Famed jockey Willie Shoemaker's first Triple Crown win was the 1955 Kentucky Derby. He rode Swaps, owned and trained by former Safford residents and partners Rex Ellsworth and Meshach "Mesh" Tenney.
An excerpt from the Arizona Daily Star, Sunday, May 8, 1955:
Arizona Cowboy's Swaps Captures Derby
Ellsworth Entry Tops Favorites
LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 7 - AP - Rex Ellsworth, the former Arizona cowboy who saved up $600 for a trip to Lexington to buy racing stock in 1933, cashed in for the big one Saturday as his chestnut speedball, Swaps, won the richest-ever Kentucky Derby.
Swaps breezed across the finish line a length and a half in front of favored Nashua. Summer Tan, second choice for this 81st Derby, finished six and a half lengths further back in third place.
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This "richest-ever Kentucky Derby" victory won Ellsworth $108,400 from the total purse of $152,000.
Ellsworth and Tenney were partners in the racing stable where Swaps was bred. They had two ranches in California, one in Colorado and one in Arizona. Swaps was their first entry in the Derby.
Also in the May 8, 1955, Star:
Safford Money On Swaps
Leslie Ellsworth, Safford ranch owner who is one of Rex Ellsworth's four brothers, wasn't even in front of a TV set when his brother's horse Swaps romped home in the Kentucky Derby, but he heard a stride by stride description of the race on the radio.
"We don't get TV here on the ranch," Ellsworth explained to the Arizona Daily Star by telephone, "but we did listen to it on the radio."
"Well," drawled the Arizonan when asked what he did in the way of celebration after the race, "I just went out and fed the cows.
"I guess a lot of people in Safford watched the race on TV. Quite a few of the fellows had money on Swaps. We were all wishing, hoping and I guess praying he would do it."
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Trainer Tenney got out of the racing business and moved back to Safford in the mid 1960s and continued ranching. He died in 1993. Ellsworth moved back to Safford as well and died in 1997.
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