Jack Ketch (horse) Jack Ketch (horse) Jack Ketch (foaled 1954 in Ireland) was a thoroughbred racehorse. Raced at age two under trainer Stephen Quirke, son of Irish champion jockey, Martin Quirke, Jack Ketch won the Maher Nursery Handicap. At age three, the colt won three important Irish races including the Classic 2,000 Guineas. In 1958, Jack Ketch was sold to American Allie E. Reuben who raced under the name of Hasty House Farm. Trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer, Harry Trotsek, he made his American debut on 14 July 1958 at Chicago's Arlington Park with a win on turf in
Jack Ketch fire made by the gallows". On that occasion, Ketch wielded the instrument of death either with such sadistically nuanced skill or with such lack of simple dexterity – nobody could tell which – that the victim suffered horrifically under blow after blow, each excruciating but not in itself lethal. Even among the bloodthirsty throngs that habitually attended English beheadings, the gory and agonizing display had created such outrage that Ketch felt moved to write and publish a pamphlet titled "Apologie", in which he excused his performance with the claim that Lord Russell had failed to "dispose himself as was most