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Mrs. Lunn Horsewoman in Own Right Top Equestrienne During the 1930s Gone Fishin to Carry Her Fuschia Colors in Derby; Third Best Finish to Date By JOE IflRSCII CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., May 2. — Had it been anyone but Mrs. Richard Liz Lunn who tied her yacht up at Miamis Dinner Key this past December, and drove to Hialeah each, morning to train a division of her extensive stable, eyebrows along the backstretch of Gene Moris handsome plant might have gone up-sharply. But Liz — as this charming and energetic I woman is known to , the_ turf world — is j widely recognized and respected by racing j people as a thoroughly knowledgeable1 horsewoman in her own right. And so, if trainer Charley Whittingham was occupied with the main unit of the Llangollen Farm string -at Santa Anita, and there was no one else to whom she cared to entrust her horses in Florida, what was more fitting than that she proceed to prepare, them for the races herself? For horses of every kind have always been the consuming interest in Liz Lunns life, a colorful chronicle that traces back : to Madison Square Garden and others of the nations leading show rings in the days ; when she was hailed as one of the most ; accomplished equestriennes of this century. Aly Khan of Western World Today, with the ownership of over 300 horses — race horses, broodmares, stallions, yearlings and weanlings — at her 4.000-acre Llangollen Farm in TJpperville, Va., and her extensive Rancho Llangollen at Chino, Calif., she is the "Aly Khan of the Western World." Despite the fact that she has owned and raced such good ones as Mister Gus, a winner of over 00,000 and conqueror of Nashua in the Woodward and Porterhouse, a winner of over 50,000 and conqueror of Swaps in the Calif ornian, Mrs. Lunn has been able to fare no better than third in the Kentucky Derby. In 1932, when she was Mrs. John- Hay Whitney, her Stepinfetchit was beaten by Col. Bradleys Burgoo King and the runner-up. Economic. In 1934, her Singing Wood was eighth and in 1947 her Bullet Proof was seventh. Tomorrow, her noted Fuschia colors will be carried by the homebred strawberry roan, Gone Fishin. a sport, incidentally, at which she is also adept, as underlined by the recent photo in the Morning Tele- KiMBBHBBWBWBiWMffrnF11" niii inr iWIBIf i M Tin m Uti Ifli 1 r PWt MF GONE FISHIN leading Furyvan and Silky Sullivan home in I that order in the one mile Greater Northern California Purse | graph, taken after she had landed a several-hundred-pound tuna in South America. A daughter of Lemuel C. Altemus, who many 5-ears ago introduced polo -and fox hunting to the staid environs of Philadelphia, Mary Elizabeth Altemus "came out" in 1924. But rather than follow the usual social whirl of the typica debutante, Liz became a talented rider, starring in the show ring circuit throughout the East. Her duels wtih the equally accomplished Mrs. Cary Jackson rocked Madison Square Garden time and again in the 1930s. Farm Wedding Gift She married John H. Jock Whitney, now our ambassador to England, on September 23, 1931, and at the same time became mistress of Llangollen Farm, which was a wedding gift from the present co-owner of Greentree gtable. Liz*, marriage to Whitney ended in divorce in May 1940, and, while establishing residence on a ranch near Reno, she participated in a typically lively escapade by taking a cow with her one night to a Reno club. The cow mooed at the fan dancer, disrupting the show, while Liz enjoyed a good laugh. In 1948, she married Dr. Edgar C. Person, an eminent New York surgeon who was well known on the turf. Dr. Person died after a lengthy illness on September 4, 1952 and in November 1954 she was wed to Richard Lunn, a sportsman and amateur golfer. Noted far the spectacular, rather than the commonplace, Mrs. Lunn set an Ameri-" can yearling sales record in 195G when she at Golden Gate Fields on April 11. He was timed the 8 furlongs in a sparkling 1 :345s. went to 7,000 at Saratoga for a handsome gray colt by Hyperion— Deodora, by Dante, subsequently named Rise n Shine. Earlier that same year, she bought a Nas-rullah filly at Keeneland for 2,000, while last summer at Saratoga, she gave 1,000 for a Nasrullah colt and 1,000 for a son of Hill Prince.
