Gus Koch: Life's Work

Gus Koch was the longtime manager of Claiborne Farm, and today, he talks to us about just a few of the great stallions who passed through his hands while he was there, including the legendary Secretariat.

Legends, to you and me. Immortals, paragons. But to Gus Koch, they were the flesh-and-blood companions of his daily toil: some were cherished friends; others, just a pain in the butt.

He worked with Natalma in Canada, her son Northern Dancer in Maryland, his son Nijinsky II at Claiborne. It was at Claiborne, for 31 years, that Koch ran perhaps the most potent breeding shed in Turf history, having been hired as manager soon after the young Seth Hancock had taken the reins.

“Secretariat, of course, was the hype name for non-horse people,” Koch says. “Then we had Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and Nijinsky. Sir Ivor, Damascus. The stallions we had in that barn were just unbelievable.”

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