"Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Aluminaut — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 06:23:08 GMT

Pedigree Ann,

I still have most of my comics from the 60's, however, it was Marvel for me:) I continued to read comics off & on through the mid-90's. I do remember Classics Illustrated--my sister ended up with most of those from my collection. About 15+ years ago I bought a few boxes of old auction catalogues and mags from the 50's,60's and 70's from an add in the Recycler. This purchase was a reaction to my large collection of Blood Horse magazines recent ruin from a leak in my garage. It was dismaying to go through the old catalogues and see some of the hot Cali sires of the time like Berseem, nearly absent from current pedigrees.

I also am the keeper/owner of the bound family Geographic Collection. I think it's aprox turn of the century and a family friend gave it to my Dad. It's amazing to see the Passenger Pigeons and Carolina Conures in photographs. Very sad.

Crowds at Santa Anita are improving occasionally, especially week-ends. March 8th was great racing even though the track was too fast. I watched California Chrome wire the field, then went backside to help a friend hook up his trailer to take a horse back to the ranch post racing. Got back in time to get to the box for Game on Dude's victory. We were all yelling for him. Felt bad for MMM coming up to The Dude, who just pulled away. WTC was gallant down the stretch. The was that beer & cigar smell in the air. A bit of a time warp:)

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Pedigree Ann — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 12:57:28 GMT

Sounds like a theme here. I had a big box of 1960s comics - Superman, other DC, plus a bunch of Classics Illustrated (remember those?). At least my mom took them to a dealer to try to figure out whether they were worth anything, but she then forgot about them entirely. I was out in SoCal at university, and they were moving, so..., lost in limbo. I still have a selection of my old Telegraphs and DRFs in the attic, but again, because of space considerations at various times, I had to prune my collection. Mostly big race days, Kentucky Derbies, etc. I am something of a pack rat - have Blood-Horses from 1974, Thoroughbred Records from '73 to its demise. And I am the keeper of the family National Geographic collection, that started when my grandfather joined in 1911.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Aluminaut — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 05:41:55 GMT

Steve, I'm under 60, a couple furlongs shy of the finish line at a Classic distance:)

The Deacon:

When I was a teenager I had a couple boxes of programs and indy mags, notably Thoroughbred of California. There's even a pic of me showing a yearling at Hollywood Park after the sale moved from the forum to the backside. When we got out of horses, my mom gave away all my stuff when I was gone to college. Boy, was I angry:) I was at Del Mar when Native Diver won his last race. Before that there was a gelding I used to follow named Lava Flow. My Dad worked at the track and I practically grew up there. I remember the smell of beer & cigars when moving sideways through the crowd.

There were always long lines waiting to get in and people rushing to bet. Getting "shut out" a big fear for most.

I used to hang a transistor radio on the fencepost when I cleaned corrals in the afternoon near feature race time, when my Dad was away working at HP, Santa Anita, or Pomona and I was stuck in school. I remember Biggs, Princessnessian, Gamely, Quicken Tree and many more and I could tell you their pedigree & stats at the time.

It's been a long cherished road. There's still nothing like walking across the backside to Clocker's Corner in the morning at SA.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Gin — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 23:42:43 GMT

Steve,

Wow this was really epic. Great piece for sure!

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Gin — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 23:42:01 GMT

Laz,

There is a documentary that HRTV has done on Dancer's Image. If you get a chance to watch it you really should. There was a lot of speculation as to what and really happened. Sad, and unfair.

I went to Woodbine this past summer. A gorgeous track, with alot of history. Unfortanately it has fallen to the VLT's and not the true racing fan. It was still fun to go and see that gorgeous turf course, the longest stretch run in North America.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Gene Of Ballston Lake — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 23:38:37 GMT

Your article brought many pleasant memories. My first visit to Aqueduct was 1964 for the Wood Memorial. I bet on Quadrangle who won and I was hooked for life. My biggest complaint about horseracing is the fact that owners and trainers are reluctant to run their horses. Are they really that fragile that they can only race seven or eight times in a year?

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

bigred — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 12:17:57 GMT

Great memories Steve, and you are right on about the unmistakable aroma of the track, used to park my car near the big oak in the northeast parking lot at Bowie ( for karma of course) walk up the hill, pay a buck and a half for a telegraph and watch Leatherbury, Dutrow and Delp duke it out for the leading trainer each meet. And you would get a fistful of tickets for 20 dollars because of the machines back then. Occasionally a horse would ship up to the Big A to take on the big boys,usually with not much success. Great memories!

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

LAZMANICK — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 03:35:20 GMT

Secretariat

That is quite a story. I remember Miss Linda. She won that Spinster at good odds and was always a competitive filly. That incident in the tunnel was too much, especially on what could have been her biggest racing day as well as your son’s.

I was in Toronto in those sixties. What a time for horse racing in Canada. The decade started with Victoria Park who ran well in the TC races. Then Northern Dancer and later in the decade the unfortunate Cool Reception and of course Dancer’s Image. Dancer’s Image won all 7 of his Canadian based starts as a two year old and most of them by many lengths. He went into the Derby off a win in the Wood. It is unfortunate what happened to him in the Derby as I believe that Bute was legal in Kentucky racing the year before and the year after his Derby disqualification for having traces of it in his system. His trainer Lou Cavalaris, an ex-marine, was as honest as they come.

Cool Reception was another unfortunate story. He had a length and a half lead on Damascus in the ’68 Belmont when he broke down. He actually finished the race second, but broke his right foreleg in the stretch. They operated and the operation was a success but he did not come out of the anesthesia well and thrashed about and shattered his leg and had to be put down. Ver, very sad as the irony was that Lou Cavalaris was his trainer too.

I was in Toronto in the sixties and seventies and I really enjoyed the racing, and at all levels. I knew every horse on the grounds and more often than not, I knew and liked the claimers, even the cheap ones, better than most of the stakes horses. I worked on the back stretch for a while with a trainer named Jerry Meyer and the first person I ever met on the back stretch was a jockey named Chris Rogers who was a leading jock in Canada and did well at many of the American tracks as well. After a short time on the backstretch I worked the mutuals (part time) for a few years and was working on the first ever million dollar day at Fort Erie.

This blog sure brings back the memories and it makes you think of how much you miss those good old days.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Secreteriat — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 00:41:23 GMT

Laz,

Yes I do remember those races.

Were you in Toronto at that time?

I didn.t know much about horses at that time so I relied on my friends and The Toronto Star for my betting. I've been to the Queen's Plate several times and saw some great turf prep races for the Breeder's cup.My son became General Manager for a racing outfit in Houston and bought a fillie from Argentina named Miss Linda. She raced her first race In the U S at Aqueduct and then went on t0 win the Grade 1 Spinster at Keenland. She was supplemented to the B C Distaff at Belmont in 2001. We had high hopes for her to finish in the top . Well Exogenus the 3 horse reared up in the tunnel in front of Miss Linda and had to be put to sleep. Miss Linda lost her race right there and then and got slammed out of the gate. Spain won the race and Miss Linda finished 6th.Quite an experience from a $2 dollar better in Toronto to be associated with owners who ran on Derby Day in the Preakness and Breeders Cup

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Cynthia Holt — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 17:44:51 GMT

Steve, I clasp you to my withered bosom. Perhaps no one under 60 has commented here, but I guarantee that not one of us looks a day over 50.

I over-loved this piece. It doesn't matter if you were growing up on the east or west coasts or in-between, if you were attending the races during the 1960s, there is instant bonding and a very special feeling of kinship with your peers. My childhood/teenaged racetrack memories revolve around Saturday sojourns to Hollywood Park and Santa Anita (always by car), and the nostalgia for those days waxes greater with the passage of time. As grateful as I am for these "heart memories," and I wouldn't trade them for any others, I confess to having harbored strong feelings of east coast envy. As far as I was concerned, New York was the center of the racing universe, and I longed to join my contemporaries on a Brooklyn bus bound for the Big A to see first-hand the stars of the day, and to savor the salty witticisms of my fellow passengers. I can still hear the murmur and sometimes gasps of acknowledgement which would wash over the crowd at Hollywood Park in a soft wave, as Harry Henson would relay the results of the major races from the East in his dulcimer tones. I was happy to be where I was, but longing to be a part of that far-away world, too. That wish was a long time in coming, but I was to spend several years living in New York City during my 20s, and was finally able to become a part of that place which had been the centerpoint of my dreams. I also learned that taking the local to Aqueduct could be credited towards any owed time in purgatory.

And-oh! The wondrous discovery of the riches of The Turf and Sport Digest, and the huge anticipation of its monthly arrival at The Bungalow News in Pasadena. I still cringe when I recall the agony of daring to invade such forbidden territory, having to siddle past the girlie magazines and smoking paraphernalia in my St. Andrew's High School uniform, and then trying to stuff the racy merchandise under my blazer as I made a hasty exit. I later discovered a musty Aladdin's Cave of old racing periodicals in a small shop near the corner of Colorado and San Gabriel Boulevards, and spent many a sublime hour sorting through its treasures, totally immersed in the past.

You see what you have started here, Steve? Stirring the cauldron of your memories has inspired our own pots to over-flow. It is a gift. I relished walking alongside as you visited the people and places of your past. Thanks for a great ride!

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

sunfire65 — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 17:16:27 GMT

Steve,

I recently read your book on legends, DR Fager. I knew very little about him and enjoyed it.

I would like to have more information on his sire, Rough and Tumble. Could you point me somewhere? I find Horseplayers very interesting. As has been said before and I echo, those were grand days at the tracks! also

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

LAZMANICK — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 01:42:31 GMT

Secretariat:

Do you remember the rivalry between Titled Hero and Stevie B. Good? Titled Hero was a black colt and the ’66 Queens Plate winner. Stevie and Victorian Era traded wins in the Dominion Day and Jacques Cartier. There was also a horse named Chillicoot who in ’65 led all N/A horses in wins with 15.

Steve:

Great article as always and you sure no how to stoke the nostalgia fires and bring back the memories. One thing you mentioned that really hit home and that was the fact that you knew all the horses. That’s a big change for now compared to back when. Back then I remembered every horse on the circuit.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

The Doctor — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:51:04 GMT

Ok Steve, I'll accept that response…Thanks for the clarification...

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Dr Drunkinbum — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 22:22:52 GMT

The Deacon

I cringed and got a sick feeling when you talked about the baseball cards. It happened to me too, about 40 years ago. I'm almost over it now. What I hated was the days that we were so fanatical at the track that we didn't even eat, thinking it was a waste of money that was better spent on bets. It was rough on losing days when we left the track broke and starving. We usually ate before the races started, usually a sandwich. We didn't have time to eat after the races started.

michelee

Loved your post. Congratulations on 86. One of my heroes that has had a very positive influence on my life lately is 91. I haven't met him but he is a world record holder marathon runner, setting records in his age group. He has been a big inspiration to me in my diet and exercise and I am doing some running again which not too long ago I thought would be impossible. His name is Mike Fremont.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

michelee — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:38:25 GMT

Boy, do I miss those old days! My daughter, going to visit a friend in San Mateo, hopped on the 10 o'clock train out of San Francisco. "Mom!" she said. "I thought I was in the Hall of the Mountain King! All these old men hunched over a newspaper, car so full of smoke you couldn't see. . .They all got off at Bay Meadows." And then buses going east over the bay to Golden Gate--what

sartorial splendor! What grand, glorious, tough-minded

fans, speaking a weird, wonderful language -- it's an honor to have known them. My age? 86. My favorite long ago horse? Silky's Nurse who did the same thing her granddaddy did, give them 50 lengths and swallow them all. . .My favorite horse of all time? John Henry: I loved the way he kicked everyone out of the winner's circle! My Derby '14 horse? Tapiture, all the way. Of

course I might change my mind. . .Thanks for a wonderful column, Steve.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Bill Two — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:59:38 GMT

Ah, yes, I remember those days with fondness. I think that racing was more eagerly awaited because of the reasons you mention. There was less of it and you only got to see a race once. No simulcasting meant the only races you would see were the ones at the track where you were situated. I would run races over and over in my mind after seeing them, trying to put some perspective on what I just witnessed. Memories tend to embellish the facts at times and I often wondered whether I really saw what I thought I saw. You had to save the charts for future reference. I used to savor Harvey Pack's analyses - which unfortunately - were only available live at whichever New York track was running. If you want to get a taste of what that was like try to find one of his books like Pack At The Track. Harvey had a cult like following and was quite entertaining in his own way. Thanks, Steve, for the memories.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

The Deacon — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:02:15 GMT

Dr. D: I ate hotdogs and usually 3 or 4 of them and paid for it later, ha ha. After a beating at the track it was all I could afford. I think dogs were 75 cents back then...........

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Dr Drunkinbum — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:32:46 GMT

Nostalgia is very powerful especially when connected to our youth and a completely different time period but what we are seeing now in the older male division could rival what happened in the good ol' days. It started with the 2013 Classic and hopefully will continue through 2014 so saddle up and enjoy the ride. What we saw from Palace Malice, Sahara Sky and the Game On Dude, Will Take Charge duel were amazing races Saturday. What did you eat at the race track in 1968 and how much did it cost? I sure wish I had kept my old programs and racing forms. Don't throw them out !!!!

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

The Deacon — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:56:31 GMT

The Doctor: Hmmm, the 1968 Californian now that's a tough one :))

I do recall Steve saying many times that Damascus was his love (forgive me Steve if I miss-quoted).

I know he loves and respects John Nerud, Dr. Fager's trainer. In fact, who doesn't. Mr. Nerud is my all time favorite trainer, what a horseman.

Thanks to all for the nice words. Keeping programs and racing forms was just a hobby. I actually stopped saving them after 1980. I think Spectacular Bid retiring may have had something to do with that.

I used to have a few shoe boxes of old baseball cards but my wife mistakenly tossed them one day many years ago.

I had rookie cards of Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and so many more. Oh well, I try not to think about it.

My racing passion has waned over the years. Seeing Hollywood Park go just broke my heart. So many great memories there. Not the least was watching Native Diver win 3 consecutive Gold Cups. I watched greats like Prove It, Kennedy Road, Ack Ack, Quack and so many others. When one is young, horses like these leave a lasting impression.........

Thanks again Steve for a wonderful blog.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Steel Dragon — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 00:55:33 GMT

Another small detail that I preferred from the old days was the natural sound and acoustics of the bugle without a microphone. So much better...

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Secreteriat — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 18:51:32 GMT

Steve,

In the late sixties 1964 I was introduced to horseracing at Woodbine in Toronto. I was 19years old earning a$1 an hour. My friends took me to Greenwood racetrack. I bet $2 to win On Be Lika Me at 37 to one and collected 66.00.I thought making a living was going to be easy betting horses. It took five Saturdays to loose it back and I was hooked. In the Next 3 years I saw Victorian Era and Northern Dancer who won the Kentucky Derby. Lucien Lauren and Ron Turcotte were among the top trainers and jockeys in Toronto. In July 1967 I got married to my wife of 46 years who lived on 10 street in N Y C and I moved there. I got a job at White Weld were you also worked before getting in the horseracing business and six months later I moved to Bayside were my neighbor was the wife of a horse trainer and we used to go to Aqueduct and Belmont on most Saturdays. Her betting strategy was to bet Mr Nerud and Pancho Martin horses and doubled the amount of the bet until they won. On Belmont days we would park all the way where the back stretch was and had to walk 3/4 of a mile to the Grandstand. My favorite place to sit was way up on the 3rd floor next to the CBS cameraman and he would freeze the frame at the wire and tell me who won all the photo finishes. I saw the 3 triple Crowns as well as Damascus Dr Fager Spectacular Bid. Cannonero and many others. My most memorable days were Secreteriat's Triple Crown, The Jockey Club Gold Cup the following year when Secreteriat and Riva Ridge finished 1/2 the following year and who could forget the Ruffian Foolish Pleasure Match Race. I still have tears flow down my face when I saw her run into the hedge after she snapped her leg. The two mementos that I have left are the Ruffian Foolish pleasure Program and Secreteriat's photo signed by Lucien Lauren and Ron Turcotte. In 1981 I moved to Houston but I always go visit Belmont and Saratoga when in N Y.

Thanks for the memories.

T. C

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Love 'em all — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 17:17:03 GMT

And I got a big kick out of the following ....

>I always got a kick out of watching some guy with his hairy belly protruding from under his beer-stained T-shirt, complaining that the losing horse he bet on had no class.<

Haven't stopped giggling about that one since reading this marvelous story yesterday. You're the best, Mr. Haskin.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Pedigree Ann — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 15:07:42 GMT

The record shows that Steel Dragon is correct:

1970 Jacques Who, gr c Grey Dawn II

In North America 117 6 24 18 $186,740

A tidy total for a horse who made most of his starts in claiming company, although he did go out of town and pick up some black-type. A couple of reliable claimers who came back every year out west included Canal Street and Sand Canyon and the mud-loving Wingover. The latter two had been SWs at 2, before I arrived in SoCal, but even with their glory days behind them, were always in there punching. For modern day reference, think of Spooky Mulder.

Yes, Steve, I'm in the over 60 crowd. I remember having to get up at 6am to walk over to the drugstore a half-mile away to get my 50 cent DRF on Saturday mornings during the SA season. None of this 2-3 days to do your 'capping - one morning, that was it. Yeah, and I walked to school in 4 feet of snow - I DID grow up in Minnesota, after all. But the streets were always plowed; they used road graders, not some dinky trucks with blades on the front. The type of salt they used back then turned the slush green; very weird. I still get warm, fuzzy feelings at the sound of tire chains going by.

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Old Timer — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 14:12:13 GMT

Deacon, I am jealous of your program collection. How I wish I had kept some of those!

re: "Horseplayers" and Pioneer Days

Steve Haskin — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 13:38:56 GMT

Yes, I was mixing two intersections. Fratbish and Kings highway is where I got off the bus to switch over to the Kings highway bus to go to Madison High School. Flatbush and Nostrand was farther up Flatbush where the subway station was. Good catch. Cant believe I blew that because Flatbush and Nostrand is what rolls off the tongue.