Racing at age three, with Kerr having hired William Molter as his trainer, Round Table won the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in track record time. He then finished third to Calumet Farm's Iron Liege in the Kentucky Derby, with the heavily favored Bold Ruler finishing 4th. After the Derby, Round Table was shipped back to race in California, where he won eleven consecutive races, several of which later became Grade I stakes races. He was the leading money winner of 1957 and won the first of his three straight U.S. Champion Turf Horse titles.