Kentucky Derby Lucky Losers – Sun Beau (1928)

Jan 29, 2026 Jennifer Kelly

Willis Sharpe Kilmer stands with Sun Beau. (Photo courtesy of Keeneland Library / Credit to the Cook Collection)

Willis Sharpe Kilmer, purveyor of patent medications and patron of the Turf, bred or owned a list of the early 20th century’s best horses. The great Exterminator raced in Kilmer’s colors as did 1918 Travers Stakes winner, Sun Briar, and the businessman’s fondness for the latter’s family lent him the opportunity to breed Reigh Count, the 1928 Kentucky Derby winner and the sire of Triple Crown winner Count Fleet, and Sun Briar’s best son, a Hall of Famer named Sun Beau.

While Sun Beau may have finished behind his former stablemate under the Twin Spires, the horse that his owner said was the best he ever bred or owned earned his spot in the Hall of Fame with his long list of handicap victories and his status as record breaker in the midst of an economic calamity.

Famed Foundations

Kilmer purchased the French-bred colt Sunday, a son of three-time July Cup winner Sundridge, at the 1916 Saratoga yearling sale for $6,000, and renamed the yearling Sun Briar. Determined to win the Kentucky Derby with his pet—he named his Binghamton, New York farm after the colt—he authorized trainer Henry McDaniel to buy a lanky ‘workhorse’ named Exterminator to help prepare Sun Briar for the race. Because Sun Briar was not prepared for the 10-furlong test, McDaniel ended up sending Exterminator to the post instead, and the gelding won the 1918 Kentucky Derby in Kilmer’s colors, the owner grudgingly excited about the win. When Sun Briar retired to his owner’s Virginia farm to stand stud, Kilmer paired him with Beautiful Lady, a daughter of Fair Play, and in 1925, she foaled a bay colt with a thin line of white from his forehead to his nose. Kilmer would name the colt Sun Beau.

Reigh Count, a son of Sun Briar’s full brother Sunreigh, was also part of the farm’s 1925 crop, and started his two-year-old season in the Kilmer colors before John and Fannie Hertz privately purchased the colt (his price variously reported as $8,500-$12,500). While he was pursuing rich prizes like the Futurity at Belmont Park, Sun Beau was having a more mixed experience in his first season on the racetrack. He won only one of his four starts as a juvenile, an allowance at Laurel Park in late October, and finished up the track in both the Manor Handicap and the Pimlico Futurity.

The start to his three-year-old season was more of the same, with two wins in his first five starts, all in Maryland. He was Kilmer’s lone representative at Pimlico for that year’s Preakness, one of 18 who blazed the 9.5 furlongs, with Harry Payne Whitney’s Victorian taking home the victory. Reigh Count was not part of that field, focusing instead on the Kentucky Derby eight days later, but Sun Beau was not going to miss a chance to win that rich $60,000 purse running out of his stall at Pimlico. Though the Sun Briar colt finished fifth, Kilmer was pleased with his performance, especially how much ground he made up late, and decided to send him to Louisville for the 10-furlong Derby. He would have plenty of company there, though, as the field was shaping up to be a whopping 22 horses.

Sun Beau’s Derby experience was much like his Preakness, where he was caught in traffic early, but the full field meant that Kilmer’s colt was not able to find running room when he needed it. The best that he and jockey John Craigmyle could do was 11th, while Kilmer’s horse that got away, Reigh Count, won the roses by three lengths. Sun Beau then moved to Belmont Park, where he won a 1 1/8-mile allowance before trying the Belmont Stakes. With Linus McAtee in the saddle, Sun Beau battled Preakness winner Victorian early, leading for most of the first mile and then giving way as the field swung into the long stretch. With his spring stakes attempts done, the son of Sun Briar turned to his bread and butter: handicaps.

All-Time Achiever

When Sun Beau retired from racing at age 6, his resume did not include those elusive Triple Crown classics, but it did include a long list of the era’s great handicap races. Among his 33 lifetime victories were three consecutive Hawthorne Gold Cups, two editions of the Washington Handicap, the Latonia Championship, the Maryland Handicap, the Potomac Handicap, the Arlington Cup and Handicap, and the Philadelphia Handicap. The son of Sun Briar raced against many of his moment’s best racehorses, from Twenty Grand, 1931 Kentucky Derby victor, to Alcibiades, 1930 Kentucky Oaks winner and dam of Menow, to Petee-Wrack, who won the 1928 Travers Stakes, and more. By the end of his career, Sun Beau had a record of 74-33-12-10, his total earnings of $376,744 an American record.

What makes Sun Beau’s record, where he beat Gallant Fox by nearly $50,000, is that he was able to accumulate that during a career that spanned 1927-1931, the years that saw significant economic changes nationally that affected American racing. When he competed in the 1928 Derby, the purse was $60,000 added; when Twenty Grand won, it was down to $50,000, and by 1935, Omaha’s purse was $40,000 added. Yet, over his career, Sun Beau won more money each season he competed. At two, he won just $1,150; at three and four, his wins earned him $79,909 and $79,755. Over his last two seasons, he earned $105,005 and then $110,925. By the time Kilmer retired his record breaker to his Virginia farm, where he stood alongside his sire, Sun Beau had earned his place in the history books.

While Sun Beau was not able to pass on his talents as his own sire did, he helped solidify his breeder/owner’s place in the sport. Willis Sharpe Kilmer’s legacy is one with two Hall of Famers, including his erstwhile Kentucky Derby winner Exterminator, a legend many times over, and a lucky loser in Sun Beau, who was not victorious under the Twin Spires but did make his mark on the sport in his own way during a tumultuous time.