"Tough Little Guy"

"He came out of the Derby Trial real good," said Trainer Willie Molter. "He's a tough little guy. I hope that race helped him, because he needed tightening. But I'll be doggoned if I wanted it that tight." Willie Molter was talking about a spunky little (15 hands, 875 Ibs.) grey colt named Determine, and Determine had barely been nosed out in the Trial by Hasty Road, 1953's champion two-year-old.

At Kentucky Derby post time last week, Determine and Hasty Road were back on the track. So were Correlation, the colt that ran away with the Wood Memorial the week before, and 14 other three-year-olds. The crowd, betting against the jinx that only one California-bred colt had ever won in the-previous 79 runnings of the Derby, made California-bred Correlation the 3-to-1 favorite for No. So. There was talk of another Derby jinx: no grey colt has ever won, and Kentucky-bred Determine, owned by California Auto Dealer Andrew Crevolin, was undeniably a grey.*

Breaking fast from the No. 1 post position, Hasty Road led the cavalry charge past the stands into the first turn, held a long lead all through the backstretch. Rounding into the final turn at the mile mark, front-running Hasty Road had a two-length lead over Determine, while favored Correlation was way out of the running, seven lengths behind, in ninth place.

At that stage, Jockey Ray York, astride Determine, went to his whip, later admitted that he "beat the devil" out of the little grey. "At first I had to pull up and go around a couple of horses after I almost ran up on their heels," he said. "But at the eighth pole, when I looked around, I knew I had the race."

At the end, when Determine flashed across the finish line a length and a half in front of Hasty Road (time: a fast 2:03 for the mile-and-a-quarter), Jockey York rode back to the winner's circle and planted a fervent kiss on Determine's winning nose. Then he wept. York, who had ridden Determine in six of seven stakes victories this year, figured that the 80th Kentucky Derby "was Determine's best race-and the best race of them all."

* -Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt's Native Dancer came the closest to beating the jinx last year. The Dancer was beaten by a nose by long-shot (25-1) Dark Star, for the only defeat of his brief career.

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