Racing Career
Blue Larkspur was trained by Herbert J. "Derby Dick" Thompson, an inductee of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. Derby Dick was not kind to horses, working them hard. Thompson won more Kentucky Derbies than any other trainer before Ben Jones.
Racing as a two-year-old, Blue Larkspur started seven times. He won the Juvenile Stakes, the National Stallion Stakes, and the Saratoga Special Stakes. He was beaten in the Hopeful Stakes by Jack High (whom he had defeated three times), getting stuck in traffic and carrying high weight of 130 pounds. At the start of the Belmont Futurity, he was kicked by another horse, finished eighth and was rested for the remainder of the season.
In Blue Larkspur's time, there was no Southern racing circuit to prepare for the Kentucky Derby, so he was trained hard all winter in Lexington. In his first race as a three-year-old, he beat Clyde Van Dusen, a gelded son of Man o' War. On Derby Day, however, the track was deep and muddy. Because Thompson was suffering from appendicitis, an apprentice trainer prepared Blue Larkspur for the race and neglected to have him shod in "stickers" (special shoes for slippery mud). Blue Larkspur struggled to finish fourth, defeated by Clyde Van Dusen.
Later in his 3-year-old season, however, Blue Larkspur convincingly won the one-mile Withers Stakes. Ridden by Mack Garner, he closed with a rush. He also took the 1½-mile Belmont Stakes, although he was again kicked at the post and the track was muddy. He was kicked yet again in a later start. Although he won the race, the wound became infected and he was sidelined for a time. Following the layoff, he won the Arlington Classic by five lengths. His season ended with a bowed tendon, but he has still been retrospectively regarded as 1929's Horse of the Year. In contemporary sources he is credited with being the year's leading money winner, but there is no record of a formal award.
As a 4-year-old, Blue Larkspur raced three times (winning the Stars and Stripes Handicap and the Arlington Cup) before his leg again failed him. During his career (from 1928 to 1930) he raced 16 times with 10 wins, 3 seconds, and 1 third, earning $272,070.
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