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BETWEEN RACES L By Oscar Qtis Ma f fos os to Tale Tour Men on Horse IrishBred FirstClass Swimmer MeaHbws Record Was Unblemished May Seek International Special SpecialHOLLWOOD HOLLWOOD PARK ingleWbod Calif May 29 One of the more fantastic tales to appear out this way in quite some time concerns the Irishbred Maf osta and might aptly be titled Four Men on a Horse F Ronald Graham the Canadian financier and sportsman actually has two horses on the ground the other being the South American Plover but he is trained by Joe Luddy the fate of Mafosta one o the highweights and choices in Mondays Ar ¬ gonaut Handicap being entrusted to the aforementioned quartet They are in order T W Wally Dunn the trainer Frank Blind the groom George Scotty Hughes I the exercise boy anil the flight watchman Dunn has no father horse to train Blind j has no other horse to rub Hughes cannot gallopany other horse And of course the night watchman is too busy to accept any outside employment Time hangs heavy on the hands of the quartet and after the one morning chore is over they assemble at the stable cafeteria for coffeethenmarch to the backstretch stand to watch a spell of train ¬ ing activity then call it a day Dunn of course doesnt want to train any other horse Blind has Mafosta as a fulltime job And exercise boy Hughes is here from Can ¬ ada on B limited work permit which ters him from accepting employment with any ¬ one other than the stable of Graham Mafosta first came to national attention when h equaled the American six furlongs record of i09 at Longacres under the training of Johnny Leavitt brother of Charlie Leavitt who conditions the horses of the Pie Prince ive E B Johnston and who incidentally sold Mafosta to owner Graham for 25000 He started later in the Longacres Mile under 127 pounds of weightled for six furlongs in 110 then col ¬ lapsed A vet examination showed him to be suffering from osselet trouble Dr W J McKeori was calledJn and applied his cura ¬ tive treatment arid ordered an extended rest for the l rse Wally Dunn then took over at this point He had Mafosta for a spell oh a 30acre paddock at a farm on Lulu Island near Vancouver then took the TiOrse over to Victoria and the Willows race course George Hughes joined the stable then Blind had been with the horse since the day Graham purchased him It was the first job for Blind back in civilian clothes after some five years of action with the Canadian Army Italso was the first job for Dunn after service with the Cana ¬ dian forces Blind and Dunn fought in Ger ¬ many within five miles of one another but did not meet untilaf ter the war was over Mafosta was taken to a Victoria beach for his leggingup process and swam in deep water as a part of his comeback regime You have to be careful about salt water treatment explains Dunn Swimming is one of the finest exercises in the worl for sC horse but the salt quite often dries up the hoofs of a horse Fresh water of course is different But after each swim in the ocean he had to treat his feet to restore their natural resiliency Tallow lanolin pine tar or fish oil is recommended Maf os ¬ ta was a better swimmer than a runner if anything We had to take care or he would have headed out the straights of Juan de Fuca bound for Japan At this point exercise boy Hughes interposed that a rider had to be careful with a swimming horse at the moment of turning him back towards shore It can and has happened that a horse in turning will sidle over unseat the rider in his path and thus putting the boy directly in the path of the striking forefeet forefeetof of the horse It is a tricky maneuver Anyway Mafosta got back to the races okay showed abflity at Santa Anita during the winter but hit the record books with a resounding thud at Bay Meadows The statistics of the Meadows meeting are a bit unusual to say the least They show the Montrose Stable racing nom de course of Graham as leading money winner with 72420 With their lone horse starting five times and winning five times Mafosta won the Macy Spring Fashion San Jose Hay ward Morrison Handicap San Mateo Han ¬ dicap and the outstanding stake of the ward Morrison Handicap San Mateo Hand ¬ icap arid the outstanding stake of the rowly beaten by With Pleasure opening day in the Inglewood and he has a galaxy of stakes to shoot at in the immediate future He conceded one pound to With Pleasure in the Inglewood One might well ask what has caused the sudden riSe to riches of this imported liorse Dunn says he was a lead ¬ ing twoyearold in Ireland believes that it took him at least a year to actually under ¬ stand American racing conditions A slight fault in his stride especially around the turns was corrected by the installation of one blocked heel shoe If Mafosta continues in good form he will be named for the 100000 International Special at Empire City this fall If conditions are at all favor ¬ able Graham and Dunn both want to ship him to New York
