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Churchill Downs By Joe Hirsch 1 1Trainers Trainers Tribulations With Derby Choice Fontaine Spends Trying Hour With Needles Virtue Is Rewarded When Colt Performs PerformsCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky May 1 A Colt and a Virtue It was a hot humid Saturday morning and Hugh Fontaine had spent a trying hour or more with Needles on the track trying to work the striking son of Ponder in preparation for the biggest test of his life which was to come a week later A num ¬ ber of reporters and photogra ¬ phers had come down to the barn early to accompany Fontaine and Needles to the track They spread out midway of the backstretch and when joined by a group of interested horsemen and visitors it made for taine outfitted in leather chaps was on a pony and at first moved around the rack with Needles in an effort to get him started But the colt would have none of it and bowed his neck and pranced along in mincing little steps while Dave Erb who was on him did his best to look patient Then Fontaine galloped around the clubhouse turn and pulled up at the head of the backstretch an eighth of a mile away from the cluster of people Harry Trbtsek in shirt sleeves who had been leaning against the outer rail with a stop watch in his hand waiting for Needles to make his move walked over to Fontaine FontaineStar Star Performer Displays Temperament TemperamentEailier Eailier when Needles had begun his fatiguing per ¬ formance Trotsek and several other horsemen had remarked how heartbreaking it was for a trainer under such circumstances the whole world looking at the horse and he wont break off Now Fontaine was stand ¬ ing up in his stirrups peering across the wide infield and the bordering hedges at Needles who was sulking on the far turn Hughie who had cataracts removed last fall and whose vision is somewhat limited turned to Trotsek and asked anxiously bid he break yet Harry and Trotsek concentrating on the distant speck that was Erb and Needles shook his head slowly and Fontaine seemed to slump in the saddle saddleLater Later that morning the trainer sat in the cool of his stable tack room and chatted with a nephew whom he hadnt seen in 20 years He was feeling better now Needles had finally worked and if it wasnt a superla ¬ tive move it was at least a satisfactory one and an exercise desperately neededjf the colt was to have sufficient bottom to go a mile and a quarter against the best threeyearolds in the country A man came into the room and sat down on the edge of a trunk across from Hughies blackthorn walking stick with the wooden ball handle and the leather thong at the end and the talk turned from family affairs to the business at hand Two decades ago Fontaine had trained a won ¬ derful horse called Ladysman who was beaten a whisker by Azucar in the first running of the Santa Anita Handicap then one of the few 100000 races in the country Ever since Fontaine could only judge the merit of thoroughbreds using Ladysman as a criterion The man asked him how Needles ranked with his good horse and Fontaine thought for a moment and then nodded slowly and said in his gravelly voice hes there and this was rare praise Whatr the man asked were the stable plans for Needles after the Derby DerbySaturdays Saturdays Result Key to Future FutureFontaine Fontaine explained that if the horse came out of the Derby in good condition he would go on to the Preak ness in Baltimore and then to the searching mile and onehalf of the Belmont in New York Hes staked pretty heavily in Chicago this summer Fontaine said but we might give him a little rest after the Belmont The man took note of Needles antics on the track that morning and now Fontaine could lean back in his chair and smile quietly at the distress he must have felt earlier Hughie pointed out that Ladysman was much the same way as he grew older and that Needles had won the Flamingo and the Florida Derby under similar conditions He runs his races dont he Fontaine said thoughtfully turning to the man Thats what makes it worthwhile fooling with him
