Between Races: Crevolin Enthusiatic over Del Mar Vendue Culled Stock Sets New Coast Quality High Mcdaniel Cutting, Daily Racing Form, 1954-06-17

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BETWEEN RACES ByoxARom HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 16. Lou -Rowan and Andy Crevolin, members of the sales committee of the California Breeders Association, brought us up to date on the plans for the sale of selected yearlings at Del Mar in August, a sale which they feel will center national attention following the mis cellany dispersals at Pomona next Monday. "This sale will probably double last years average," comments Crevolin, "for a rough check indicates about a thousand yearlings in California this year, of which almost 200 were nominated for the vendue. This figure has been culled to 83, which means we should have about 75 to offer in the ring, a few always dropping out because of illness or injury. The most significant feature of the Del Mar sale is the willingness of. most of our leading breeders to consign their best in an all-out effort to establish the California vendue as one comparable to Keeneland and Saratoga. I personally plan to attend all three sales this summer, and am, of course, working actively for the Del Mar vendue. We of the sales committee believe it has a definite and sound future because we are going to offer the stock. Not only that, they will be offered in suitable surrounding conducive to a successful sale. After 20 years of racing and modern breeding in California, I believe we are entering a new era of quality." AAA Consignors to the Del Mar sale list such farms as Amarillo of Mr. and .Mrs. John D. Hertz, Laguna Seca of Frank Bishop, and Merryman of Mrs. Ann Peppers. We will remark at a later date on the Hertz and Laguna Seca stock, but for the moment, the thinking of Ann Peppers might be somewhat typical. Says Mrs. Peppers: "At Crevolin Enthusiastic Over Del Mar Vendue Culled Stock Sets New Coast Quality High McDaniel Cutting Down on Halter Activity Is Launching a Modest Breeding Operation Merryman, we have a going farm that in its few short years of production has turned out many worthwhile horses, including stakes winners. I am operating as a strictly commercial farm, and every horse we have, save production stock, is for sale. We entered 18 horses for the Del Mar sales, of which 12 have been tentatively accepted after the scrutiny of the pedigree committee and Col. Fred W. Koesters check for conformation. We will keep these six and either sell them privately or race them. We have a colt by Sullivan, from Brave Gesture, the dam of Gesticulator, which we think may top the sale. But Merryman is staking everything on offering its best stock and hoping for a sales price of what the yearlings are worth. If this sale does not see a sort of a new concept of an auction market in California, I frankly dont know what we will have to sdo to keep going on a top scale operation. A return to absolute reliance upon private sale of yearlings would be a step backward for the whole California breeding industry. However, with the type of yearlings being offered this year, I believe the Del Mar sales will provide, perhaps for the first time, a true test of an open California breeders market. We sellers, at least, are confident that the stock we offer will be worthy." AAA There is an old turf saying that those who live by the halter die by it, and the adage is "proven" by those who quote it through the citing of innumerable people who have entered racing via claiming,, attained for a time somewhat dizzy altitudes only to flatten out, so to speak, and eventually disappear from the ranks of owners. Hence it is interesting to have talked to R. H. McDaniel, Americas leading trainer and certainly one of the most active haltermen of the past decade in the far west. "Ive cut down on my claiming activity," says McDaniel, "and the last few months, Ive lost more horses than I have claimed. Claiming is the most misunderstood practice on the race track, and can often as not lead to disaster through failure to reason things through. The most common failing is to claim a horse when at his peak, then be stuck with him as he tails off, plus perhaps a long stay at a ranch for recuperation or repairs. But, believe it or not, Im getting interested in breeding in a cautious sort of way, and myself and my wife now have four mares, including the stakes winner Great Dream, the good winner Redigal, Blue Wing Teal and Lovely Handy, she by Eternal Bull. I have a lot of confidence that my sire, Stitch Again, will turn out to be more than useful. You saw Stitch Again race and knew he could do exceptionally well at any distance from six furlongs to a mile and a quarter. And moreover, he did most of it after suffering for years from a back injury. Hes by Pilate, from a Sir Greysteel mare, second dam by Man o War, and stands at J. H. Ryans Northridge Farm. AAA A quick, but nevertheless somewhat thorough, glance at the big claiming owners of the past 15 years shows that few have lasted for any period of time. Some of these owners entered racing with really huge bankrolls, went on a spree with the claim slip, wound up with as many as 45 or 50 horses, and the day of reckoning was seldom postponed more than a couple of years. These Continued on Page Forty-Seven I BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Fifty-Two owners have represented a great loss to racing on. the West Coast, for while claiming as such cannot be blamed for their going sour, indiscriminate claiming has led in most cases to the man getting "over- i horsed" long before he has grasped the rudiments of the sport. It seems to us that a great deal of the wrong thinking about claiming comes about because of the fact that the great bulk of turf writing on claimed horses deals with the spectacular few who improve, perhaps into stake company, while the great rank and file who retrograde are quickly forgotten. They are seldom, if ever, mentioned, perhaps for the good reason that many simply disappear from the metropolitan circuit. A A A We have no quarrel with turf writers for emphasizing the positive in racing, for racing is a sport which above all emphasized success, and its public is interested primarily in success, and not the failures. In fact, we write that way ourselves, finding the success story is, as a rule, the only worthwhile one. But it is just possible that many misconceptions can arise in the mind of "new people in racing" unless they investigate for themselves rather thoroughly. Racing is, among other things, a sport of percentages, and the percentage of horses who improve to any extent after being claimed is quite small in comparison with the number who retrograde. Claiming has been fairly brisk during the Hollywood Park season to date, but an analysis shows that, in general, horses have merely been changing hands within a limited group, and, when one of the big public stables loses a horse, he is replaced, but that is about all. Only a few horses have been . haltered as seeming investments, such as Gesticulator by Dun Hou Tang Stable for 5,000 and Sugar Cube by Trinity Stable for ,500. Most of the others have been below the ,000 mark, an attractive proposition .on a short term because of th high minimum purses.


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