Here Comes Exterminator!

Eliza McGraw’s Here Comes Exterminator! is an entertaining and informative account of the life and times of Binghamton’s favorite long-shot racehorse, Exterminator. The early twentieth century was a golden age of horse racing, and horses still played a central role in both rural and urban American life. At the turn of the century, McGraw estimates that there were more than twice as many horses in the United States as there are today. As industry expanded in the pre-automobile era, so did the need for horses to transport both goods and people. It was around this time as well that new ideas about proper horse training began to emerge - the common habit of ‘breaking’ horses to bridle and bit was being replaced by a philosophy of gentle, empathic training that more closely resembles the modern approach. It was in this era that Henry McDaniel, son of famous Confederate horse trainer David McDaniel, and the man who would eventually become Exterminator’s trainer, came of age.

McGraw flags somewhat in the first few chapters detailing the early life of Henry McDaniel and laying out the social and political forces at work in the lead-up to Exterminator’s first Kentucky Derby win in 1918, under the shadow of World War I. Although, in fairness, the role of horses in the Great War is a subject deserving of a book on its own, and attempting to squeeze it into a single chapter is an endeavor that is, perhaps, bound to end up somewhat muddled.

Her description of Exterminator’s owner, the hotheaded noveau riche businessman Willis Sharpe Kilmer; however, is immensely entertaining. A larger-than-life character, Kilmer turned his family’s patent-medicine company into a lucrative empire before moving to Binghamton. He feuded famously with the Binghamton Herald over their scathing editorials about him, and founded his own paper, the Binghamton Press (a forerunner of the Press & Sun Bulletin) specifically in order to put the former out of business. In 1914, in a bid to gain access to the upper-class glamor of the racing world, he began buying thoroughbreds to race.

Exterminator was born in 1915, and purchased by Kilmer for the price of $9,000 and two fillies - a princely sum in those days. He had no intention of racing the horse, though; his champion was a three-year-old called Sun Briar, and he wanted Exterminator as a work horse - that is, a horse to train along with his champion, who would not run by himself. Exterminator was, by all accounts, an unlovely animal: tall and gangling, with an off-center star in the middle of his forehead. But he was fast: even in workouts, he easily paced Sun Briar. Kilmer was not overly enthused by the lanky horse. His trainer, McDaniel; however, thought he was worth a second look.

McGraw is at her best in the descriptions of the races themselves, particularly of Exterminator’s first, and most famous, win at the 1918 Kentucky Derby. With Sun Briar underperforming, Kilmer was persuaded to pull him, and put in the untested, almost completely unknown Exterminator. No one expected him to place; the odds against him were calculated at nearly 30-1, but he won, and won handily. It was the beginning of a long and successful racing career. Exterminator raced until he was 9 years old, an extremely advanced age for a racehorse, before retiring to his stables in Virginia with a succession of companion ponies, all named Peanuts. Upon Kilmer’s death in 1940, Exterminator was brought back to Binghamton to live out the rest of his days at Sun Briar Court, which has since been razed. He is buried, along with his stable mate Sun Briar, at the Whispering Pines Pet Cemetery near Ross Park.

While it is occasionally difficult to follow McGraw’s narrative - the book seems to be, on some occasions, overstuffed with historical context, and does not always flow in a linear fashion - this is nevertheless an engaging account of one of Binghamton’s most well-known - if non-human - celebrities. McGraw includes numerous photo reproductions, some of which were obtained from the Broome County Historical Society, as well as an impressively extensive list of notes and references for further reading. An enjoyable read for anyone interested in the history of horse racing, or of Broome County itself.

Eliza McGraw is a contributing writer for EQUUS magazine. She lives in Washington D.C.