Background
Determine was sired by the British stallion Alibhai a son of the 1933 Epsom Derby and St. Leger Stakes winner Hyperion. Alibhai's other progeny included Your Host and Flower Bowl. Determine's dam was Koubis, born with a cleft palate. Her breeder, Dr. Eslie Asbury, used specially designed instruments to repair her palate in a unique operation, but she was never raced. Koubis was a grand-daughter of the mare Swing On, the dam of Seabiscuit, and was also related to Equipoise and Intentionally.
Bred to Alibhai, Koubis produced a colt so small that the man who bought him for $12,000, a California automobile dealer named Andrew J. Crevolin, said he "…must have been standing in a hole when he inspected the colt." His breeder offered to take him back, but Crevolin refused, explaining that he might be letting a Kentucky Derby winner get away. The colt was sent into training with William Molter in California.
Determine, a soft gray in color, grew to a little over fifteen hands and never weighed more than 900 pounds. At the time of his Derby win he was described in the press as being a "pint-sized colt" and "a little package of dynamite".
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