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Churchill Operations Directed By Veteran Staff of Officials Veeneman Hugenberg Head Executive Roster TomYoung Is General Superintendent SuperintendentCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky April 30 There are no exact figures but when you add everybody up the thousands of people on the backstretch the pari mutuel clerks the massed bands the Ken ¬ tucky militia and U S soldiers from Fort Knox the ushers gatemen and employes of the Harry M Stevens catering company a rough guess would put the number of people participating in staging che glit ¬ tering spectacle that is the Derby close to 20000 20000Such Such a vast array of people each of whom has a job to do and does it well takes true executive ability This is a per ¬ sonality glimpse of the key men behind the scenes who make all this possible possibleAt At the very top of the pyramid is Wil ¬ liam H Veeneman chairman of the board of Churchill Downs Veeneman is a citizen of Louisville who retired from business activity quite some years ago and who since has given all of his time to the thor ¬ oughbred As chairman of the board he appraises the Derby from a broad stand ¬ point now and then makes a suggestion for betterment His is the final judgment on important decisions of policy a judg ¬ ment rendered only after considering a problem in all its important aspects and for the best interests of the Derby in particular and racing as a whole Veene ¬ man also is known to the racing world as a breeder on a modest scale and as the owner of a hard hitting stable of thoroughbreds thoroughbredsExperienced Experienced Executive ExecutiveChief Chief of staff of the operation is Stanley Hugenberg an experienced executive who holds in his mind an almost unbelievable mass of information as to details of Derby Day operation During Derby Day and the days immediately preceding the Derby he is called upon to make many snap deci ¬ sions for in the case of a traffic snarl say time will not wait for procrastinating But even if there are no major problems arising each Derby week sees an almost countless number of small ones developing which must be passed upon by competent executive authority And that authority rests with Hugenberg That the Derby crowds are handled with Such skill and ex perthess is a tribute to the correctness of the decisions taht Hugenberg makes makesWhile While in many ways the most important Hugenberg is at the same time the least known to the general public of all Chur ¬ chill Downs executives But he is quite content to have it that way having never sought the limelight feeling perhaps that he can accomplish more in less time by working in comparative obscurity obscurityOne One of the patrons first contacts at a race track as a rule is at a parimutuel window the province of E A Weidekamp Supervising a force of approximately 1200 clerks on Derby Day is a task in itself yet careful advance planning does the job Weidekamp is one of the nations senior parimutuel executives and it might be mentioned that he got to the top in his profession on sheer merit He came to Churchill Downs so many years ago that track has almost been lost and his work came to the attention of Col Winn who started hini up the ladder ladderAfter After buying a ticket a fan is likely next to turn his attention to the track itself which is the particular field of Tom Young also a veteran who takes at once extreme care and extreme pride in the condition of the racing strip exactly the same footing and over almost exactly the same soil over which the Derby was first decided exactly 80 years ago agoThe The way this is obtained is interesting Young keeps a compost pile within the track enclosure to which soil is added from year to year and allowed to mellow for at least five years It is kept to a formula and every other year some is taken off the pile and worked into the track cushion to replace loam lost through wind and ero ¬ sion Thus the Derby track presents about the same footing from year to year decade to decade Tom Young is assisted in the conditioning of the track plus the import ¬ ant supervision of the stable area by Cliff Burke who has been at his job so long now and is so able at it that he might be deemed a youthful veteran veteranThe The last 13 Derby starts have all been good and starter Reuben White will make good use of his steel nerves to insure the same holds true for number 14 as far as he personally is concerned There is more to getting a good start than people think and White goes to almost any length to see that nothing goes wrong wrongIn In some ways the White Derby starting is a paradoxical job He has no trouble with inexperienced riders because the Derby field always attracts many if not most of the big American saddle names These riders know that any jams at the start could knock their own mount out of contention as well as that of the next fellow The horses are the cream of the threeyearold crop in training and all have pretty much earned their right to a starting stall stallBut But as against this is the pressure of more than 100000 pairs of eyes focused upon the gate plus millions more watching the tense and dramatic moment via tele ¬ vision It is real pressure However White has nerves of steel is no stranger to the job and has carefully prepared himself against most any eventuality If a horse has any known peculiarities or eccentri ¬ cities he knows about it and has briefed an assistant on the subject If a horse is a trifle slow to break he knows about that too tooSupervising Supervising Stewards StewardsThe The race itself is run under the super ¬ vision of three stewards Sam McMeekin Jack G Goode and Jack S Young This year for the first time the stewards will have the support of the film patrol patrolMcMeekin McMeekin a former Louis ville turf writer who became an official is now a fix ¬ ture at Churchill Downs Jack Goode is the son of the late John Goode of Ken ¬ tucky for many years one of the best known trainers in the MidWest Young is one of the best known stewards in Ameri ¬ can racing with a well earned reputation for severity tempered by fairness He repre ¬ sents the Kentucky State Racing Commis ¬ sion sionOther Other kingpins in the Derby day set ¬ up include Lincoln Plaut a former news ¬ paperman turned official who is racing secretary Spencer Dray ton whose TRPB staff is an integral part of Derby day pub ¬ lic safety Joe Stevens who takes personal charge of the vast catering chores of the Harry M Stevens corporation plus the good people of Louisville whose city gov ¬ ernment goes all out to speed traffic to and from the race track thereby insuring a more pleasant afternoon
