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► f ■ i • i j 4 New England By Fred Galiani Poncelets Association With Animals TurfrhanStartedWithStandardbreds Willing td Pay Good Price for Horse LINCOLN DOWNS, Lincoln, R. I., May 5. — No matter how you look at it, animals of some kind have played an important part in Felix Ponce-lets life. The Warwick, R. I., owner and trainer has been racing a string of horses for 12 years in New England, made his living for 10 years, until the war, manufacturing dog food and more recently is the proprietor of the Maryland Chicken Roost. Ponce-let, a short, dapper chap, turned to racing as an avocation after establishing his restaurant business in Warwick. He raced his first horse in 1944 at the old Pascoag track, and for the past 10 years now has been his "own trainer, and more recently a breeder. If all goes well, there will be a nicely bred colt or filly in New England in three years, as Poncelet has shipped his good handicap mare Condamion to Kentucky where she has been bred to On Trust. Both were good performers on the race track and although the laws of genetics do not insure the offspring success on the turf, it will nevertheless have good bloodlines. Like many New Englanders, Poncelets first association with horses came through standardbreds, his uncle racing a string of trotters around the fairs that were so numerous in the area years ago. When there was a shortage of flour and other foodstuffs during the war, Poncelet had to close his dog food plant, selling all his equipment. That was a rough blow, because at that time there were only about 10 such companies in the country and it was definitely a.lucrative business. As he puts it, "So I went into the restaurant business. But I was also looking for a hobby. Through my uncle I had a good knowledge of horses and a strong liking for them. I was friends with B. F. Lister and when I told him I thought of coming into the sport he introduced me to his trainer, Sam Har-shani, who also became my trainer. I started with six horses but didnt get a winner until about a year later at Nar-"ragansett with Charing Rock. "After I got the Chicken Roost established," continued Felix, "I was able to devote more time to the string and took out a trainers license. I get a lot of enjoyment out of it and racing has been good to me. Like everything else, there are ups. and downs but overall I have made out all right. Condamion, Model King, Charing Rock, Uncle Fdgar were the best horses I ■ had, I guess. They all won a bit of money. Uncle Edgar cost me 0,000 from Louie ; Tufano and he won himself out. Now though hes old and running cheap." Poncelet, as one might gather, is willing to lay it on the line for good racers. In a recent package deal he bought Mr. Paradise, Wee Bonnie and Fresh n Fair from Mrs. Ada L. Rice.Fresh n Fair and Wee Bonnie have already won while Mr. Paradise, now six, is a one-time stakes campaigner. Poncelet will give him a lot of time. He last raced at Hialeah. In addition to his stable, Poncelet owns a 58-acre farm in East Greenwich, , R. I., where he has two pensioners, Model KingNand Another. Model King is destined to remain on the farm; for the simple rea-. son he cant be put in a van. "At one time : I was going to give him to a friend of mine, but I dont know what happened . when they tried to take him away. They / must have hurt him badly in some way [ because there is no way you can get him [ in a van now. The last time we tried there i were eight of us. We even tried getting an exercise boy to ride him up. He promptly t Continued on Page Forty-Four NEW ENGLAND By FRED GALIANI Continued from Page Seven rolled around on the ground. So we gave it up and let him roam the farm." Felix probably is just as glad, because though he says Condamion was his best horse, most of his conversation is about Model King. Then on a successful streak he went out to saddle Wee Bonnie for a victory in the feature race Friday. Conrado Enrique,- an apprentice bjoy from Cuba, arrived from the Island Friday and will swing- into action shortly. The latest of the Cuban set i§ reported to have been somewhat of a sensation at Oriental Park where he rode 30 winners during March. While here, he will be under contract to Sport Haymaker and his book will be taken by Ernie Martines. Enrique worked a couple of horses this morning ... Peter Allen, an official at the Massachusetts tracks, was a Friday visitor ; . . Talk about conditioned reflexes. As you well know, the result of almost every race in New England is greeted with the crowd yelling "foul." The same thing, naturally, occured after the first race Friday and one of the guys yelling the loudest had the winning horse wheeled in the Double. Figure that one. Ted Johnson departed after Fridays races for Canada where he will ride at the, Woodbine meeting-. Johnson was in the running for the French Citroen convertible to be awarded the leading jockey for the final four weeks of the meet but his experience last year probably dulled his enthusiasm for small cars. On the final day of the Gansett meeting, Johnson was in an accident with hs pocket size car arid was nearly burned to death. He was only saved by the action of John Aborri, Providence turf writer who snatched him from the flaming auto . . . "Hugo Napoli reports the death of his Little Falls. The horse broke down and had to be destroyed . . . Pete iDonato received the three-year-old colt Folly and the two-year-old filly Falheath from J. L. Clarke in Maryland.
