view raw text
DUPPS UNSPOILED YOUNGSTER Crack Kentucky Apprentice Only Afraid of Increase in Weight. Got Chance to Become Jockey by Dogging Footsteps of Hugh Fontaine Was Page Boy. BALTIMORE, Md., Nov. 16. The twenty-year-old apprentice from Kentucky recognized by race fans as L. Dupps, is a dark haired, dark eyed boy who looks tall for a rider and who is afraid hell shoot up over night. He is still able to ride at 104 and to do it he forfeits only cake, pie and good old Southern hot breads. In spite of the fact that, because of his phenomenal success since he won his first race on January 1 of this year the young jockey has had a great deal of publicity and attention, he is apparently unspoiled and unimpressed by his own achievements. He is too delighted to be riding, to be doing the thing on which he set his heart long ago, to think of much else. The story of his entrance into racing is more or less familiar. When he was a page boy at the Brown Hotel in Louisville he attached himself to Hugh Fontaine and haunted the footsteps of the well-known trainer until he landed the job which took him to California as an exercise boy. He returned to the East coast and the Brook-meade Stable and is now under contract to W. J. "Buddy" Hirsch. SPLENDID RECORD. Since New Years Day when he won his first race on "Buddy" Hirschs filly, Happy Code, Dupps has ridden the same horse twenty times and has been out of the money on only four occasions. In all he has ridden 120 winners and was the leading rider at both Empire and Laurel. Young Dupps says that the greatest thrill hes had in his life was riding his mount into the winners circle for the first time. He had an exciting and uneasy few minutes, he admits, when American Sand died under him at Laurel. It was during a race that ! he noticed the horse was bleeding and almost immediately it collapsed under him. Fortunately for him he was running last for a change so that there was no pile up and he was able to jump clear of the falling horse. This enthusiastic young apprentice has been traveling around the country pretty steadily since New Years Day and right now hes looking ahead to a vacation in early December. Hes going home to Louisville ; home literally, because he has bought a house for his mother who lives with his only unmarried sister. There are two other Dupps boys and another sister, all married.