Derby Trainers Put Selves On Record: Attend Annual KTBA Dinner; Corum Compares Race to Dempsey-Tunney Match, Daily Racing Form, 1955-05-05

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* . ■ Derby Trainers Put Selves On Record7 Attend Annual KTBA Dinner; Corum Compares Race to Dempsey-Tunney Match CHURCfHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., May 4. — Kentucky Derby trainers put themselves "on the record" last night at the annual and traditional Kentucky Thoroughbred Breeders Association dinner on the roof garden of the Brown Hotel. At the same time, the "Broodmare of the Year" award was presented, the trophy going to Clifford Mooers, owner of Traffic Court. Toastmaster of ceremonies Bill Corum compared the Kentucky Derby of Saturday to the Dempsey-Tunney boxing match and said that he thought of Nashua as Demp-sey, Summer Tan as Tunney. To this, Sherrill Ward, trainer of Summer Tan, replied that if this was the case he was "hoping for a long count such as Tunney received in Chicago." Wins Races Via TV John Fitzsimmons, son of veteran trainer James Fitzsimmons, who is staying in New York, represented Belair Stud and remarked that his famed father was getting to like seeing races on television and that he had done all right winning some of them under those circumstances. Fitzsimmons said that "nothing bothers Nashua, arid his fault, if it can be called a fault, is his thinking that life is just a bowl of cherries." He was referring to the often commented fact that Nashua does not seem to wish to race any harder than he has to to win.- William B. Finnegan, trainer of Jeans Joe, said that he had "hopes," and he also spoke for Mischa Tenney, trainer of Swaps, who was unable to be present. Finnegan, paid high tribute to Swaps, saying the horse, who beat Jeans Joe in the Santa Anita Derby, probably would have beaten him off farther that had it not been for the fact that Swaps shied from the starting gate after getting straightened out for the stretch run. After the trainers had had their say, they posed for a picture which has also become a KTBA dinner tradition, all grouped together and "reaching for the roses." Wathen Knebelkamp, chairman of the Kentucky Racing Commission and president of the NASRC, made the broodmare award . presentation. Traffic Court, who died in the summer of 1952, was the dam of Hasty Road, among other good ones. John Stelle, former Governor of Illinois, was the guest speaker and discussed briefly certain phases of racing and breeding.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1955050501/drf1955050501_6_2
Local Identifier: drf1955050501_6_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800