Courage, as characterized by various linguistic sources, signifies “the inner resolve or ethical fortitude required to undertake risks, persist through hardship, and confront peril, apprehension, or adversity.” This quality is demonstrated by humans whenever jockeys pilot massive Thoroughbred powerhouses from the explosive launch of the starting gate to the climactic dash toward the finish. Equines similarly display valor when confronting significant obstacles – consider Afleet Alex’s recovery from a stumble that brought him to his knees to secure victory in the 2005 Preakness – their actions unspoken yet profoundly conveying their spirit.
Prior to Assault claiming a championship in 1946, the equine known as “the club-footed comet” had to summon immense bravery to recover from a severe injury sustained during his infancy, a resilience he inherited from his dam.
An Uneven Beginning
King Ranch encompassed a vast expanse of southern Texas, once covering approximately half a million acres. It was on this property that the Santa Gertrudis cattle breed originated, and where Robert Kleberg Jr., who assumed management of the estate following his father’s passing in 1932, opted to venture into Quarter-Horse breeding. This initial foray into one equine lineage soon expanded to include the breeding of Thoroughbreds.
Kleberg obtained a mare called Incandescent, whom he bred with Equipoise, the renowned Whitney-bred champion of the early 1930s. From this pairing came a filly named Igual, who faced significant health issues early in her life. Igual struggled with poor health, failing to develop properly to such an extent that Kleberg worried euthanasia might be necessary. However, the filly boasted a lineage featuring Masda, Man o’ War’s full-sister, and Chicle, who sired the mare Mother Goose and Gallant Fox’s competitor, Whichone. Kleberg’s relative, Caesar, suggested they apply the same comprehensive care to Igual that was typically given to calves experiencing illness or malnourishment.
The resident veterinarian at King Ranch, J.K. Northway, performed a thorough physical assessment of the filly, revealing an abscess in her stifle joint. Following successful treatment, Igual regained her health, surmounting her precarious beginning, yet she never attained the stature required for a racing career. Consequently, Kleberg incorporated her into his group of broodmares. Though she wouldn’t distinguish herself on the track, Igual was destined to impart an even more valuable trait to her offspring by a winner of two Triple Crown races.
Small Stature, Immense Courage
Bold Venture was an unexpected victor in the 1936 Kentucky Derby. During an event where the favored Brevity stumbled to his knees at the outset, this horse, given odds of 20.50-1, managed to fend off Brevity during an intense final sprint, triumphing by a head. Should his Derby victory have appeared coincidental, then Bold Venture’s Preakness performance would undeniably demonstrate the colt’s formidable character when confronted with strong adversaries. He overtook Belair Stud’s Granville in the Pimlico straightaway, fiercely securing victory in the Triple Crown’s second leg by a neck.
During his preparation for the Belmont Stakes, Bold Venture suffered a bowed tendon, thereby concluding his Triple Crown aspiration and his entire racing career. Kleberg acquired Bold Venture and relocated him to stand at stud at King Ranch in 1939. The subsequent year, he bred Igual with Bold Venture, resulting in a nondescript chestnut colt marked by a small white blaze, who was christened Assault, a name evoking the wartime era.
Mirroring his sire and dam, the young Assault possessed a modest physical size. Bold Venture himself measured merely 15.1½ hands (equivalent to 61.5 inches at the shoulders), and Igual was also relatively small. Assault was released with his mother into the vast pastures of King Ranch, which surpassed the size of many similar enclosures typically found in Kentucky. The arid, warm terrain of south Texas contained dense brush, along with rattlesnakes, armadillo burrows, and irregular surfaces, all presenting hazards to the equines grazing within the area.
However, it was neither a venomous snake nor a concealed burrow that afflicted Assault. Instead, an overlooked surveyor’s marker, a wooden peg inadvertently left behind by the work crew, caused the damage. The juvenile colt stepped directly upon it, with the wooden fragment penetrating the frog—the resilient, shock-absorbing cushion within the hoof—and emerging through the coronet band, the narrow boundary where the limb’s skeletal structure joins the foot, serving as the hoof’s growth initiation point. This grave wound prompted Kleberg’s concern that he might be compelled to put Assault down.
Yet again, the veterinary expert Northway intervened, confident that the colt possessed a similar powerful desire for survival as his mother had exhibited when an abscess jeopardized her existence. When the compromised hoof became infected, Assault visibly suffered, incapable of bearing weight on the limb. Northway excised a significant portion from the center of the divided hoof and instructed the stable hands on how to bandage the hoof with medicated material to foster recovery. Ultimately, the hoof mended, but permanent alteration had occurred: his right front hoof would thenceforth develop differently from his other three. This predicament jeopardized his prospects as a racehorse. Could the young horse, prone to tripping even at slower gaits, ever achieve the running prowess indicated by his lineage?
Truly, the bravery Igual had bequeathed to her offspring, that innate drive to survive which had guided Assault through his severe ailment, was soon to prove essential once more. During the King Ranch yearling assessments, Assault demonstrated to his trainer, Max Hirsch, and other observers that he possessed the necessary qualities – the identical swiftness and endurance that had propelled Bold Venture to his significant victories.
Abundant Perseverance
The appellation “the club-footed comet” was somewhat inaccurate. Rather, the hoof on Assault’s right foreleg was not an actual clubfoot, but presented as more dished, extending forward. The hoof’s exterior wall was noticeably slender, scarcely an eighth of an inch thick, making the process of shoeing that particular foot a meticulous craft that Hirsch understood demanded flawless execution on every occasion. A single improper shoeing session could render Assault inactive for an extended period or even permanently remove him from competition. Thankfully, this never materialized.
Conversely, Assault displayed the identical bravery that had supported Igual through her own ordeal and persevered despite the mishap that had resulted in his damaged hoof. He reveled in running and excelled at it, performing so well that he triumphed in 18 of his 42 races and secured a second or third place finish in an additional 13 contests. Among these triumphs was the 1946 Kentucky Derby, which he claimed by an impressive eight lengths, subsequently proceeding to conquer the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, thus emerging as the seventh recipient of the Triple Crown.
Throughout a career distinguished by fierce competitions against notable rivals such as Armed and Stymie, Assault did not permit the vulnerability of his fragile hoof to prevent him from capturing two Brooklyn Handicaps, among numerous other wins that secured his induction into the Racing Hall of Fame. Though he may have been diminutive in stature, Assault proved himself formidable.
“I have never conditioned a superior equine,” Max Hirsch remarked, “Man o’ War possessed every attribute, and Assault did as well.”
