Ben Brush
Ben Brush was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1896 Kentucky Derby.
Background
Ben Brush was a bay stallion sired by Bramble out of Roseville by Reform. Walter Vosburgh spoke highly of Bramble, saying he was "a breed as tough as pine nuts."Ben Brush's dam, Roseville, was purchased by Ezekiel Clay & Catesby Woodford breeding partnership in 1891 from the horseman H. Eugene Leigh. At the time, she was in foal to Leigh's La Belle Stud stallion Bramble, a son of Bonnie Scotland who was the leading sire in North America in 1880 and 1882. When the resulting thoroughbred colt was offered for sale by Clay and Woodford, Leigh and his new partner, the African-American Hall of Famer Ed Brown, bought him for $1,200.
Ben Brush was bred in Kentucky and foaled at Clay's Runnymede Farm. Leigh and Brown were reportedly offered $5,000 for the yearling colt soon after they purchased him. Leigh was eager to take the deal, but Brown insisted they keep the colt for the early part of his career. Leigh accepted, and the colt remained with his new owners.
Brown named the colt Ben Brush in honor of the superintendent of the old Gravesend Race Track at Sheepshead Bay in Gravesend on Coney Island, New York, who provided them with valuable stall space. The original Ben Brush was a strict disciplinarian, although Leigh and Brown found him very lenient. When others complained of his double standards, Brush said, "Not a damn one of you fellows ever named a horse Ben Brush!"
Joe Palmer said of Ben Brush in his "Names in Pedigrees" that he was "not a particularly impressive-looking animal." The colt was a "rather small horse, a bit longer for his height than Bramble, almost equally coarse about the head."
Racing career
1895: Two-year-old season
Under his trainer Brown, Ben Brush began racing in Louisville. Ben Brush won his first race at two by five lengths. In his second start, he came home by three lengths. His third effort saw him gallop home ahead of Nimrod. Ben Brush then went to Ohio, winning the Emerald Stakes and the Diamond Stakes.After five wins in five starts, Ben Brush went to New York, where he came third at Sheepshead Bay but then won an overnight handicap, giving 19 pounds to his nearest rival. He then lost to the high-class Requital in the Flatbush Stakes. He ran out of energy for the first time in the Great Eastern Handicap but then won the Holly Handicap.
Ben Brush was then sold to the famous gambler Mike Dwyer, who had, with his brother Philip, raced his sire Bramble, as well as the champions Hindoo, Hanover, Miss Woodford, and Luke Blackburn. Ben Brush was the last champion to carry Mike Dwyer's colours. The reported sale was $18,000.
Now ridden by Hall of Famer Willie Simms, an African-American considered one of the greatest riders of his day, and trained by Hardy Campbell Jr., Ben Brush won six more races as a two-year-old. He earned $21,398 with 13 wins in 16 starts. He was selected Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Colt with Requital. At this point, Walter Vosburgh said Ben Brush "could have beaten any three-year-old of that season."
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1896: Three-year-old season
Ben Brush's first race in the 1896 season was the 22nd Kentucky Derby on May 6. The 1896 race was the first to be run at its current, shorter distance of 1¼ miles. The race was also the first time a blanket of red roses was draped over the winner's shoulders. The tradition and why the Kentucky Derby is often called "The Run for the Roses" have remained.Without the benefit of a prep race and having never run farther than seven furlongs in his career, Ben Brush stumbled away from the barrier, nearly unseating Simms. By the time they recovered, the race seemed over. However, Ben Brush made a tremendous move on the backstretch, caught First Mate on the turn for home, and battled fiercely with Ben Elder down the stretch before winning the Derby by a nose.
The correspondent for the "Spirit of the Times" wrote, "Simms made one last and desperate rally with Ben Brush, displaying as vigorous a piece of riding as was ever seen, and gradually but surely gaining on the other Ben, he finally beat him out by a nose in a terrific and hair-raising finish, which elicited a wild and spontaneous shout from the grandstand." When Simms saw how deeply his spurs had cut his mount and that his sides were covered in blood, he cried with shame.
Ben Brush finished the season with four wins and almost $27,000 in earnings.
1897: Four-year-old season
In the view of many, as Palmer put it, Ben Brush's 1897 campaign "perhaps put the stamp of greatness on him more unmistakably than did his performances at two and three." During this last racing season, Ben Brush met Ornament, the American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and 1897's American Horse of the Year, giving Ornament nine pounds and winning by three lengths. He beat the 1895 Preakness Stakes and Belmont winner Belmar; 1896 Belmont winner Hastings, the grandsire of Man o' War; 1897 Champion Three-Year-Old Ornament, the winner of 20 of 33 lifetime starts; and the high-class Clifford, who twice defeated Henry of Navarre and Domino in 1894–95.Overall racing record
Overall, Ben Brush raced 40 times. He won 25 of those races, placed in five, and showed in 5, earning prize money of $65,208.Stud career
Ben Brush was a success at stud, so much so that he became one of the building blocks of the American Thoroughbred. Although his direct male line no longer exists, he continues to influence the breed. Ben Brush appears in the pedigrees of 48 of the last 50 Derby winners, including every Derby winner from 1972 onwards.As the leading sire of 1909, Ben Brush produced Delhi, the 1904 Belmont Stakes winner and Champion Three Year Old Colt; Pebbles, the Juvenile Champion of 1914; and Broomstick, who won the 1904 Travers Stakes, and set a new American record for a mile and a quarter in the Brighton Handicap, before leading the sire's list from 1913 until 1915. He was ranked 71st in the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine. And Ben Brush produced twice leading sire Sweep, winner of the 1910 Belmont Stakes, and a champion at two and three years-old. His most influential daughter was Belgravia, who produced Black Toney, sire of Black Gold.
Ben Brush died in Versailles, Kentucky on June 8, 1918, at the age of 25. His headstone erroneously reads 1917.
Ben Brush was part of the inaugural class inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.
Sire line tree
- Ben Brush
- *Broomstick
- **Whisk Broom
- ***John P. Grier
- ****Boojum
- ****Jack High
- ****El Chico
- ***Upset
- ****Misstep
- ****Windy City
- ***Whiskaway
- ***Whiskery
- ***Diavolo
- ****Teufel
- ***Victorian
- ****He Did
- ****Cant Wait
- ***Halcyon
- **Meridian
- ***Carmandale
- ***Glen Wild
- **Sweeper
- ***Golden Broom
- ***Osmand
- **Holiday
- **Thunderer
- **Cudgel
- ***Milkman
- ****Pasteurized
- ***Froth Blower
- **Tippity Witchet
- **Dr Clark
- **Wildair
- ***Canter
- ****Swashbuckler
- ***Sir Harry
- **Broomspun
- **Runantell
- **Moonraker
- ***Aloha Moon
- ****Jesters Moon
- **Spot Cash
- **Transmute
- **Blondin
- **Bostonian
- ***Maedic
- **Cantankerous
- **Brooms
- **Halcyon
- *Delhi
- **Outram
- **Dominant
- *Von Tromp
- *Theo Cook
- *Sweep
- **The Porter
- ***Time Maker
- ****Time Supply
- ***Toro
- ***Rosemont
- ****Isasmoothie
- ****Thinking Cap
- ***Aneroid
- ***Porters Mite
- ***Porters Cap
- **Eternal
- ***Nocturnal
- ***Ariel
- ****Airflame
- ****Chicuelo
- ****High Breeze
- ****Ariel Lad
- ****Swiv
- ****Education
- ***Infinity
- ***Trinchera
- ***Okapi
- ***Xalapa Crown
- ***Aletern
- **Bon Homme
- **Leonardo
- **General Thatcher
- **Mantagna
- *Vandergrift
- *Pebbles
Pedigree
Ben Brush is inbred 4S x 5D to the stallion Lexington, meaning that he appears fourth generation on the sire side of his pedigree, and fifth generation on the dam side of his pedigree.