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; . 4 j The R. H. McDaniel Story . I Developed Racing Assembly Line Reduces Costs for Small Owners .Pioneer in Public Stable Operation Had Record 21 1 Winners in 53 I By Oscar Otis . I This is the. first of a series of articles on the late R. H. "Red" McDaniel, Americas leading trainer from 1950 through 1954. In it Oscar Otis, McDaniels friend and confidant, gives the trainers background, his conditioning secrets and his philosophy of horse racing. CHAPTER I. Late in the recent Golden Gate Fields meeting, Robert Hyatt McDaniel quietly left the race track, drove to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, parked on its highest span, and clambered over the side of the bridge and dropped more than 200 feet to his death in the choppy waters of San Francisco Bay. Thus ended the career of one of the most discussed trainers in America, one of the most successful the nation has ever known, and a man who will long be remembered as the trainer who put the conditioning of thoroughbreds on what might be termed an assembly line basis. Like it or not, and a great many "old school" trainers did not, he fabricated a -system of racing horses on a mass competitive basis. But whatever criticism might have been made of his methods, even that well known John Doe of the turf, the two dollar bettor, knew that he got results. There have been a few significant developments in thoroughbred racing in the last 30 years which have transformed it from a sport of kings into the pastime of millions. Indeed, more than 30,000,000 people attended the racing in the United States last year at the many courses which dot the land. Introduction of Totalisator One great improvement was the introduction of that remarkable electrical wagering device, the American Tote, which guaranteed the patron accuracy in the payoff prices and generally safeguarded his wager. Another was. the advent in racing of the* Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau, an organization of former FBI men- which most major American tracks use as a self-policing arm. The TRPBs executive head is Spencer J. Drayton of New York, whom J. Edgar Hoover, himself an enthusiastic, even though only an occasional, racing fan, recommended. Still a third reason for racings steady upsurge has been the pampering of the customer through building comfortable and, in certain instances, even palatial horse parks. The McDaniel contribution on the back-stretch has been somewhat comparably epochal, for while by no means an actual pioneer in the operation of a public stable, he did much to lift the reputation of the public stable into an acceptance it had not previously enjoyed. As a successful public trainer, his great contribution to the popularity of modern day racing was the demonstration that, through careful cost accounting, and cutting of all • unnecessary expenditures, the privilege of owning a stable of horses was within the realm of financial possibility to the just plain well-heeled, as well as the really rich, sportingly inclined citizens. Still another change the public stable has helped accomplish in American racing* has been its emphasis on racing for purses alone, with all betting incidental. Of course, in the old days, many big stables ran for sport alone, but many stables of the so-called professional type raced more for bets. This latter type has almost vanished in favor of the public stable, so that all racing now. is basically for purses, a facet of the sport which is all to the public interest. .Brought New Blood Into Sport The admirers of McDaniel insist that he, and other public trainers, accomplished a great deal for racing by "bringing new blood human into the sport" though the novel concept of caring for fhe .horses at actual cost, and gambling for their own salary on earnings. In other words, as McDaniel told us last winter, he had to win purses to eat, inasmuch as he worked for practically nothing, and his total salary was predicated precisely upon the amount of money his horses won. Of late years, the last five, to be exact, McDaniel led the list of American trainers in the number of winners saddled, and in 1953, he set a new American record of 211 winners for the calendar twelve-month. Last year, his horses earned slightly in excess of 00,000 for his various patrons, of which sum McDaniel took as his salary 10 per cent. It takes only simple arithmetic to calculate that McDaniel made 0,000 plus for the season. It was fate, we suppose, that led this writer to spend many evenings with McDaniel last winter during the Santa Anita season, getting the whole facts of his life, his methods of. training, and the "inside," i - - so to speak, of his whole operation. McDaniel talked to us freely and frankly and as an old friend of many years standing. We took this material in voluminous notes, put it aside, and we were going to work it into a story on our next vacation. But his tragic death came while we were in Kentucky, and so, at the suggestion of our publisher, J. Samuel Perlman, and our West Coast manager, Jerry OBrien, we have transcribed these notes into a series of articles dealing with McDaniels background, his training secrets, and his philosophy of horse racing. McDaniel carefully debunked many myths which some associate with the successful training of horses, and revealed to us his methods of getting all his various owners to stick with him. This, and other facets of his life, will be dealt with in detail in the articles in this series to follow. To Be Continued.
