses. But, in terms of hosting an extended meet of any repute, gambling revenue is what pays for the facility, track maintenance, the help, fixes the fences and provides the funds for race purses, to name but a few things. It also makes it more fun, practiced in moderation. It’s the straw that stirs the drink.
With that ban, Tennessee killed its thriving thoroughbred and standardbred (trotters/pacers) breeding operations. Our thoroughbreds rivaled those bred in Kentucky and our standardbreds those from Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. While Knoxville racetrack owner Cal Johnson owned and raced both breeds, his bigger investment was in standardbreds, and the quality of his horses was known nationally. His stallion, George Condit, was the champion standardbred trotter at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
There used to be a Tennessee Derby run at Montgomery Park Racetrack in Memphis. Two winners of that race, Joe Cotton and Agile, also won the Kentucky Derby. Three Tennessee-breds won the Run for the Roses: Lord Murphy in 1879, Kingman in 1891 and Typhoon II in 1897. In fact, in 1879, when the Derby was but four years old, there was a Tennessee-bred Kentucky Oaks/Derby double as the Oaks winning filly, Liahtunah, also hailed from the Volunteer State. Belle Meade Stud outside Nashville was one of the premiere breeders in the country. Practically every Derby winner over the past 125 years (as well as the majority of horses running this weekend) can trace part of their lineage to Belle Meade’s stallion, Bonnie Scotland.
On the whole, middle and west Tennessee were geared slightly more to thoroughbred racing with east Tennessee more toward standardbreds. There were racetracks all over the place, from the small to the mighty. Heck, there was even a Bean Station Jockey Club.
Knox County had its share of tracks, six that I know of for sure. Cal Johnson had his track in East Knoxville, which is now Speedway Circle. He also owned one in South Knoxville just east of the Gay Street Bridge in the vicinity of Suttree Landing Park and Waterfront Drive. There was a racetrack at the old Concord Fair Grounds (see story here). Flanders track just west of New Gray Cemetery (Sanderson Road runs through where it used to be) and Graveston Track in Corryton on Clapps Chapel Road hosted fairs along with their race meets.
There was also a racetrack at Chilhowee Park. The McClung Collection holds several photographs of the track donated by Thomas Nash Johnston, former superintendent of Knoxville City Schools. Johnston was my paternal grandmother’s first cousin. He would have been a young boy at the time the pictures were taken in 1915, so I doubt he was the photographer as credited. The name of the woman in the photos is lost to history, but may have been his mother or one of his aunts. Even though racing had effectively ended by then, folks still took their horses out there for a spin. Johnston was no doubt familiar with his grandfather’s dairy farm out on Ball Camp Pike (see story here).
Chilhowee Park racetrack in 1915 (McClung Historical Collection)
Though he wasn’t born in Tennessee, Foolish Pleasure was Knoxville’s pride and joy when he won the Derby 50 years ago for local businessman John L. Greer (see story here). So, if you’re celebrating Derby Day, raise a glass in his memory and grouse along with me why we don’t have a Keeneland in our own back yard.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: The Blood-Horse, The Knoxville Journal digital archives, McClung Historical Collection, Kentucky Derby Museum, Tennessee Encyclopedia, Beck Cultural Exchange Center, author’s personal collection.
Beth, great reporting. There is another famous Tennessee horse, Jim Key! Bred for racing and nearly destroyed his story is nothing short of astounding and masterfully told by accomplished best seller author Mim Eichler Rivas ( formerly from Oak Ridge) in her book “ Beautiful Jim Key”. Not only was Jim Key’s story lost for over a century but how Rivas came to write about him in the first place is a story within itself. Interweaving well researched Tennessee history with the forming of the early seeds of the A.S.P.C.A., this is a story that needed to be told.
Beth, great reporting. There is another famous Tennessee horse, Jim Key! Bred for racing and nearly destroyed his story is nothing short of astounding and masterfully told by accomplished best seller author Mim Eichler Rivas ( formerly from Oak Ridge) in her book “ Beautiful Jim Key”. Not only was Jim Key’s story lost for over a century but how Rivas came to write about him in the first place is a story within itself. Interweaving well researshed Tennessee history with the forming of the early seeds of the A.S.P.C.A., this is a story that needed to be told.