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-—-—— rrp j ♦ I SuffolkDowns Notebook By FRED GALIAN1 Whatley Newcomer to New England Has Interesting Career on Tracks Credited With Developing Caldwell SUFFOLK DOWNS, East Boston, Mass., May 15. — One of the new faces around the Downs this year is that of Tater Whatley, a. a former former rider rider and anri -—-—— a. a former former rider rider and anri trainer who came back to the tracks in 1952 after an absence of 10 years. The big gun of the Whatley Stable is Olen Sledges Caldwell, who has won eight out of nine races, losing the one by a nose. Caldwell, who ran at Centennial, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Oak-lawn Park and Suffolk, j [ 3 , [■ . j f i J , 3 ; I r . | j m r , , J . 5 j has moved up from the lowest claiming ranks with each victory and now goes after the stakes money. The six-year-old gelding was purchased by Whatley last year at Centennial Park for ,500 and racing in the orange colors of Sledge, has run up his string. A native of Duncan, Okla., Whatley breaks his sun tanned face into a broad grin when you ask him what his first name is. "Tater," he laughs, "if you used anything else, no one would know me. Thats my legal name now. Look, my drivers license, identification, everything; I even bank under that name. I got it because when I was a kid around Okla- homa you never saw me without a sweet or baked potato in my pocket. No, Im not going to tell you what my real name is. Its Tater." Whatley was a rider in Texas, recalling that Johnny Adams, N. L. Pierson and a couple of others rode with him there, from 1935 until 1938. Then he turned trainer, in addition to booting his own charges around the Nebraska tracks and other states. In 1942 he went into service and that was the end of the race tracks for a while. After he was discharged, he went into the dry cleaning business in Duncan, which he still maintains, but the lure of the horses was too much. As Tater said, "Once a racetracker, always a racetracker." Sledge is a prosperous oil man, also from Duncan, who has been breeding and racing horses for many years, and last year Sledge and Tater got together and formed a team. Whatley started the string off at Ak-Sar- Ben, went to Centennial, down into the Southwest, up through Hot Springs and has now landed in New England. This is Taters first campaign on this circuit and he intends to stay throughout the summer. Sledge comes up to see his Continued on Page Thirty-Nine SuffolkDownsNotebook By FRED GALIANI Continued front Page Four horses run whenever the press of business allows him to and contemplates vacationing here this summer. Of the 12 horses in Taters barn, 11 belongs to Sledge. But Tater thinks his biggest horse is going to be his 15-year-old son, Little Tater, who weighs under 100 pounds and helps his father around the tracks when not in school in New England. "Hell make a good rider," remarked Tater, "Just remember that in a couple o years." In addition, Tater is also the father of a lovely 19-year-old girl, whose picture he shows with obvious pride. After indulging in his parental privilege, the man from Oklahoma went out and saddled the winner of the first race. Whenever the horse Go Go Go runs here, Sam McCracken, handicapper for the Boston Globe, turns slightly crimson and 1 braces himself to be the butt of jokes from his confreres. One day last year the horse , was entered in a race at Narragansett Park and Sams graded handicap read: | "Go Go Go — no no no." Needless to say the horse won and paid a three figure mutuel, and as long as the horse races, Sam will j never be allowed to forget his bon mot. Sams excuse is that his first six selections J in the race were scratched . Frankie Zehr . leaves by plane tonight after the races to . ride T. P. Morgans Grover B. tomorrow . in the Valley Forge Handicap at Garden State Park. . Tony Cataldi has added Flyaway Jack and Gro-Smart to his string, bringing the number of horses in his charge J up to 10. The duo came in from Ascot l Park and race for D. B. Schmeck, the Al-lentown, Pa., poultry dealer. Cataldi is trying to get in contact with jockey Joe , Colaneri. Larry Lane, secretary of the Massachusetts Racing Commission, has learned from Ray McElroy, of the Rhode Island board, that the latter outfit has completed its arrangements for the entertainment to be tendered the delegates of the NASRC convention and their guests on Sunday, June 7. The party will be taken by buses to the Squantum Club, outside of Providence, for lunch, then will take a cruise down Quonset Bay on the Nelsico to Newport, returning to the Squantum Club in time for a Rhode Island clambake. Wild Jimbo, who races for Mrs. J. OBrey, is named for their youngest son Jimmy. The inspiration for the horses name came one day when young Jimmy returned home ; after falling in a creek. . Babe Rubinstein, the track announcer, is in his 20th year of P broadcasting races in New England. He has been on the horns at Suffolk 19 years since the track opened and worked the year previous | at Rockingham Park Mrs. Eddie Mack, wife of the old Sarge, has left the Cardinal OConnor house, St. Elizabeths 5 Hospital, where she had been for two weeks, and is now convalescing at her West Rox-bury . home. She will leave for their summer home at Hamilton Beach. Cane Cod, the end of this month . . . Larry P. Howley made ; ; his first appearance as a trainer at Suffolk today with Russian Treaty in the fourth | . race. Howley, who serves as an official around the fairs, also has Wind Tunnel for the Canterbury Stable.
