For He Is A Wonderful Horse!, Daily Racing Form, 1934-05-16

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FOR HE IS A WONDERFUL HORSE HORSEBy By SALVATOB B WORKMAN Solo SoloOh Oh he Is a wonderful horse horseBoys Boys He is a wonderful horse horseNo No matter what weight weightHe He is handed Id state No matter what kind of a course courseAnd And if it has never been worse No matter what comes out to start startHe He just laughs it off for his part partNo No matter what odds they have laid laidYou You can bank on it they will be paid And if they are short shortWell Well be a game sport Parlay him all over the board boardFor For everything you can afford For all you can borrow or steal stealGo Go through the old sock toe and heel And put it all down on him himBoys Boys BoysFor For he is a wonderful horse horseBoys Boys He is a wonderful horse horseCHORUS CHORUS Yes he is a wonderful horse Equipoise EquipoiseFrom From the thrilling screen drama The Wonder Horse soon to be released from Hollywood Book by W Shakespeare Lyrics by H W Longfellow Scenery by The Jockey Club Properties by the racing commission Allstar cast even the spears will be carried by stake winners Produced by MetroWhit ¬ ney Unltd All rights including those for Labrador Mozambique and Molokai strictly reserved reservedA A little bird flitting by the open window of my studio this morning it being a beau ¬ tiful spring morning with no snow falling for the moment I had thrown open the casement brought me the above gem of lyric art soon to be made known to the great public in the manner indicated by the footnote I cant say either that it exactly startled me That is I mean the drift of it itFor For he IS a wonderful horse horseI I have been asserting it with more or less emphasis for five successive seasons now and it never went for more than at the present writing writingEverything Everything about him is wonderful I found that out a long time ago But even I who have worshiped at his shrine so faith ¬ fully never realized how wonderful he was until the newsie dropped my morning paper on the doorstep just a few laps ahead of the little birds special delivery above re ¬ ferred to toFor For the said morning paper contained an article about Equipoise the aftermath so to speak of his seasons debut in the Phila ¬ delphia Handicap at Havre de Grace that caused the cockles of my heart not only to rise intemperature but my eyes to stick out outAnd And no wonder wonderWho Who the scribe was that writ this inspired piece which was sent out by special wire from the Metropolis to the waiting world of sport I do not know for no author was asserted evidently it was by some member of the turfs fourth estate so like a shrink ¬ ing violet beside a mossy stone that he could not endure seeing his name in print But whoever he was he had been on the spot By that I do not mean he had absolutely been in the vicinity of Equipoise That would be expecting too much The most priceless information about great sporting events and personalities is always to be ex ¬ pected from persons who view them as it were in the perspective of history before It has occurred and with the calm detachment of those who remain above the battle ex ¬ plain all about it for the benefit of pos ¬ terity terityThe The gifted scribe in question ran true to form and to the traditions of his caste He did not see Equipoise run He did not see Equipoise at all But he did see Equipoises talented trainer Signer Healy when that artist got back from Havre to the Metrop lis and from him he learned the wondrous tidings that the wires soon after sent abroad abroadSpace Space precludes my giving a synopsis of his entire narrative but that is unnecessary All that is is to pick out here and there some one of the nuggets or nougats as you may prefer that it contains for admiring comment commentFor For instance the following followingHealy Healy pointed out that the colt had grown a full inch and put on 100 pounds during the winter season in Kentucky No more can he be called the little chestnut for he stands 163 hands handsYes Yes he IS a wonderful horse horseEquipoise Equipoise is now a sixyearold colt Other male thoroughbreds cease to be colts when they are five years old but Ekky you perceive still remains one at the age of six sixAnd And during the winter he grew a full inch inchJust Just imagine imagineThat That is if you can canMy My imagination however was stunted in my early youth In consequence I cannot imagine a fiveyearold horse growing an inch between that age and six It is very very rare that a thoroughbred of the mod ¬ ern type grows any after his fourth year But for one to grow a full inch during the winter between his fifth and sixth years is something I never before heard or read of either in the Stud Book the American Racing Manual or Hostellers Almanac AlmanacBut But As if that were not enough Equi ¬ poise can no more correctly be called Ihe little chestnut for he stands 163 hands handsAlas Alas for my poor slunled imagination Having already retired baffled from the ef ¬ fort of trying to picture Ekky as gaining a full inch in height between 1933 and 1934 it breaks down altogelher and cries for help when it attempts to picture him as now standing 163 hands handsFor For be it known through the courtesy of Major Beard who manages the Whitney stable I was allowed to take a careful set of measurements of Equipoise out at Arling ¬ ton Park one morning just a few days after he had lowered the American mile record to 134 He was at that time July 1932 exactly 15334 hands high highLast Last summer Equipoise was again meas ¬ ured by an eastern turfman and on that oc ¬ casion a year later than my own applicalion of the tape line he was again found to lack just a hair of sixteen hands handsYet Yet we now learn after having stopped short never to go again like the old clock on the stairs in Ihe matter of growth be ¬ tween his fourth and fiflh years remaining of Ihe same heighl throughout during the past winter while passing from his fifth into his sixth year Equipoise has not only grown a full inch at the same time he has leaped up in altitude from 153 hands to 163 163In In the words of the immortal author of the drama quoted above Can such things be bePersonally Personally I cannot even imagine em But as I have confessed my imagination became crippled some time back Surely so sober and earnest a man as Signer Healey and above all one who knows what he is talking about so intimately and so well would not have misinformed the scribe who has broadcast this bulletin Nor on the other hand would the scribe have misquoted Signor Healey Not to say that I cannot imagine it I just cant even suppose it For whoever heard of a Metropolitan turf scribe even an anonymous one misquote any ¬ body Let echo answer if she dare dareSo So it all simmers down to the song from Hollywood HollywoodFor For he is a wonderful horse Y What boys boysEquipoise Equipoise He is a wonderful horse


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1934051601/drf1934051601_18_4
Local Identifier: drf1934051601_18_4
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800