“It has become practically impossible for a three-year-old which did not race as a juvenile to win a running of the famed classic.” So stated the Daily Racing Form on May 8, 1939, the day of the Kentucky Derby, and nearly eight decades later, those words have proved prophetic. Although standouts including two-time Horse of the Year and first-ballot Hall of Famer Curlin have tried, no horse has won the Kentucky Derby without having started as a juvenile since Apollo in 1882. While Santa Anita Derby hero Justify and Arkansas Derby winner Magnum Moon, both unbeaten, will be among the favorites in this Kentucky Derby despite being unstarted as juveniles, Apollo’s victory is regarded as the first major upset in America’s most famous race. The official chart for the race lists him at 10-1 for his victory over winter-book favorite Runnymede, sent off at 4-5. Apollo was bred in Kentucky by Daniel Swigert, who later founded Elmendorf Farm. The colt’s dam, Rebecca T. Price, had been covered by two stallions, Ashstead and Lever, the spring in question, and Swigert wasn’t sure which was the actual sire. It is commonly believed that Lever sired the Derby winner, as the rugged Apollo showed some physical characteristics of the line launched by Lever’s sire, Lexington, the dominant stallion of the day. “[Apollo] stands 15 hands half an inch high, and the only white is on the left hind pastern,” wrote John L. O’Connor in “History of the Kentucky Derby.” “He has a rather heavy, plain head, wide jowls, good stout neck, which fills up his shoulders well, mounts high on the withers, deep chest, good length, arched loin, long quarters and hips, with excellent, clean and bony legs.” Apollo got his early schooling from trainer Henry Brown in Kentucky. But during a spring work, the youngster incurred an unspecified injury and was turned out at Stockwood Farm in Midway, and that later resulted in his notoriety. “While working him one morning with another horse, the latter carried the future crack out all the way around the course, the pair being pulled up a mile in 1:48,” DRF recounted. “That work, of course, was too severe for a two-year-old so early in the spring.” Shortly afterward, trainer Green B. Morris took a liking to Apollo. Morris and business partner James Patton purchased him from Swigert for $1,200, with the promise of an additional $300 if he went on to win the Derby. Morris had Apollo gelded while still a juvenile, and by the time he arrived to winter in New Orleans, the gelding had filled out and matured. :: DERBY WATCH: Top 20 list | Kentucky Derby: Who's hot, who's not Apollo finally debuted April 11 in New Orleans, finishing second in the Pickwick Stakes at 1 1/4 miles. A week later, he finished second in a pair of one-mile heats. On April 26, he stretched out to 1 1/2 miles – the Derby distance at the time, modeled after the English classics – in the Cottrill Stakes and had a new jockey, with Morris putting 15-year-old exercise rider Babe Hurd aboard. “The race was at one mile and a half, and he won so easily that Mr. Morris decided to start him in the Derby,” Hurd recalled to DRF. “He received his full preparation for the race at New Orleans, and when he arrived at [Churchill] Downs, all Morris did was to gallop him around the inside track.” Multiple stakes winner Runnymede arrived in Louisville as the heavy favorite. The colt was looking to double up in the classic for Phil and Mike Dwyer, trainer James G. Rowe Sr., and jockey James McLaughlin, who had teamed up the year prior to win the Derby with eventual Hall of Famer Hindoo. Hurd recalled that McLaughlin, who was white, arrogantly told the black jockeys that “he’d show them how to ride.” Meanwhile, Apollo was largely dismissed by handicappers as, even in the early days of the Kentucky Derby, juvenile form was valued. “Public form at 2 years old is, as a rule, the best guide to a Derby winner,” stated a race-day preview in The Tennessean. A field of 14 3-year-olds lined up for the Derby, the third race on May 16, contested on a track officially rated good before a crowd the Louisville Courier-Journal estimated at 15,000. It took four attempts to send the field away from the starting line in fair order, with Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark giving the signal by beating a kettledrum. McLaughlin kept Runnymede outside to avoid being pocketed, and they were clear in third with a half-mile remaining. Apollo was sixth at that stage. Runnymede seized the lead from Harry Gilmore entering the stretch and “looked like the winner until Apollo started a cyclonic rush an eighth of a mile from home,” the chart described. Apollo caught Runnymede in deep stretch. “I leaned over and shouted to McLaughlin, ‘Jimmie, you’re done,’ ” Hurd said. “With that, I clucked to Apollo, and he drew away.” The official margin of victory was half a length, with Runnymede another length ahead of Bengal in third. The upset sparked allegations that McLaughlin had been paid off by New York bookmakers, who would have taken a heavy hit with the favorite’s victory. Nothing was proven. Six days later, Runnymede turned the tables with a victory in the 1 1/4-mile Clark Stakes, with Apollo well back in third. But Apollo scored six stakes victories on the season, only missing the board once from 21 starts. As a 4-year-old, he won the Merchants Stakes and 13 other races – and showed his hickory side, with nine consecutive wins coming in a 40-day period. By the time injury forced his retirement as a 5-year-old, he had compiled a mark of 54-24-15-9, earning $21,680. Morris gave his Derby winner to friends of his wife who lived in Charleston, S.C., and Apollo lived out his days as a riding horse, dying in 1887 of lockjaw. :: ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays, and analysis