view raw text
JOHN B PARTRIDGE Trainer of Jamie K Truly One of Veterans Veterans Partridge Launched Colorful Career When Eight Believes Burning Blaze His Best Horse HorseBy By BOB HORWOOD HORWOODStaff Staff Correspondent BELMONT PARK Elmont L I N Y June 12 There are undoubtedly older trainers around than Jamie Ks Mentor In fact John Partridge insists that Jack White has a couple of years on him But the veteran has probably been working with thoroughbreds as long as any active trainer The veteran admits to having first seen the light of day in Buffalo N Y somewhere in the 70s and finding his way to the old Kenilworth track in Canada across the river from Detroit at the ripe old age of eight years yearsPartridge Partridge started walking hots for the powerful Joseph E Seagram stable and when that outfit headed for California at the end of that first season Partridge says he got in a car and forgot to come out Patridge stayed in California he says until he was 20 then came east with Mar ¬ cus Dajy the copper king from Ana ¬ conda in 1897 Daly who probably import ¬ ed more horses than any other American won the Belmont Stakes that year with Scottish Chieftain Daly Partridge recalls was the sort of man who when one of his horses beat a gyp owner in a close finish would quietly go to the man and tell him that it was his private opinion that the judges had been wrong and hand the im ¬ poverished owner the winners purse purseFound Found Horses Covered With Ice IceDuring During his earlier years in the West Partridge walked hots rubbed horses then trained a few platers of his own at Butte Anaconda Salt Lake and many other now forgotten tracks Forced to winter a couple of his own horses in the centerfield at Butte one year he found them literally covered with ice one morning and thin as pencils pencilsPartridge Partridge had obtained a quantity of old circus three sheets and paper the walls of the stalls with these gaudy representa ¬ tions of wild animals acrobats and clowns in an effort to keep out the icy wind The manure was piled up against the front and back of the stalls until it reached the eaves Partridge recalls that when his two horses were taken out in the spring at first glance they appeared to be in good flesh but after they had been clipped and several inches of matted hair and manure re ¬ moved they were hardly more than skin and bone boneThey They were healthy though Partridge recalls and we all got fat in the next few weeks weeksAnaconda Anaconda used to stage a 10day meet ¬ ing in those days but at times the horses would run for four days then the track would be taken over for a sixday trap shooting tournament sponsored by the Remington Arms Co It was during one of these trap shoots that Partridge then a fine upstanding young man pushed through the swinging doors of an Anaconda saloon and saw his friend Pete Romeigh standing behind the bar with a billiard cue in his hand and holding a dozen miners murder bent at bay Seeing Partridge Pete laid down the cue yelling out outNow Now you unprintable rascals me and my friend here will take you all on with our bare fists fistsPartridge Partridge says that he quietly let the doors swing closed with him outside in the peaceful sunshine Romeigh got out alive alive enough to roundly berate Jiis craven friend the next time they met metAfter After a couple of seasons with Daly at Sheepshead Bay Partridge again began to beat the bushes making all of the minor tracks from the Canadian border to Juarez and the old Tijuana track in Mexico MexicoTrained Trained Burning Blaze BlazeIt It was in the early 30s that Partridge had the best horse he believes that he ever trained This was Burning Blaze who won the Eastern Shore Handicap Richard Johnson Stakes and an abandoned stake at Arlington called the Post and Paddock which Partridge recalls was worth 39400 to the winner while a twoyearbid in 1931 Burning Blaze had beaten the late Col E R Bradleys Burgoo King who won the Kentucky Derby the following year a couple of times and was asked to give that colt eight pounds in a race at Laurel late that year yearIn In the course of his wanderings Part ¬ ridge had worked for Bradley and he re ¬ calls that on the afternoon of that race the Colonel approached him remarking that he didnt believe there was a colt alive who could carry 122 pounds to Burgoo Kings 114 and beat him When Partridge merely said Were going to have to try Colonel Bradley then offered to bet him 5000 or any part of that thatI I didnt feel I could bet but I went to Burning Blazes owners Pat and Dick Nash and told them what Colonel Bradley had suggested Right away they wanted to know how much of the bet I wanted I said Id take any part of it they didnt want At that Dick Nash who was the businessman while Pat was a politician turned to his brother and s id You go to Colonel Bradley and tell him we want to bet him 100000 100000Two Two Never Met MetPat Pat did that Partridge says but Bradley backed away saying he wasnt in a position to make that kind of bet that day but he offered to bet any amount that Burgoo King would beat Burning Blaze the first time they met as threeyearolds They never did meet because Burning Blaze broke down in the race that is now called the Derby Trial winning it on three legs He was a real good colt and a wonder ¬ ful weight carrier I recall he had 135 pounds up in one race at two twoPartridge Partridge succeeded Eddie Hayward who saddled Dark Star to win this years Ken ¬ tucky Derby as trainer for the elder James D Norris during the middle 30s While he sent out many winners for the Chicagoan and his son the current master of Spring Hill Farm including the Metropolitan win ¬ ner Danger Point and Jamie Ks full sister Nell K none of them had the promise of this colt coltHowever However Partridge is under no illusions that his colt was getting to Native Dancer in the final yards of the Preakness When someone told him sympathetically You might have won it in another jump the veteran was reminded of an episode that occurred at Tijuana some 30 years ago agoDave Dave Sterling and his wife were there with an old plater Partridge says and they just couldnt win a race Came to the last race of the day of the 120day meet ¬ ing and this old horse came tearing through the stretch like he knew that feed money was hanging at the wire but he didnt quite get up After the race Mrs Sterling said Dave in another jump he would have made it Thats right Dave said Tm going to have to ask the man to write a race for us in the first book next year something for six yearolds who havent won a race in a year at a mile and 70 yards and one jump jumpThough Though a little simple arithmetic in ¬ dicates that John Partridge is in his 76th year he is still quite a man He proved it not too long ago by becoming the father of a lovely daughter now eight years old Just the age to start walking hots
