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i SMITH NEW D1XIANA TRAINER Clyde Van Dusen Resigns to Campaign His Own Stable. Charles T. Fisher to Assign Eight or Ten Dixiana Horses to Complete Van Dusen String. DETROIT, Mich., Dec. 5 Charles T. Fisher, auto magnate and owner of the j Dixiana Stud and racing stable, announced today that trainer Clyde Van Dusen will relinquish his position as trainer of the Dixiana stable December 15 and will be succeeded by Jimmie Smith, ex-Bradley rider, who became a trainer a number of years ago. Van Dusen is resigning to campaign his own stable. To complete Van Dusens string, Mr. Fisher will assign eight or ten Dixiana horses to his care, Smith taking over the main body of the Fisher string, which will number- about thirty-five horses. Most of the horses which Van Dusen will race in his own name are by his stallion, Torchilla, which stands at Van Dusens Few Acres Farm, near Lexington. There are 170 acres of blue grass at Few Acres, twelve j mares and Torchilla, which has been sue- j cessful as a sire of winners. His crop of coming two-year-olds is so promising Van Dusen could not resist the lure of racing them in his own name, hence his decision to resign. One of Torchillas records is siring thirty-two winners from forty-three foals, exclusive of the seasons of 1937 and 1938. Van Dusen has been consistently successful with the mammoth Dixiana band. He was among the first twenty leading trainers of winners last season, sending forty-seven winning horses to the post. In 1936 the Fisher stable won fifty-five races, both years being numbered among the leading money-winning stables. Clyde Van Dusen, the gelding, won the 1929 Kentucky Derby for H. P. Gardner, Amsterdam, N. Y., owner, and he was prepared and trained for the race by the man whose name he bore. He was a son of Man o War and defeated Blue Larkspur, one of the best horses, if not the best, ever owned by E. R. Bradley. Mr. Fishers Dixiana Stud, where Van Dusen prepared the horses which he trained for the Detroit sportsman, boasts of one of the finest private mile training tracks in the country. Dixiana, one of the largest stud farms in area in Kentucky and perfectly appointed both for thoroughbreds and show Continued on eleventh page. SMITH NEW DIXIANA TRAINER Continued from first page. horses, is a model of perfection. There is no greater lover of horses today in America than Mrs. Fisher. Her love for horses is shared by her daughter, Mary, who names all yearlings for her father. Mrs. Fisher delights in show horses, but gets just as big a thrill out of watching races, regardless of whether or not the famous Solferino, buff and scarlet Dixiana silks are in the heat of the battle. The spring of every year finds Mr. and Mrs. Fisher .and their daughter at Dixiana, usually with a house full of guests. This year Mr. Fisher has cut down his show horse string, but gave no indication today that he intended to curtail his thoroughbred activities. Mata Hari, a great filly and winner of the Illinois Derby of 1934, is one of the brood mares at Dixiana. Sweep All, second in the Kentucky Derby of 1931, is the only stallion on the farm. They were two of the best horses that ever carried the Fisher silks and I it took Twenty Grand, one of the greatest horses ever raced in this country, to deprive Mr. Fisher of a Derby victory that year. Van Dusen assumed charge of the Dixiana stable in 1931, replacing Preston M. Burch, after Mr. Fisher decided that he wished his ! horses raced in Kentucky, Michigan and Illinois. Van Dusen made a brilliant record as I a jockey and has been just as successful as a trainer.
