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New Jersey I 1 By Joe Hirsch Venomous Likely Fastest of Distaff Set Horsemen Say Shes Some Kind of Mare La Rue Accidentally Discovered Speedster GARDEN STATE PARK, Camden, N. J., May 31. She Can Eun! The way that B. A. Darios brilliant filly Venomous ran to win yesterdays Colonial Handi- cap here, she would not have -been entirely out of place against the colts in Belmonts Carter. This is probably the fastest member of her sex running anywhere today. She was two lengths in front of her field almost before the gates had completely opened and "Mousey" Blum didnt rush her down the backstretch. After a quarter in :22, during which Blum permitted Happy Princess to race with her, Venomous turned it on curving for home to rush to a three-length lead in the twinkling of an eye She was six in front at the eighth pole and Blum was easing her through the final sixteenth to win by two and a half lengths in 1:10. Venomous is now undefeated in three starts this year and has won her last six in a row. As they say along the backstretch, shes some kind of mare ! There is quite a story to Venomous and her connections. Darios career, of course, is in the best traditions of Horatio Alger. From a penniless immigrant, he has risen to the status of one of the most influential men in New England, head of Lincoln Downs race track, owner of one of the largest Yankeeland auto agencies, with extensive real estate holdings down east, and more recently a highly successful breeder. His capable trainer, 41 -year-old Bill La, Rue, a Mis-sourian like the Joneses, comes from a family of horsemen going back several -generations. After working with horses on the farm as a youngster, La Rue first came on the race track around Fairmount Park r near St. Louis, then served a hitch in the "navy. After discharge, he got a job as skipper of a private yacht and chanced to meet Dario in Florida some time ago when B. A.s boat was tied up in the same basin. Started Working at Darios Farm "Jm starting a farm up near Providence," Dario told him. "Come to work for me." Le Rue did and made quite a success of the job. B. A. started out with something like two mares and two studs and now has 25 mares, four stallions and a growing list of patrons and good horses. Venomous sire, Mel Hash, was originally owned and raced by the late Cleveland hotel man, Torrence Melrose. When the time came to retire the strapping son of Hash, the Boston turf writer Dave Wilson, "king of the handicappers," persuaded his old friend to send Mel Hash to Darios farm, where he "has gotten a number of hard-hitting horses. As for Spiteful Sue, Venomous dam, she raced in the East for the veteran horseman Bill Mannagh. As we understand the story, Davis purchased a mare from Mannagh and received Spiteful Sue as something of a "lag-niappe." She is by Heather Broom, the sire of Uncle Miltie, and Venomous is her first foal. Quite a auspicious beginning. A couple of years ago, when Darios trainer quit, B. A. told La Rue, "You broke the yearlings. Take them up to Suffolk Downs and see what you can do with them until I can get another man." Like Syl Veitch, who came off the C. V. Whitney farm to begin an outstanding career as a conditioner, La Rue has done particularly well in the business of getting horses to the winners circle. "I remember Venomous when she first came up," the tall, likeable La Rue was musing the other .morning, as we chatted along the backstretch here. "She had two big splints and she didnt look like much. I had an odd number of horses in the barn and. I couldnt assign a groom to her so a hotwalker took care of her and the pony. , Filly Surprise During Workout "I had a little boy named Eddie Harrison, who was learning how to ride and I sent her to the track with Eddie one morning to breeze against two of my nicest fillies. She beat them both a neck going a quarter of a mile. The first time she broke from the gate, she went three-eighths in :35. She started in a claiming race her first time out and won, with last years Alabama winner, Tournure, behind her. I put old Joe Martin on Venomous he must be 50 and when he came back to the winners circle he had a big grirt on his face. It was his first mount in a long time. He told me old jocks never die. " Venomous is staked pretty extensively through the next couple of months. Shes in the 0,000 Regret at six furlongs at Monmouth Park on June 22 and is also in the 5,000 New Castle at a mile and a sixteenth at Delaware Park on the same afternoon. La Rue is also planning to make her eligible for the 0,000 Arlington Matron at a mile on July 24. The trainer is toying with the idea of attempting to stretch her out a bit, and perhaps shooting at some of the big pots that the associations are hanging up for horses who can cover a distance of ground. Daros major goal is to make her his first winner of . 00,000 or more, which" would greatly enhance her value as a broodmare. Shes not a particularly impressive looking sort but she can run, which is what theyve been paying off on the last time we noticed.
