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THE FAVORITES PEOPLE— Owner-breeder Christopher T. Chenery left, and trainer J. H. Casey Hayes, a familiar sight together whenever and wherever First Landing races, will be side by side this afternoon at Churchill Downs. Chenery Just Likes Thoroughbreds First Landings Intelligence In Doing Things Strikes Him Todays Derby Representative* Named in Commemoration of English Colony at Jamestown By TOM OREILLY CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., "May 1. — Christopher Tompkins Chenery, the lively, blue-eyed grey-haired 73-year-old utilities magnate who owns First Landing, has an intense, sincere approach to thoroughbreds that is just a bit different from that of the average racegoer. As winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby, his horses name was on the tongues of all turf fans for months. Does he enjoy this reflected glory? After all, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his great farm, "The Meadows," in Doswell, Virginia, in the hope of producing just such a horse. "Im afraid Im not a glory hunter," smiled Chenery. "I like horses. I like them collectively, and as individuals, too, whether they are successful on the race track or not. I consider First Landing one of the most unusual, able, intelligent and attractive horses Ive ever known." Intelligent? What is intelligent about First Landing? "I think his intelligence is obvious in the way he surveys things around him before he does anything or goes anywhere. At the track, when he is taken out for work, he stops, sniffs, looks around and if there is anything there that isnt normal he is Interested right away. This is also true when he is just being hand-grazed after work. It is not a characteristic commonjy founc. in horses at all." Rides Two or Three Days a Week It should be pointed out here that despite Iris years, Chenery manages to get out on a horse two or three times a week, up at the Boulder Brook Polo Club, which he helped found near his home in Westchester. Back in the thirties, he was a low-goal poloist and also hunted a bit with the Goldens Bridge Hounds. Now mornings, before coming to his offices high up in Wall Street, he hacks about a bit on two hunters, imported from Ireland a few years ago. Their names are Granite and Earl Rock and, as he says, they "lark a bit over an occasional fence." What does he think of the Derby? "I dont know whos going to beat First Landing," he smiled. "Somebody may, but at this moment I honestly couldnt tell you who it would be. This horse has great speed. In fact, I think they have him going too fast from the gate. If he can be restrained, Id rather not see him en the lead at the end of a half mile. Id like to see him about six lengths back at the half. He could overtake anything from there. That Tomy Lee is a terrific horse — fast and game-but I think we could catch him." What had Arcaro told him? "Eddie figured in the Wood Memorial that he had only Atoll and Intentionally to ► — beat. He beat them decisively. After he put them away, however, he doesnt like to leave horses. He hesitated and then came again. He wasnt tired. He could have continued." Suddenly the*"inherent engineer came out in Chenery. He quit college at 16, to work three years as a surveyor to lay out the Appalachian route of the Virginian Railway, one of the nations largest coal-carriers. After graduating from Washington and Lee, as an engineer, he joined another railroad group that charted 500 miles of Alaskas interior. Effort Increases With Speed "Ysee, to increase the speed of a horse you must increase the effort — not proportionately — but almost as a cube of the effort. In other words if you want 10 per cent more you dont multiply by 110 but by some other figure. To run the first quarter in :23 and the next in :24 spends a lot more than the proportional amount of energy needed to increase his speed again. If the first quarter is unusually fast, he has used up a disproportionate amount of his enegry. Thats whay I like to lay off the pace so he can come from behind and catch the leaders while expending less energy than they do. "Look at the chart for the Everglades, as it was run in Florida. On the same day — I think it was the fourth race — a bunch of 0,000 horses ran over the same track at the identical distance. They ran evenly and they ran faster than the Everglades horses. Yet we all know they werent in the same class." Chenerys 2,000 acre, Virginia estate is headquarters for his breeding operations. He has four stallions — Hill Prince, Third Brother, Bryan G. and Doswell — and 47 horses in training, of whom 21 are at Belmont Park, 40 broodmares and 22 yearlings. He enjoys naming his horses after places of special interest to him. He named Willamette, a Coaching Club American Oaks winner, after the Willamette River, which runs through Portland, Oregon, Mrs. Chenerys home town. He has another mare named Kuskokwin, after a river over which this Alaskan expedition had to ferry seven I horses many years ago. As a trustee of Washington and Lee University, he is keenly aware of Virginia history and when the people of Jamestown — J 70 miles from his farm — decided to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the j arrival of the first Tnglish settlers to land I in America, Chenery called a colt by Turn-to — Hildene, First Landing. He has a two-I year-old from the same mare, by Tom | Fool, named Good Speed, after one of the I ships sailed by Capt. John Smiths com-, pany. "Good Speed should be a terrific horse," he said. "He is an enormous bay, almost 17 hands high, but with it all, quick and alert. Hes out at Belmont and we havent done anything but gallop him yet. Were afraid to breeze him because he is so big and ! young he might hurt himself. I imagine hell make his first start at Saratoga." Mrs. Chenery, whom he describes as "a crackerjack on pedigrees," will be with him at the Derby as will his youngest daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. John B. Tweedy, of Bronxville, N. Y. There is a possibility that his son, Hollis P. Chenery, professor of economics at Stanford University, will come on for the race as well as Mrs. Margaret Carmichael, of Tucson, Arizona. As a member of The Jockey Club and treasurer of the newly formed non-profit New York Racing Association, Chenery is looking forward to the opening of the new Aqueduct which he is certain will be "the greatest racetrack for a crowds comfort in the entire world." Happy Landings!
