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California I By Oscar Otis Ellsworth Border Division Successful Ranch Boy Top Caliente Track Trainer Throws More Light on Bizarre Shoeing CALIENTE RACE TRACK, Tijuana, Mexico, June 9. — Lyn Boice, a ranch boy. from a mountain rimmed valley in Colorado, is conducting, and has, we might aaa, ior tne last iu years, one of the most successful racing and selling operations on the whole • continent here at Caliente. Boice is the Mexico branch manager, so to speak, of the Rex Ellsworth expanding western turf empire. We came down from Hollywood Park to get a first hand view of this segment of the Ellsworth turf , interests. "I became acquainted with Ellsworths trainer, Mischa Tenney, quite a few years ago," Boice tells us, "and I liked their method of training horses, and they must have liked the way I handled mine, for, on shipping one season to Chicago and finding themselves with five more horses than a carload, they gave me the five and sent me to Caliente for a month. That was almost 10 years ago, and Ive been here ever since. Ive turned over hundreds of horses for them in that time, and of all the horses they have sent me, the records show that only three failed to win a race; "I keep about 17 head in training here the year round, and lose about that many each year, either through claiming or private sale. A division of the stable is maintained here at all times, with my only personal absences being once in a while at Del Mar, and always, of course, at the Los Angeles County Fair at Pomona. When Mischa took Swaps to Kentucky, I ► moved up to Hollywood Park and trained the horses there to have them fit and ready for the Hollywood inaugural upon his. return from Kentucky. After that chore I returned to the border. These horses are trained here as close as is possible to the Tenney specifications. We cool our horses out by walking them around the track, and, in the springtime, roam the nearby hills with those who might have a tendency to be a little nervous." The Caliente branch of the Ellsworth turf venture is good business sense, for not only is it self-sustaining but we gather that it actually shows a profit through the years. Another Manassa Native Making Good Boice was born and reared near Manassa, Colo., the town made famous in sports as the home of Jack Dempsey. "Its in the San Luis Valley," Boice volunteers, "and is just 50 square miles of isolated valley. But there are thoroughbreds in the area, many used as utility and range horses for most of the year, raced just during the summer. The thoroughbreds in racing have to be quite versatile, for they often are asked to compete in relay races and novelty races. A novelty race, since you ask, is a combination walk, trot, and running race. The competitors walk a given distance, usually once around the track, which is three furlongs at the fair in the valley, then trot around once, then run the final lap. Any deviation from the walk or trot during those respective laps results in disqualification. I myself left the Colorado Valley some years ago, and started in California with trick horses for Stuart Hamblen. When Hamblen became interested in thoroughbreds, T changed over to those, broke El Lobo as a yearling, but then went away to war in the Coast Guard. "You had a nice story in Kentucky about the special . shoe that Swaps was wearing, but I dont think you quite told the whole story, so Im going to fill you in. I learned this style of shoeing from Tenney, and whether he and Rex invented it, or improvised and improved on an old Arizona method, I dont know. But I can tell you that for a fact, shoeing a horse like Swaps is the most nerve-wracking thing in the world and takes a man with something akin to genius on the subject. For one thing, because the shoes have to be changed fairly often, the same nail holes must be used for the new plate, and this work, putting the new nails in the old holes, MUST BE DONE ABSOLUTELY BY INSTINCT. Because the original sheet of feather, thin, hard, ladies type material, covers the whole foot, the shoe then placed on the top, you cannot judge by the eye just where to fit the new nails. The overspread of the leather hides this vital part of the operation from the eye. After the. shoe is nailed on, the excess leather is trimmd off, sort of like trimming a pie crust, and then such extra cutting underneath as might be called for. Leather Creates Cushion for Injured Foot "The secret of the shoe lies in the fact that with the leather hard, it will create an air cushion between leather and frog, and thus protect the injury which makes such a type of shoe desirable. The need for change is occasioned by the fact that even this tough leather will become damp through, contact with a sprinkled race track, and when it becomes damp, will tend to "give, and thus allow a pressure to reach the frog and injury. Because it requires sometimes frequent changing, the shoeing process can become nerve-wracking, for too many misses with nails will injure the hoof, and it is even possible through hitting a nail just a bit the wrong way to even drive the nail into the frog. Thats one reason why I think Tenney is about the only man in the world who could have won the Kentucky Derby with that particular horse, Swaps. Hes entitled to even a lot more credit than he has been given." The Ellsworth horses, we might add, long have been popular favorites with border racing fans, and the stable starters here enjoy a vast prestige.
