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i MRS. DODGE SLOANE and Preston Burch left and Elliott Burch. Mrs. Sloane Seeks Second Victory! Cavalcade Carried Prominent Sportswomans Colors in 34 Brookmeade Mistress Hopes? ► Sword Dancer Will Duplicate r Feat; Picks Names Adroitly x 2 CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville. Ky., t May 1. — Mrs. Dodge Sloane, Brookmeade owner, who is seeking her second Kentucky Derby triumph here Saturday, with Sword j Dancer, has exploited, most successfully, ] her womans prerogative as regards the j status quo. 1 As a girl and in young womanhood, her ] prime sporting interests were tennis and | I golf, not horses. When, in the early 1920s I j it occurred to her that, it might be challenging to own a race horse, she decided j I on blue colors with black cross-sashes. In 1 I 1 1930, after buying the 300-acre Lewis Es- t tate near Upperville, Va., she immediately .« renamed the farm "Brookmeade," and ; selected a new set of colors — white with , blue cross-sashes. John Hastings was the trainer of Mrs. Sloanes first thoroughbred, a steeplechaser • named Sky Scraper II. whom she purchased, on the basis of a friends judgment, from the late Robert B. Strassburger. Hastings was replaced shortly thereafter j i by Gwyn Tompkins, who, in turn, was fol- ■ • lowed by Bob Smith and Hugh Fontaine. J Preston Burch replaced Fontaine as Brookmeade trainer in 1946 and held that post until he suffered a heart attack last year. Burch is now director of operations for the stable while his son, Elliott, is head trainer and will saddle Sword Dancer tomorrow. Member of Automobile Family Mrs. Sloane formerly Isabel Cleves Dodge is the daughter of a founding Dodge, one of the brothers who created the Dodge automobile, long before it was sold into the Chrysler combine. She is an individualist, acknowledged as one of the nations best-dressed women, and superstitious enough to select white and blue colors not merely because of their visibility j in races but because blue is traditionally tacky for her. A beautiful woman, she has spent 35 j consecutive, busy and dedicated years as a j queen of the American turf. As owner of i Brookmeade, she often has her own way, | but it is not a fixed way. For example, she | says she has never seriously thought of | giving advice to any of her trainers. The Burches call her daily and discuss all phases of the farms operation. Sometimes she has to make the final decision. For years, Brookmeades breeding plans j have been completed early in the fall. The elder Burch, Bill Ballenger the farm manager and Mrs. Sloane have numerous conferences at which they discuss proposed matings. All three submit their own plans at first, then arrive at a final decision through a free interchange of ideas. No matter how much success Mrs. Sloane j may gain with Sword Dancer, Big Effort and Oligarchy on three separate fronts to- | morrow, or with other Brookmeade stal- ] warts in the future, she will always be ! indebted to her first purchase, Sky Scraper ff. It was this veteran steeplechaser who taught her — in a few short, exciting and profitable lessons — that racing is fun. , When Sky Scraper II.. in 1924, won the Manly Memorial, the first important raee IB which Mrs. Sloanes silks appeared, he j also made his owner acquisitive. At the Saratoga yearling sales of 1926 : she bought two colts, one for 0,000 and j the other for 0,000. The least expensive was named Brooms and the following sum- j mer, at the spa, he won the Hopeful Stakes. Stakes. Stable Earned 5,000 in 1932 In 1932, the year she purchased the Lewis Estate, her eyer-growing stable earned 5,000. placing her 17th on the owners list. She returned to the Saratoga sales and bought, among others, one colt for ,200 and other for ,000 and named them Cavalcade and High Quest, respectively. Both colts brought great distinction to Mrs. Sloanes new silks. As a three-year-old in 1934 Cavalcade, the 3-2 favorite, won the Derby, scoring by two and one -half lengths over A. G. Vanderbilts Discovery. Cavalcade also won the Arlington Classic and the Detroit Derby — earning 11,000 — and finished a nose behind High Quest in the Preakness. Later that season Cavalcades career was cut short by a quarter crack. Brookmeade horses earned more than ► r x 2 t j ] j 1 ] | I j I j I 1 1 I t .« ; , 50,000 that year, easily outdistancing the nations owners, then came back 16 years later, in 1950, to again head the standings with 51,399. The 1950 success was more attributable to astute campaigning than to the brilliance of another Cavalcade. One of Brookmeades finest performers in recent years was Sailor, who defeated i Nashua in the 1956 Gulfstream Park Handicap, but broke down the following month in winning the John B. Campbell Memorial. Several excellent campaigners have been sold out of the Brookmeade Stable, including Sunnydale, Inseparable and Seaward. Mrs. Sloane is widely-known for her adroitness in naming horses. A Brookmeade colt by Case Ace — New Riches, for example, was named Oil, and in 1955, when Mrs. Sloane was aboard the ocean liner United States on its first record-breaking trans-Atlantic jaunt she named a filly by Arden — Flota, Maiden Voyage.
