THE HOME OF KELSO

By: Tom Ferry

“Once upon a time there was a horse named Kelso…but only once.” - Joe Hirsch 

With the utmost respect to Secretariat, Man o’ War and Citation, he may have been the greatest of them all. He won an unprecedented five consecutive Horse of the Year honors. He set nine track records, was victorious on 12 different tracks, won 12 on dirt, grass and mud in winter, summer, spring and fall. He carried an incredible handicap of 130 pounds or more on his back 24 times, yet still won 13 times, placing in 5 and finishing in third once.  Kelso was the all-time money winner when he retired and it was a record which lasted for 14 years.   

Enter the front gates of Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, Maryland and walk along a beautiful road lined with tall sycamores and pines and you will feel their spirit wherever you go. They are Kelso and his beloved owner, Allaire du Pont. Foaled at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky in 1957, Woodstock was Kelso’s home for most of his 26 years.  This former cattle farm and its 300 acres was purchased by du Pont and husband Richard in 1941. They eventually expanded the property to 800 acres and moved their horses and Bohemia Stables operation from Middletown Delaware to this historic town on the banks of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. It was an idyllic second home and retreat for Allaire and Richard to spend time with their two young children and enjoy a shared passion for horses and planes. Tragedy struck, however, in 1943 when Richard and three other men were killed when a glider they were flying malfunctioned. 

Kelso and his dam, Maid of Flight, left Claiborne and came to Woodstock. He was a scrawny colt with an attitude. Allaire du Pont gelded him with hopes of calming him down but it didn’t seem to help. He continually dumped his riders and was a cribber to boot.  She tried selling the son of Your Host in 1959 during his two-year-old season but nobody was interested. A diamond lay hidden in the rough however. “Kelly’s” inner competitive fire reaped benefits as a three-year-old in 1960 when he won eight of nine starts and captured the first of what would be multiple Horse of the Year and divisional honors. 

There was no looking back. With each passing season, Kelso’s trophy case grew and so did the size of crowds at his races and incredible popularity among American sports fans.  Off season periods of rest and relaxation were spent at Woodstock.  He lived in a very large stall with his name on the welcome mat and slept on a bed of sugar cane fibers. He drank only bottled Mountain Valley spring water from Arkansas due to recurring bouts with colic.  And his diet? In addition to the normal hay and roughage, the mud-colored gelding had a sweet tooth that resulted in ice cream sundaes and his fans would send lumps of sugar individually wrapped in paper bearing his name and photograph. 

Kelso had his own private mailbox at Woodstock to accommodate an incredible volume of fan mail. At its peak, he received up to 500 letters a week from fans of all ages and each letter received a response.  Through the years, he shared his paddock and stall with a number of beloved canine and equine friends. His personal bodyguard was a small dog named Charlie Potatoes who slept with Kelso at night and rarely left his sight. He also grew close to stable ponies and longtime friends Spray and Pete.    

After an injury in the spring of 1966, nine-year-old Kelso was retired from the sport and returned to Woodstock for good. Allaire du Pont would ride Kelso across the grounds of the farm, galloping through the surrounding woods, streams and trails. One year after his retirement, Kelso learned to become a show jumper and in subsequent years would perform at racetracks across the country and at Madison Square Garden.  At home in Maryland, he participated with du Pont in fox hunts and the competitor glint was still present in his eye as he watched Woodstock horses breeze on the training track from the far end of his paddock.   

In 1974, a 17-year-old Kelso was slowed by arthritis and only occasionally accompanied Mrs. du Pont on her journeys around the farm. In the early eighties, he was well into his twenties and visitors still came to see him.   On October 16, 1983, Kelso died at the age of 26.  A heartbroken Allaire du Pont buried him in an equine cemetery behind the farm office within a circle of Greek columns and tall trees.  Woodstock had been du Pont’s primary home since 1960 and she continued to live at the farm until her death at age 92 in 2006. 

Woodstock Farm still thrives today with half of the farm dedicated to farming and the other half to the breeding of Thoroughbred horses. Visitors are welcome and can visit the farm office, a former late 1800’s post office which serves as a small museum, paying tribute to the life of Mrs. du Pont. An entire room is dedicated to a life of racing success with walls and shelves adorned with photographs, paintings, plaques, trophies and sculptures. Other exhibits highlight du Pont’s passions for aviation, needlepoint, fox hunting, land preservation and the plight of abandoned animals. 

When you leave the office and walk the grounds of Woodstock, you will still see older barns with the once familiar daffodil yellow and gray of Bohemia Stables.  You can look out over spacious paddocks and imagine Kelso, Spray and Pete grazing and you can walk down trails enveloped by majestic trees and wonder if Allaire du Pont and her Kelly may have ever passed this way.  The words on Kelso’s tombstone say, “Where he gallops the earth sings.”  It still does.