Racing Record
Trained by Don Cameron and ridden by future Hall of Fame inductee Longden, as a two-year-old Count Fleet started off slowly, losing several times before getting his first win. He gained respect with his six-length victory in the Champagne Stakes, in which he set a new track record, then followed this up by beating the best horses in the country in the Pimlico Futurity, where he equaled the track record. In the Walden Stakes, he ran away from the field, winning by more than thirty lengths. At season's end, he had won 10 of his 15 races while never being out of the money, a performance that earned him the two-year-old championship honors. He was assigned 132 lbs. on the 1942 Experimental Free Handicap, the highest impost ever.
As a three-year-old, Count Fleet dominated North American racing, never losing a race. Leading up to the Kentucky Derby, he won the important Wood Memorial but injured himself in the process. He recovered to take the Derby, the United States' most prestigious race, by three lengths, then went on to Baltimore, Maryland, where he dominated the Preakness Stakes, taking that one by eight lengths. He won the Withers Stakes before heading to Elmont, New York for the Belmont Stakes where he captured the Triple Crown by scoring a 25-length victory, a record margin that stood until 1973. When the season ended, Count Fleet was voted Champion Three Year Old and named American Horse of the Year. In the Horse of the Year poll which was conducted by Turf and Sport Digest magazine Count Fleet received 135 of the possible 143 votes, an unprecedented margin of superiority.
Rather than risk serious injury, Count Fleet did not race as a four-year-old after it was discovered that he had injured his leg.
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