view raw text
JOHNNY NERUD I r Nerud Only 44 Rich in Experience Has Trained Stakes Winners Since 36 36Gallant Gallant Mans Tutor Credits Ben Jones Methods as Part Of Fruitful Hialeah Triumphs TriumphsBy By BOB HORWOOD HORWOODWhen When trainer Johnny Nerud appeared in the winners Circle at Hialeah on the after ¬ noon of January 26 to unsaddle his third stakes winner with as many different differenthorses horses for three different owners a tele ¬ vision commentator greeted him with the remark heard round the world Youre doing pretty well for a green country kid without much experience The 44yearold Nebraskan who had just won the Royal Palm Handicap with J J Crowleys First Served a victory that followed the tri ¬ umphs of Ralph Ijowes Gallant Man in the Hibiscus and Formella Stables Switch On in the Palm Beach Handicap retained his composure and restrained a tongue that can be caustic when required requiredActually Actually though regarded as one of the younger trainers Nerud saddled Woolford Farms Delegate to win the Palm Beach Handicap of 1948 and had flown the same stables Historian to California from Chi ¬ cago to win the Sunset Handicap of 1946 after having finished third to Triplicate and Honeymoon in the Hollywood Gold Cup That flight from Chicago incidentally was the first such trip of any distance made by a thoroughbred for a particular series of stakes stakesRaced Raced Quarter Horses at Age 11 11While While the Woolford Farm horses were the first of stakes caliber to come under Neruds direction the Nebraskan raced quarter horses successfully against gypsies at the age of 11 and held alrainers license in the Far West while still in his teens Coming east to cNew England in the 30s Nerud tripled as trainer stable agent and jockey agent almost always having a horse or two of his own while booking engage ¬ ments for various riders and acting as agent for various stables ultimately for Herbert M Woolfs establishment when Frank Kearns was the trainer Ted Atkin ¬ son has many times said that he feels that he owes more to Neruds help in his early days as a rider than to any other individual and the trainer and jockey have been close friends for many years In fact Nerud mar ¬ ried Helen Charlotte Fitzgerald at almost the same time that Atkinson wedded Martha Shanks and the two couples shared a home for a time timeFollowing Following a successful association with Woolf but one which Nerud states candidly ended in his being fired the Nebraskan oppned a public stable campaigning suc ¬ cessfully on the New England tracks for several years until the emergence of Gerald Colella and James Formas Switch On as a brilliant sprinter and middledistance horse encouraged him to invade New York last spring springNerud Nerud took over a division of Ralph Lowes horses which had been racing in California last summer and proceeded to give them all the time they needed aided by the patience of the owner The stock most of which was acquired for a huge sum from the Aly Khan and the Aga Khan included a full brother to Tulyar and a half brother to Noor as well as Gallant Man but at the time they came to Aque ¬ duct they were little more than pedigrees The brother to Tulyar Bold Nero no long ago won the first race for which Nerud saddled him while Gallant Man with patient handling has become a major Derby candidate candidateNerud Nerud has often declared that he learned almost everything he knows about training stakes horses while stabled near the Calu ¬ met Farm at Chicago and closely watching Ben A Jones This became particularly evident in his preparation of Switch On for his victory in the McLennan Handicap at Hialeah last year Though the son of Condiment had never won at more than seven furlongs he was not set down In any workout at more than six furlongs before that ninefurlong stake This is definitely the Jones pattern patternNeruds Neruds story of the Jones methods has not only been fruitful in the cases of Switch On First Served Gallant Man and many others but may also have had some ¬ thing to do wifh his obtaining the Lowe horses to train as Paul Ebelhardt Calu ¬ mets farm manager is known to have recommended the young veteran for the job
