August 14, 2015 
Hall of Fame horseman John Nerud passed away yesterday at the age of 102. He will forever be remembered as the trainer of the great Dr. Fager, who in 1968 shattered the record books by becoming racing’s first and most likely last four time champion (Horse of the Year, Champion Sprinter, Champion Handicap Horse and Champion Turf Horse). His impact on the sport of horse racing lives on in the Breeders’ Cup, which he was a founding member, and through the formidable, influential bloodlines he produced as the architect and operator of Tartan Farm.
Nerud with 1957 Belmont winner Gallant Man. (Photo courtesy of johnnerud.com).
Born into the hard and humble prairie life in Minatare, Nebraska, Nerud struck out at age 18 to the Big Sky country to rub and ride on the rodeo circuits. He soon transitioned into the world of thoroughbreds and never looked back. After a three-year stint in the South Pacific during WWII, Nerud built businessman William McKnight’s Tartan Farm in Ocala from scratch and watched it blossom into one the leading racing stables in the country thanks to his keen eye for producing talent. His roster of influential homebred icons includes Dr. Fager, 1957 Belmont winner Gallant Man, turf champion and super sire Cozzene, and Fappiano, who produced 1990 Kentucky Derby winner and sire extraordinaire, Unbridled (the great-grandsire of American Pharoah, to bring it full circle).
Nerud was more than a great horseman. He was a vestige of an industry that was once at the top of the fold…when horses were bred for racing soundness, and not the sales ring. When performance enhancement meant an extra helping of hay, oats, water and patience. Nerud nearly lost his life in 1965 when he was thrown from his horse on the Belmont backstretch and suffered a significant head injury. He made a full recovery after undergoing multiple surgeries under the hand of a renowned Boston neurosurgeon. His name? Dr. Charles Fager.
Nerud with Dr. Fager (NYRA/AP)
Nerud, who lived long enough to see all 12 Triple Crown winners, kept his hat in the ring up until his last breath. At 98 years young, Nerud bred one of his mares to Thunder Gulch and produced a colt currently in training in New York. His name? Final Chapter.
My words cannot begin to describe his impact on the industry, but perhaps his own words can—famously free of BS and full of wisdom.
On why he only sent one starter to the Kentucky Derby…
“Too early in the season. You ruin more horses going to the Derby than any other race in America.”
On his champion, Dr. Fager…
“He’s certainly my favorite. I owned a quarter of him, so that’s like ‘Do you like your mother?’”
“I’m not saying he was the best, mind you,” Nerud once said of the horse. “But, God, he was a big, beautiful, thundering ball of fire…Some days he was bay, some days he was bronze, some days he was gold. It all depended on his mood and how the sunlight hit him.”
“Look at him showing off. He knows he’s being watched. Look at him carrying his head down just like when he was racing. Look at that eye, still determined. Isn’t he magnificent? I could probably get him fit and winning races in one month, even now at the age of 12. Damn it, I love that sonofabitch.”
On his humble arrival to Saratoga in 1937…
“I had come there on a horse cart…There was a Frenchman running the kitchen, and I told him that I’d like something to eat and didn’t have any money. And he looked straight at me and said, ‘Will you work?’ I said, ‘You betcha I will, and I can work.'”
On champion filly Rachel Alexandra…
“I don’t compare her to anyone. I’m not afraid to say she’s better than Ruffian, because she is.”
On breeding…
“In those days, we bred to race. You took a sound horse and a sound mare and you’d breed them. Everyone wondered how I did what I did right off the bat with no experience breeding horses. I used common sense. Common sense died about 20 years ago and nobody went to his funeral.”
“Today we’re not breeding with any intelligence,” Nerud continued. “We’re breeding with only one thing in mind – the sales ring sign at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland. The only thing we look at is the flash on the board – $200,000, $300,000.”
On the best piece of advice he ever got, from Hall of Fame trainer Ben Jones…
“He said ‘John, you don’t have enough sense to train these horses, so I’ll tell you what to do. Keep ’em happy, keep ’em fat, feed ’em good, and work ’em a half a mile, and they’ll win in spite of you.’ I come to New York, and everybody worked their horses a mile and three-quarters, and I worked my horses a half a mile and run right past them. I was known as ‘that half-a-mile son of a bitch.’”
On his homebred Cozzene, winning the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Mile, trained by his son Jan.
“I bred the horse, and I bred the trainer.”
On aging…
“…there are three stages to life: youth, middle age, and, ‘Gee, you look good.’”
On negotiating terms with businessman William McKnight for Tartan Stables…
“Well, you give me a million dollars, and if it don’t work, you give me two million. If that don’t work, you give me three million.”
On his 99th birthday…
“Racing is all about dreams, and you always have to keep dreaming. At my age you have to have something to look forward to, and I even have a broodmare in foal. You can’t worry about when you’re going to die. It’s going to come, so you just go ahead and live for today and think about tomorrow and not worry about the day after tomorrow.”
More | Steve Haskin: The Legacy of John Nerud [Bloodhorse]
