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FRED TURNER JR. Fred Turner Jr. Knows Race Horses Colorful Owner Has Looked To Europe to Build Up Stable Exudes Optimism in Chances4 Of Imported Tomy Lee; Has Interest in Oil, Cattle Too By OSCAR OTIS CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., May 1. — Fred Turner Jr., owner of Tomy Lee, is one of Americas most colorful turfmen — a West Texas cattleman, oil operator and sportsman. He has ridden the range at branding and round-up time, knows horses as do few owners in this modern day and age. When it comes to thoroughbreds, money is no object because he deems a good racehorse a "pearl beyond price." Turners interest in thoroughbreds began more than 30 years ago at his ranches near Midland, Texas, buying a few to improve his range stock. It wasnt long before he acquired a modest stable which he raced in California before World War H. Turners outfit hit the headlines for the first time more than two decades ago when Playmay won at Santa Anita and paid a whopping 73 for a two-dollar ticket. By the time the war came along, Turner had a formidable string and was represented by some really good blood. The horses were at Santa Anita when racing was blacked out on the West Coast, so Turner, deciding the war would be a long one, shipped the whole stable to Texas. He turned the stock out and bred all the fillies, with the net result that his utility stock in Texas today is perhaps the best bred of any such band of horses in the world. Swept Ruidoso Meeting However, he did take the precaution to register some of his better offspring. Rather than convert these horses into cowboy mounts, he decided to send a string to Ruidoso Park in New Mexico, a popular rac- j | ing place with West Texans. These horses "swept the meeting and in so doing, revived his interest in racing. Before long, he purchased a yearling in California named Mountain Song. This one won the big race at Ruidoso. Later he was shipped to Arcadia for a shot at the Santa Anita Derby but went wrong. Turner then turned to Europe for horses and set out with a vengeance to build up | his stable. He had visited England during the spring and saw Tulyar win the Epsom Derby. He was so impressed that he arranged for a European agent, Bert Kerr of Dublin, to represent him. He has never met | Kerr, but has implicit confidence in his judgment and honesty and through that agency has purchased nearly a million dollars worth of thoroughbreds in the past few years. When Turner is at a racetrack he is active at the barns, being there at daybreak every morning and remaining in the afternoon until the last race is run. "I like to travel," he explains, "but any place in the world becomes boring for me after a few days unless I have a purpose, and the thoroughbreds are the answer." Derby Primary Objective Turner, like many another owner, would rather win the Kentucky Derby than any other race in the world, and the acquisition of Tomy Lee, although somewhat accidental, was nevertheless made with the Derby in mind. He liked Tuleg as his top yearling, but marked Tomy Lee for consideration, and Kerr passed him as being a worthy traveling mate for Tuleg. "Ive tried, and rather hard, to buy some good horses, but without success," observes Turner, "and not being able to buy, I had to turn to yearling purchases. Ive always liked Irish and English bloodlines and believe Hyperion is the greatest stallion in the world. I picked Tomy Lee from the catalogue as a horse worthy of looking at because he had one free generation to Hy-iDerion in his pedigree. Three generations removed from Hyperion, top and bottom. Turner is a gentleman but, in the manner of West Texans, he speaks bluntly and to the point. He made copy last winter when, after the Experimental weights were posted by Jimmie Kilroe, he wrote the racing secretary disagreeing, not with the weights, but with Kilroes reasons for the assignments, which had First Landing two pounds better than Tomy Lee. In addition, he let it be known that Tomy Lee would "run First Landing down" and face him at the first opportunity to decide the issue, an intention which was made impossible of execution when Tomy Lee suffered a bit of foot trouble at Santa Anita and which interfered with his training for a short spell. Kilroes reaction, as might have been expected, was that "Here is a return to an old-fashioned sporting race — when an owner is willing to seek out his arch rival, not to duck him." While Turner is best known for his Irish imports, he breeds horses and is building up a broodmare band at one of his ranches in New Mexico. However, as a seeker of | | the "good" horse, he is a consistent buyer of yearlings. Last year, for instance, he went to 1,160 to obtain a colt by Moss-borough at the Newmarket sales, and his agent, Kerr, revealed after the sale that "insofar as Mr. Turner was concerned, the sky was the limit on this one. He told me to buy him and I did." Turner has declared he is going to Ireland in the not too distant future just to meet Kerr, of whom he says, "he has always represented a horse exactly as he is." Turners life interests are split sharply into three divisions, the thoroughbreds, his cattle operations, and his oil business. He turns from one to the other with keen anticipation, and when he is at the track, he is 100 per cent interested in thoroughbreds. Oil and cattle are shunted completely out of his mind. He is a better student of bloodlines than might be imagined, but above all, understands a horse as an individual. He knows full well that money cannot buy success on a racetrack, but at the same time, spends it in a manner which reveals he realizes it can be helpful.
