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Story of Race Mare Happy Thoughts; How Her Owner Became Turfman When Colonel Thraves Met 4 The Colonels Chinn, Racing And Breeding Gained Recruit LEXINGTON, Ky., April 30.— Asked today if Happy Thoughts were still living, Col. W. V. Thraves, an ardent horse lover, replied, Yes, and shell have a good home as long as Ive got one." There is a strong bond between the veteran horseman and the old bay mare and it seems to strengthen as the two increase in years. The story of Happy Thoughts is real romance. It probably began in 1914. Colonel | Thraves, a Virginian and consequently a ; horse lover, was becoming successful in the j oil fields in Texas. Hearing about a race meeting at Juarez in Mexico, he went there for a few days of the sport. Hardly had | he arrived when he met a charming, enter- i taining big-time horse salesman — Col. Phil T. Chinn. The outcome of the meeting is obvious. Chinn lured another man into the thoroughbred sport. He sold Colonel Thraves two fillies, the two-year-old Martha Lee and the three-year-old Gipsy Love. Thraves recalls that it was a most profitable investment. Thraves Sees Kentucky Chinn told Thraves he should come to Kentucky, come to the center of the thoroughbred breeding industry if only for a short visit. Thraves did. Upon arrival here he met another charming horseman, another royal entertainer — Colonel Chinn s father, Col. Jack Chinn. "Col. Jack Chinn got me on his side real quickly, relates Thraves. "He soon found my weakness — foxhounds. I love them and foxhunting. He gave me a couple of good hounds and that put me in high spirits. I wound up buying every thoroughbred he had, eight of them." The visit sold Thraves on thoroughbred racing and Kentucky. "I knew then," he reminisces, "I was going to make Kentucky my home — that I would never leave the state." It was more than twenty-five years ago that he made the decision and today the veteran colonel is still a Blue Grass resident. Colonel Thraves in 1916 bought about 400 acres in the most exclusive part of this country, named it Longridge Plantation and there he has raised many good racers. The two fillies he bought from Phil Chinn at Juarez came back to Longridge Plantation to become brood mares after they had been successful on race tracks under Thraves colors. Martha Lee produced eight foals and every one was a good racer. In fact, the foals of the Marta Santa mare won 107 races. These foals included the stake winners Nancy Langhorne and Lady As tor. Career of Happy Thoughts Now for Happy Thoughts. In 1921 the second mare obtained from Phil Chinn, Gipsy Love, produced a Sir Martin filly, destined to become the greatest thoroughbred bred or owned by Thraves. The miss was aptly named Happy Thoughts. Colonel Thraves sold some of his year- lings in 1922. "But I kept Happy Thoughts; I believed she would be a great race mare," he says. The bay mare made her racing debut as a juvenile at the old Windsor track in Canada, winning by herself in fast time. "Her next start," recalls Thraves, "was in a field of twenty-one two-year-olds at Saratoga Springs, and she won by so far she virtually shut the rest of the field out." Happy Thoughts proved she was a high class filly in her third start. In the Grab Bag Handicap at the New York Spa she soundly whipped some of the best juvenile colts and fillies of the country, carrying 119 pounds and running six furlongs in 1:11%. Only two of the nineteen runnings of the Grab Bag Handicap were run in faster time, those won by Billy Kelly and Messenger. There was quite a market then for Happy Thoughts. Ed Simms, an old friend of Thraves in racing and Texas oil, persuaded the master of Longridge Plantation to sell him a half-interest in the bay filly. "As Simms was an old friend," relates the old colonel, "I agreed, and I sold him a half-interest in her for 0,000." Meets Sarazen in Match Thraves says Simms won himself out on Happy Thoughts in her next start, at Saratoga Springs. The bay filly beat a field of crack colts, including Ladkin. Happy Thoughts was the only filly in the race. Happy Thoughts, then in the Simms stable, was matched against Sarazen in the Laurel Special on October 16, 1923. Eternal, owned by Simms, had defeated Billy Kelly in a juvenile match race at Laurel five years before. But Happy Thoughts, according to her breeder, did not have a chance against Sarazen, for the track was muddy and she could not run in the mud. Sarazen won easily by two lengths. The bay filly was defeated in but one other race that year. She won five of her seven starts as a juvenile. When retired, Happy Thoughts became a brood mare at the Xalapa Farm of Ed Simms. She has produced but three foals, but none of them has distinguished himself. Happy Play, by My Play, won three races. Nose In, by Eternal, won four races. Elation, by Eternal, was the only filly out of Happy Thoughts, and though she did not race she has produced the winners Night Lady and Effusive. Happy Thoughts has not had a foal since 1931. Simms, who also was very much attached to her, always provided her the best of care. Upon his death Thraves went to Xalapa, loaded the bay mare in a van, and brought her "back home." The master of Longridge Plantation wished to be certain that his favorite thoroughbred would have a good home for the rest of her life. »
