Kentucky Derby Lucky Losers: Granville (1936)

Jul 01, 2025 Jennifer Kelly / TwinSpires.com

The 1930s were the decade of a dynasty, one clad in white with red polka dots, those colors ubiquitous in the winner’s circles at Churchill Downs, Pimlico, and Belmont Park. Belair Stud’s domination started with Gallant Fox’s Triple Crown and continued with horses like Omaha, the son of Gallant Fox who won his own Crown in 1935; Faireno, 1932 Belmont Stakes winner; and Johnstown, who gave owner William Woodward his third Kentucky Derby victory in 1939.

Granville, another son of Gallant Fox, ran into trouble trying to bring Belair another Kentucky Derby victory, but went on to a stellar season after that, adding to the dynastic legacy of the white with red polka dots.

Another Son of the Fox

William Woodward developed his breeding program, preferring to sell or lease his horses, for nearly two decades before he started racing his homebreds. He was one of the partners who invested in Sir Gallahad III, helping Arthur Hancock of Claiborne Farm bring the French-bred stallion to America, and later stood Gallant Fox there when the Triple Crown winner retired in 1930. Woodward sent the best of his broodmares to his champion, including Flambino, who produced Omaha, and another Belair homebred, Gravita.

Gravita was the daughter of Samartian, bred in France by William Woodward. Nominated for several stakes, Gravita was a non-winner on the racetrack, racing seven times unplaced, but her pedigree was nice enough for her breeder to send her to Gallant Fox for her 1932 cover. The following year, she foaled a bay colt with a thin line of white down his face, a son of Gallant Fox whom Woodward would name Granville.

At two, Granville became part of trainer “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons’ barn at Aqueduct, where he got his racetrack education. He started with a 5 1/2-furlong allowance at Saratoga; with Tommy Malley in the saddle, he finished third behind Brevity and Aneroid, and then followed that up with a second behind Bold Venture in another allowance at the Spa. After a shift downstate back to Aqueduct, he tried stakes company for the first time in the Babylon Handicap, where he was beaten just a head and nose in the six-furlong race.

“Granville is at this time strictly raw material,” John Lewy wrote in the Brooklyn Times-Union. “He has a nice way of going, a good deal more natural speed than either his sire or Omaha, and no bad habits.” But, as Fitzsimmons found out, he did have an unfortunate tendency that he had inherited from his sire: he put out just enough effort to achieve his goals, no more, no less. It was a tendency that would haunt him throughout his career.

Potential Realized

Granville finally broke his maiden in his fifth start, a six-furlong try against a field of 10 others. Jockey Eddie Lintzenberger got the colt to break in the first flight, sitting third early when he ran into trouble on the turn. Boxed in on the rail, Lintzenberger somehow found a hole, escaped the interference from other horses, and then found space to mount his bid for the lead in the stretch. Granville passed the leaders inside the final furlong and hit the wire three lengths in front. The son of Gallant Fox was finally a winner.

Additional tries in stakes company in the Champagne and then the Futurity yielded a third and then a sixth, leaving Granville with a record of 7-1-1-3 for his two-year-old season in 1935. Hopes were high for this son of Gallant Fox in 1936 as William Woodward sent his other son of the Fox, Omaha, to England for his four-year-old season and a try at the Ascot Gold Cup. Fitzsimmons prepared Granville for his try at the Triple Crown, starting with a win at Aqueduct in late April. He followed that up with a second by a short nose in the Wood Memorial. Fitzsimmons then sent the colt to Louisville to prepare for the 62nd Kentucky Derby.

The field included familiar foes like the favored Brevity, Bold Venture, and Teufel, with Granville breaking from post 4, right next to Bold Venture in post 5, and Brevity toward the outside in post 10. At the start, Granville got crushed in the scrum of horses, which knocked jockey Jimmy Stout off the colt’s back while Brevity, a few stalls down, got knocked to his knees. Granville ran with the field, unhurt, but losing Stout at the start meant that he lost all chance at winning the Run for the Roses. Bold Venture outlasted Brevity in the stretch to win by a nose.

Granville met Bold Venture again two weeks later at Pimlico. The Belair colt get out to a fast start while the Derby winner had to go to the outside to avoid trouble early in the race; six furlongs in, Jimmy Stout put Granville on the lead and stayed there into the stretch, dueling with a fast-closing Bold Venture, who managed to pass the son of Gallant Fox in the race’s final yards to win by a nose.

An injury in his preparation for the Belmont Stakes sent Bold Venture into retirement, while Granville broke up the three weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont with a turn in the Suburban Handicap. Facing older horses over ten furlongs, Granville had the lead when the field turned into the stretch and seemed to have the race in the bag when Firethorn mounted a furious bid inside the final furlong and wore the Belair colt down, winning by two lengths. A week later, Granville returned in the 12-furlong Belmont Stakes and turned the tables on Mr. Bones, who had led from the start. According to the race’s form chart, Granville “moved up with determination rounding the far turn, came to the outside of the leaders entering the stretch, and under severe pressure wore down Mr. Bones in the final strides.”

The Belair colt had broken his jinx, four races where he fell just short (or lost his jockey at the start), and spent the rest of 1936 on fire. He won the Arlington Classic by 2 1/2 lengths; the Kenner by a neck; the Travers by a nose, the first year that the Man o’ War Cup was offered as the race’s trophy; and then two stayers’ stakes, the Saratoga Cup and the Lawrence Realization by multiple lengths. At year’s end, Granville was voted the first official Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. An ankle injury prompted his retirement after a stellar second half of his 1936 season.

Woodward leased Granville to Kenneth Gilpin’s Kentmere Farm in Virginia for the beginning of his stud career, since both Gallant Fox and Sir Gallahad III were already standing at Claiborne Farm. He later stood at Mare’s Nest Farm in Kentucky and then at Word Ranch in New Mexico, where he eventually sired horses for the military as part of the Remount Service. He passed away in 1951.

Three years later, William Woodward and Belair Stud got their last Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes wins with Johnstown. As the 1940s began, so did Calumet Farm’s domination of the sport, which included two Triple Crown winners of their own. Though Belair might not have been as dominant, Woodward’s name went down in the annals of the sport’s history thanks to horses like Granville, who may not have had good luck under the Twin Spires but found it later that season, a record good enough to earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame.