Jessica is staying at Hampton Farms in the fictional town of Glenn Falls, Virginia — visiting with a friend who is a race horse trainer and whose daughter she is the godmother to. Apparently Jessica is doing research for her next book, which may turn out to be a sequel to her previous book set in the horse racing world: The Triple Crown Murders.
Just the facts:
Click on the text below to reveal spoilers.
Click to reveal the victim
It was Matt Cleveland, Jessica’s friend and Swift Prince’s trainer!Click to reveal the killer
It was Tracey Noble, the daughter of Swift Prince’s co-owner!Click to reveal the weapon
The victim was bludgeoned by a heavy flashlight!Click to reveal the location
It happened at the side of the road leading away from the Hampton Farms!Click to reveal the motive
It was to prevent the killer’s mother from finding out about Swift Prince and losing the money she had spent on his stud fees!Click to reveal the major clue
It was the sound of two car doors slamming, and the fact that the old video tape showed Swift Prince used to always ride the rail when now you can’t get him near it!Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
- Mickey Rooney as Matt Cleveland, a horse trainer and Jessica’s friend. Notably, Mickey Rooney appeared with Angela Lansbury in the horse-racing themed 1944 movie National Velvet. Additionally, Mickey Rooney starred in the TV series The Adventures of Black Stallion, which was cancelled a few months before this episode aired.
- Don Murray as Wally Hampton, the owner of Hampton Farms and co-owner of the horse Swift Prince.
- Tippi Hedren as Catherine Noble, the owner of a struggling horse stables business and the other co-owner of Swift Prince. Hedren is best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
- Shawnee Smith as Jill Cleveland — Matt Cleveland’s daughter, Jessica Fletcher’s goddaughter, and a jockey who is set to ride on Swift Prince.
- Ami Dolenz as Tracey Noble, Catherine Noble’s daughter and fiancee to Wally Hampton’s son.
- Stephen Macht as Lloyd Mentone, who is collecting stud fees from the Hamptons and Nobles for Swift Prince. (I’ll be honest here and say I don’t really understand their whole business arrangement here.) This is Macht’s fourth of five total appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Killing in Vegas” and “Moving Violation“.
- Frank Farmer as Dr. Garney, the veterinarian for Swift Prince.
- Sean O’Bryan as Paul Hampton, a banker and the son of Wally Hampton as well as the fiance of Tracey Noble. This is O’Bryan’s second of three appearances on MSW; he previously appeared in “A Christmas Secret“.
- Don Swayze as Gus Tardio, a drunk assistant trainer who is getting paid off by Mentone to spy on Swift Prince. This is Swayze’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Tainted Lady“.
- Blake Gibbons as Sheriff Clyde Benson, local law enforcement. This is Gibbon’s second and final appearance on MSW; he previously appeared in “Ballad for a Blue Lady“.
- Scott Stevens as Deputy Vernon Kelly, also local law enforcement.
- Dave Powledge as Delivery Driver who brings Jessica Fletcher the video tape of Swift Prince.
Final thoughts and other trivia:
Although the episode is meant to take place in Virginia, the filming of course took place in California. The race track where Jessica watches Swift Prince at the beginning of the episode is actually the Santa Anita Park and Racetrack in Arcadia, California. Whereas the locations used to stand in for Hampton Farms were actually at Ventura Farms in Thousand Oaks, California.
There are also a few additional connections between this and other episodes in the series. For instance, the J.B. Fletcher book The Triple Crown Murders was also mentioned in “Killer Radio“. (You can also read my list of J.B. Fletcher novels mentioned throughout the series.) Additionally, the names Swift Prince and Victor Way will go on to be heard later in the season in the episode “Deadly Assets”.
And finally, if you look at the background set you might notice a beautiful prop paining of Ami Dolenz’s character in riding gear. This painting was done by Jaroslav Gebr, who produced many famous prop paintings for movies and TV. The painting was previously auctioned in November 2020.
Murder, She Watched 
I’m not sure Lloyd Mentone is collecting stud fees, he suggests that they should sit back and collect stud fees instead of risking racing Swift Prince. He was out of town when Swift Prince was entered. It isn’t clear what his role is. He said he was the one that nursed Swift Prince back to health from his injured leg. Paul Hampton said to him at the bank, he was glad he wasn’t his partner. He later said Catherine Noble and his father might like to know what kind of partner they had.
The motive is really loss of potential future stud fees.
Thank you for your work. These have been very interesting as I am watching the series for the first time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your comment! I really know nothing about the horse racing business so that aspect of it was hard to follow. I recently watched an episode of Matlock that was also set in the world of horse racing, so it was definitely a common mystery setting back then and I’m guessing more people had a passing knowledge of the industry back then. Interestingly, that MSW episode guest starred Claude Akins (a.k.a. Ethan Cragg), as well as Don Swayze (who was in this MSW episode).
LikeLike