Ben Brush

Ben Brush (1893–1918) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1896 Kentucky Derby.

Ben Brush was a bay stallion sired by Bramble (the 1879 champion handicap horse) out of Roseville (a sister to Azra, the 1892 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes winner) by Reform. Walter Vosburgh (after whom the Vosburgh Stakes was named) spoke highly of Bramble, saying he was "a breed as tough as pine nuts."

Ben Brush's dam, Roseville, was purchased by Ezekiel Clay & Catesby Woodford breeding partnership in 1891 from the horseman H. Eugene Leigh. At the time, she was in foal to Leigh's La Belle Stud stallion Bramble, a son of Bonnie Scotland who was the leading sire in North America in 1880 and 1882. When the resulting thoroughbred colt was offered for sale by Clay and Woodford, Leigh and his new partner, the African-American Hall of Famer Ed Brown, bought him for $1,200.

Ben Brush was bred in Kentucky and foaled at Clay's Runnymede Farm. Leigh and Brown were reportedly offered $5,000 for the yearling colt soon after they purchased him. Leigh was eager to take the deal, but Brown insisted they keep the colt for the early part of his career. Leigh accepted, and the colt remained with his new owners.

Brown named the colt Ben Brush in honor of the superintendent of the old Gravesend Race Track at Sheepshead Bay in Gravesend on Coney Island, New York, who provided them with valuable stall space. The original Ben Brush was a strict disciplinarian, although Leigh and Brown found him very lenient. When others complained of his double standards, Brush said, "Not a damn one of you fellows ever named a horse Ben Brush!"

Joe Palmer said of Ben Brush in his "Names in Pedigrees" that he was "not a particularly impressive-looking animal." The colt was a "rather small horse, a bit longer for his height than Bramble, almost equally coarse about the head."

Under his trainer Brown, Ben Brush began racing in Louisville. Ben Brush won his first race at two by five lengths. In his second start, he came home by three lengths. His third effort saw him gallop home ahead of Nimrod. Ben Brush then went to Ohio, winning the Emerald Stakes and the Diamond Stakes.

After five wins in five starts, Ben Brush went to New York, where he came third at Sheepshead Bay but then won an overnight handicap, giving 19 pounds to his nearest rival. He then lost to the high-class Requital in the Flatbush Stakes. He ran out of energy for the first time in the Great Eastern Handicap but then won the Holly Handicap.