May 28, 2009 - If winning horse racing’s Triple Crown — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — were easy, one horse or another would win it every year. That it has happened just 10 times in 135 years puts the feat in perspective.
The only Texas-bred horse to ever win a Triple Crown was Assault, who started the string of victories with an eight-and-a-half length victory at the 1946 Kentucky Derby. Just as another unlikely racetrack champion, Seabiscuit, caught the imagination of the public as a humble and unlikely winner, Assault seemed more destined for an early grave than a hallowed place in horse racing history.
It wasn’t that Assault lacked pedigree or was some genetic fluke born on some unknown family farm. Sired by Kentucky Derby winner Bold Venture, Assault was born on the King Ranch, which had been raising champion Quarter Horses for a long time. King Ranch manager Robert Kleberg, Jr. had ventured into the Thoroughbred business and eventually into horse racing history by purchasing Bold Venture, who later sired two Kentucky Derby winners, in 1935. Middleground, also from Bold Venture, won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Despite advantages in breeding and environment, Assault seemed jinxed from the first. As a colt, he stepped on a surveyor’s stake, splitting the right front hoof. Conventional wisdom dictated that the horse should be put down, but Kleberg was reluctant.
Lolo Trevino, one of the King Ranch vaqueros who worked with Assault on the ranch, said they were told to kill Assault, but Kleberg put Trevino and a veterinarian to work repairing and rehabilitating the hoof. As it turned out, Assault was born to run, injured hoof or not.
“Assault was desperate all the time, ready to go,” Trevino said. “He wouldn’t stay still for anything.”
Assault walked with a limp but galloped without a hitch. Kleberg employed legendary horse trainer Max Hirsch from the Morris Ranch in Gillespie County to train the unpromising colt. Assault’s journey into the history books began inauspiciously with a 12th place finish in his first race as a two-year old. He won just once more the rest of the year, finishing second twice and third in another race. He won his first three races as a three-year old but entered the Kentucky Derby as an 8-1 underdog.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch on Kentucky Derby day, Richard Kleberg, Sr. drove his car up on some vaqueros who were branding calves on a remote part of the ranch. He turned on the radio and they listened as Assault, dubbed the “Club-Footed Comet” by sportswriters and other smart alecs, won by eight lengths, still a Derby record. He took on a new name, “The Crippled Champion.”
In the Preakness, Assault charged from sixth place to a four-length lead but barely held off a charge at the end by Lord Boswell. At the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown, Assault stumbled out of the gate but recovered to win by three lengths in a race where he wasn’t even listed as a favorite.
Assault lost his next six races, beginning with a dismal last place showing at the Arlington Classic. As it turned out, Assault was suffering from a kidney ailment. The hard-luck legend also suffered from bleeding problems and a bad knee.
As was the custom in those days, Assault continued to race and won 18 of the 42 races he entered and earned more than $675,000. Dreams of continuing the line came to an end when it was discovered that the horse, in addition to his other ailments, was sterile.
Jockey Warren Mehrtens, who rode Assault to his Triple Crown victory, said of the horse, “He beat whatever they threw at him that year. He was just better than all the horses around.”
Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro, who rode Assault in some of his later races, listed Assault as one of his favorite horses. “Assault was fun to ride,” Arcaro said. “He moved up on you quick, then exploded.”
Assault lived 28 years and died in 1971. He is buried on the King Ranch.
