Kentucky Derby Countdown | Determine, 1954
Jennie Rees
@CJ_Jennie
The Courier-Journal is recapping Derby winners in reverse order heading into the 141st Kentucky Derby on May 2. Today: The 80th winner, Determine (1954).
Described by press accounts as the smallest horse in the field of 17, weighing 870 pounds, Determine overcame a rough start to run down front-running Hasty Road for a 11/2-length victory — making him the first gray to win the Derby. It was the first Derby victory for California auto-dealer and oilman Andy Crevolin, as well as jockey Ray York and trainer Willie Molter, who opposed running back Determine back in the Preakness, saying it was asking too much. Instead the diminutive colt returned to California and became a mainstay of the handicap ranks at age 4. At stud, he sired 1962 Derby winner Decidedly. Determine was born in Carlisle on the far fringe of central Kentucky's breeding industry at Dr. Eslie Asbury's Forest Retreat Farm. He sold as a yearling for $12,000 to Crevolin, who reportedly said later, that he "must have been standing in a hole" when he inspected the colt. Determine's dam, the unraced gray Koubis, was known as the first mare to undergo surgery for a cleft palate. She also was a daughter of English Derby winner Mahmoud and from the female family of Seabiscuit. When Crevolin's submissions for a name for the colt kept being rejected, he told his wife, "I am sure this will be a good colt and I'm determined to get a good name." She suggested Determine. Determine is buried at Forest Retreat, not far from the grave of former Kentucky governor and U.S. senator Thomas Metcalfe.
— Jennie Rees