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On March 12, 1958, a 7-year-old mare named Fleece delivered her third foal, a sleek brown colt sired by French stallion My Babu*. That colt was later gelded and purchased by Louis E Wolfson at the 1959 Keeneland Summer Sale for $32,000. Wolfson named the colt Garwol, after his son Gary, and raced him under the colors of his newly established Harbor View Farm

As a juvenile, Garwol "displayed a surprising amount of late speed" in winning the Pimlico Futurity in mid-November 1960. He won by a length and a half from King Ranch's Bal Musette, with future Belmont Stakes winner Sherluck in third. A month prior, he had finished an extremely close second to stablemate Roving Minstrel in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park. His other close efforts included a third behind the filly Little Tumbler in the Futurity Stakes at Belmont, third behind future champion Carry Back in the Cowdin Stakes at Aqueduct, and a second behind Hail to Reason in the Youthful Stakes

Though he had trouble finding the winner's circle, Garwol was an extremely consistent runner in his later years. At three, he was second in both the Discovery and Jerome Handicaps (both behind Kelso). He met the mighty gelding Kelso again the next year, in the 1962 Suburban and Whitney Handicaps, with Garwol finishing third both times. He also ran second to top earner Prove It in the Santa Anita Maturity

Continuing strong at five, Garwol again contested the Suburban, and again he fell to the mighty Kelso. He ran afoul of Kelso yet again in the 1963 Jockey Club Gold Cup, the fourth of Kelso's record five wins in that race. In the Manhattan Handicap at Belmont, he was third to Going Abroad, who set an American record for a mile and a half.

1964 was a return to form for the 6-year-old gelding. He met with Kelso's rival Gun Bow in the Gulfstream Park Handicap and ran a close second. Propelled by that strong performance, Garwol was entered in the Nassau County Handicap at Aqueduct. Having not won a stakes races since his Pimlico Futurity victory, he was not favored. But once again the brown gelding defied the odds and won, adding both merit to his name and money to his bankroll. As a newspaper noted, "While Garwol is not too well represented in the Harbor View trophy room, he's popular in the accounting department"

Garwol raced in total for eight years, retiring in 1968 with 15 wins from 154 starts and earnings of nearly $500,000. In his later years, he fell to claiming level races, and was claimed from Harbor View. Wolfson and his family loved the gelding so much that they re-purchased him in order to retire him to their farm. There he lived a happy life, sharing a paddock with 1965 co-Horse of the Year and fellow gelding Roman Brother

He lived the last years of his life at Stephen and Gary Wolfson's Happy Valley Farm. He died on February 18, 1978, just shy of 20 years old