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" = = - . ; = 4 OReilly on Racing Chenery Learned About Horses Early; Now Has Over 100 Head By TOM OREILLY BELMONT PARK, Elmont, Li. I., N. Y., June 26. — Christopher Tompkins Chenery, an alert, gray-haired, blue-eyed, kris-kringle-ish appearing man of 71. sat* behind a large desk in his spacious, air-conditioned, Wall Street office, decorated with water pn1nr : colors of of nnln polo nnr! and Tmnt.incr hunting sppnps scenes as nc:*vpl1 well as as a a "Prpdprir.k Frederick Vnss Voss oil oil pn1nr : colors of of nnln polo nnr! and Tmnt.incr hunting sppnps scenes as nc:*vpl1 well as as a a "Prpdprir.k Frederick Vnss Voss oil oil painting of his best horse, Hill Prince, Arcaro up. The reassurer of the GNYA spoke of his early days as a striving surveyor and engineer, of polo and racing, of New Yorks newest track and — with a roguish twinkle — of Willamette, his 23-to-l upset winner of the recent Coaching Club American Oaks. Willamette, a homebred daughter of Doswell — Sister Union, by Blenheim II., was named for the Willamette River, site of Portland, Oregon, Mrs. Chenerys home town. Fred Capossela, Belmont Parks race caller, should be told that the Chenerys, like everybody else in Oregon, pronounce Willamette — "Will Emmet"— with the accent on the middle syllable, as though it was a patriotic Irishman, instead of a river. Resrardiner Regarding the the new new track, track, risine rising on on the the .site site of of old old Aaueduct. Aqueduct, Resrardiner Regarding the the new new track, track, risine rising on on the the .site site of of old old Aaueduct. Aqueduct, the GNYA treasurer said: | "It will certainly be_the finest track in the United States. It will not, however, be a dream track. I hate that phrase. Nobody can build a dream track. Just say that it | will have the best accommodations possible* for the public and a first class mile and ah eighth racing surface." Chenery learned about horses early in life. After twoyears of college, he quit at the age of 16, to earn enough to finish his education For three years he toiled as a surveyor with an engineering party laying out the route of the Virginian Railway, one of the nations largest coal-carriers today. The line rolls through the Appalachian Mountain range from West Virginia to Norfolk, extremely rugged country. After graduating as* a bachelor of science in engineering, from Washington and Lee University, of which he is now a trustee, Chenery joined another engineering group that traveled, by pack train, some 500 miles into the uncharted interior of Alaska. Planning Railway for U. S. Government They were reconnoitering a planned railway line for the United States government. "We had 20 horses, accustomed to the deserts of eastern Washington. Alaska was full of swaying bogs into which they would often sink and we had to pull them out and take their packs ourselves. We had to forage for grub. It was August arid the mosquitoes were so bad that when we built smudge fires, to drive them off, the horses would put their heads right in the smoke. It was cold and the animals grew coats four inches long. We ferried seven of them across the Kuskokwin River on three rafts. "I have a mare named Kuskokwin now, and at the Susitna River, the first we encountered I also have a horse named for that one we had to teach them to swim. We had a bell mare, usually gray so/" she could be seen easily and we got her across the river with the aid of a canvas canoe. Then we took the others on a ten-foot high bank, got them to listening to the bell on the other side and shoved them into a current that would keep them in that direction. It was rugged, interesting work." During World War I., Chenery served as a major of engineering at Ft. Leavenworth, Camp Lee and Ft. Belvoir. By 1926 he was an established New York corporation, executive, living at Pelham Manor. He was a keen follower of the Goldens Bridge Hounds, a. "scrub polo player," at the Boulder Brook Club, which he helped organize and ready to "back into racing." "In 1936, I purchared The Meadows, a 2,000-acre estate at Doswell, Virginia, that had belonged to members of my family for many generations. I guess we have 55 relatives buried in the front yard. I started racing modestly. We bought four CHRISTOPHER T. CHENERY or five mares at the Kentucky sales all for moderate prices. Then I bought a good 16-year-old stud horse, named Whfskaway for whom in his prime, one of the Whitneys had turned down 25,000. I got him for a ridiculous price of 25. Whiskaway had beautiful conformation and was by Whisk Broom II., out of the imported mare, Voter, by Court Dress. I bought him at auction but 1936 was a poor year for horse prices. He sired Horn Beam, a good gelding who held the seven-furlong track record at Tropical for a long time and also, gave lis Cherry Dale, a fine race and broodmare, that we lost in -a claimer and she later went on to beat Alsab. "I made plenty of mistakes but they were inexpensive ones. Ten years ago, when prices had advanced considerably, I paid 0,000 for Imperatrice, a top stakes- mare and she had Squared Away at foot. Squared Continued on Page Forty-Two OReilly on Racing By TOM OREILLY Continued from Page Ten Away won 50,000 but we lost him by a claim and only a bit of it came back to me. "The best horse we ever had, of course, was Hill Prince. He was the best anybody ever had. He was home-bred by Princequillo, out of Hildene, which means "Little Hill." Now I have over a hundred race horses. We have 35 broodmares. The late Mr. Woodward once told me that if we had more than 35 mares it would no longer be a gentlemans stud. L stayed within the limit. We have four stallions, 24 foals, 21 yearlings and 36 horses in training, of which 19 are at Belmont Park. Those last include Manotick, Willamette and Scansion, all stakes winners. We have two horses of stakes quality in Iberia and Next Day, for which I paid 0,000 at the Van-derbilt sale. And we have a good, two-year-old maiden named -Yemen, who will be worth watching when he starts. "We like to play a strong broodmare hand. I think the farm is pretty .well up to the top. We never sell yearlings. We dont sell any horses until they have been tried and we discover we cant use them. The farm is run by Admiral Lunsford L. Hunter, retired, who is a cousin of mine. Howard Gentry is in charge of the horses, with Bob Bales as the farm trainer and Casey Hayes the racing man. "The cost of it all? -I can only give the same answer J. P. Morgan gave to a man who asked how much his yacht cost. He said, Tf you ask that question you shouldnt buy a yacht. " The GNYA treasurer elected to The Jockey Club in 1951, is a diplomat, too. After you, sir!
