view raw text
OOTS MADE MAYER MANAGER Kentuckian to Have Complete Charge of Turf Interests. Will Oversee Racing Stock, Breeding and Mating of Movie Magnates Horses Owns Farm. LOS ANGELES, Calif., Dec. 21 Howard Oots, wellt known Kentucky horseman, has been appointed to take full and complete charge of all the turf interests of Louis B. Mayer, nationally prominent motion picture figure who went into the sport for recreation. Mayer has acquired nearly seventy thoroughbreds of.all classes and proposes to purchase a ranch in southern California on which to breed horses. The general manager of the Mayer holdings will be in command of both the breeding stock and the racing stables, as well as the future purchases of thoroughbreds, the matings, training and nursery. The plan is for Oots to serve Mayers interests in the turf in much the same manner Maj. Louie A. Beard handles the Whitney interests. This announcement was made today by Neil S. McCarthy, attorney and turf adviser of Mayer. Oots at present is at Santa Anita Park, where he is training Marica, champion mare of the 1938 season; Yale o Nine, brilliant three-year-old, and War Magic. Marica and Yale o Nine are candidates for the 00,000 handicap and the younger horse is an eligible to the Santa Anita Derby. The former two are listed as having been bred by their owner, Thomas D. Taggart, while War Magic was bred by Oots. The Taggart horses race Continued on fifteenth page OOTS MADE MAYER MANAGER Continued from first page. under the nom de course of Trench Lick "Stables. Oots is the owner of a breeding farm near Lexington, which he has successfully operated for many years. The faim is located on the Georgetown Pike near the old Nursery Stud made famous by Maj. August Belmont a generation ago. Allen Long has been placed under contract to Mayer as a farm and nursery manager, while Lonnie Copenhaver and T. D. "Pinky" Grimes have been signed as trainers of the California racing contingent which carry the Mayer colors at Santa Anita. Daniel Midkiff is caring for a considerable number of the Mayer brood mares in Kentucky, while R. A. Kindred has a division of Mayers yearlings at Hialeah Park. These members of the Mayer turf family will all report to Oots. American Racing Manual credits the horses owned by Oots with having earned ,430 in purses last year and 0,375 the year before. It is understood that Oots has been closely associated with Taggart in the breeding operations at his Lexington farm and that some of the horses which Taggart is credited on the records as having bred were produced on the Oots farm and under the Mayer managers supervision. The racing public generally will hail the appointment of Oots as a forward step in the ambitious plan of the motion picture magnate to play a leading role in the turf history of the United States.
