Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Don Combs dead at 86

Don Combs, who trained 1970 Kentucky Derby winner Dust Commander, died Sunday at age 86 in his native Lexington, Ky. The cause of death was a stroke, according to the Thoroughbred Daily News, which first reported his death.

Dust Commander was purchased as a yearling by Robert and Verna Lehmann, who had bought a farm in Kentucky a few years prior. The Illinois-bred was originally trained by Billy Turner before being moved to Combs in September of his 2-year-old season. Combs, 31, had hung out his own shingle just three years prior, and operated a public stable at Keeneland.

Dust Commander began his 3-year-old season by finishing off the board in his first six starts before Combs brought him to Keeneland and paired him with jockey Mike Manganello. The colt won the Hamburg Purse, a local prep for the Blue Grass, on April 8, then took the Blue Grass on April 24.

In the Kentucky Derby on May 2, 1970, Combs legged up Manganello on longshot Dust Commander. The colt was seventh at the quarter pole, but launched a rally to win by five lengths over My Dad George, returning $32.60. High Echelon, who would go on to win the Belmont, was third, while subsequent Preakness winner Personality was eighth.

Dust Commander came out of the Derby with filling in an ankle that concerned Combs, and finished ninth as the Preakness favorite. Combs then resigned as his trainer, citing differences with the ownership.

“Mr. Lehmann knows a lot about the construction business, but I don’t think he knows much about horses,” Combs told the New York Times.

Combs went on to train three Grade 2 winners from 1976 on, the period covered by Equineline statistics: 1978 Will Rogers Handicap winner April Axe; 1979 American Handicap winner Smoggy; and Yvonad, whose three stakes wins in 1980 included the Arlington Handicap. He also trained stakes winners Arctic Action, Butterfield Road, Don Roberto, For all Seasons, and Robalea. But his stable numbers remained modest, and his final stakes win came in 1994. Combs was characteristically frank about his percentages.

“It’s because I haven’t had any good horses. Good horses make good trainers,” he told Daily Racing Form in 2010.

According to Equineline statistics, which cover from 1976 through Combs’s retirement in 2019, he won 326 races from 2,918 starts.

A 2018 interview with Combs in Louisville Magazine described him as “a self-professed animal lover.

“He talks softly to the cat and knowingly violates the cardinal rule in the horse business about getting too emotionally close to the animals,” the magazine wrote. “I get attached to them,” he admits as we look at his modest quintet of runners on the shed row.”

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