Kelso: Racing’s Five-Time Horse of the Year

No racehorse of modern times was so good for so long. Racing until the age of nine, Kelso won thirty-nine of sixty-three races. This superstar of the 1960s earned an unprecedented five Horse of the Year titles and five divisional championships, set or equaled eight track records, and set three American standards. Much like Seabiscuit thirty years earlier, Kelso kept getting better as he got older, earning legions of fans with every passing year.

Steve Haskin has been national correspondent for Daily Racing Form and senior correspondent for The Blood-Horse and provided lead coverage of the Triple Crown for over twenty years; he now covers the Triple Crown for Secretariat.com. His weekly Derby Dozen and Kentucky Derby Rankings have been a fixture in The Blood-Horse and Secretariat.com for a quarter of a century. He also is the author of multiple books, including Horse Racing’s Holy Grail: The Epic Quest for the Kentucky Derby and profiles of the racehorses Kelso, Dr. Fager, and John Henry. Haskin has won numerous awards for his writing and career achievement, and was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame’s Media Roll of Honor in 2016. He lives in Rocky Hill, CT.