view raw text
Believe-It-Or-NotV . Story of My Horse Setting of New Yonkers Record Climaxed Pacers Dramatic Saga WESTBURY, li. I., N. Y., May 27. By setting .a new Yonkers Raceway record of 2:02 for a mile on. May 14, My Horse climaxed a dramatic story that started five years ago on a river bank. The colt rolled into a river a few seconds after he was born and was rescued by his mother. Later, as might be expected. My Horse got -his name from a youngster. As a two-year-old, he astonished his owner, Anthony J. Richards of Butler, Pa., by pacing the last eighth of. a mile in :15" The story of My Horse began well before he was-born. Richards, a wholesale grocer who is president of the Butler Fair and Agricultural Association, had two Billy Direct foals and a mare in foal at. the Fair Grounds in 1947. His son Anthony, Jr., then one and a half years of age, had been promised the coming foal, and referred to the expected arrival in baby talk" as "My Horse." Fire in the Richards barn destroyed all his horses and cost the life of Lou Patten, the caretaker. Partly to assuage the grief of his youngster, Richards bought the mare Brenda Up and its weanling from Dave Lybropk of Advance, N. C. The colt was promptly named "My Horse." One of the things that attracted Richards to the .dam was a story of her courageous action at the time of her foals birth. Brenda Up dropped the youngster on a river bank and the colt rolled over the embankment into the. swift moving stream, almost drowning immediately. The mare .went right in after him and held him against the steep bank until rescuers came. She didnt move until they had the colt,ashore and then they had to swim her 200 feet downstream in order to save her. When My Horse clocked its :15 for a final eighth, Richards concluded he was quite a horse. Under the training of Tom Dufford, the brown colt was brought along magnificently. At Hamburg last year, he set his first track record of 2:04.3. He gave his first indication of what to expect at Yonkers Raceway when on May 5 he circled the field from eighth place with a tremendous closing "half" to win in 2:06.3. In clocking 2:02 to set a new track mark for a paced, mile at Yonkers, My Horse defeated such quality pacers as Choice Hal, Single See, Josedale- Alate, Major Hal, Mamscot, Mr. Dean and Snap Up.
