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_____ — , Tall, Educated, Weil-Groomed Derby Trainer Is Young Burch Has Experienced Teacher in* Wise Father; Saddled First Horse at Keeneland in 7954 By TOM OREILLY CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville. Ky., May 1. — If there is a glamour boy among the grizzled, leathery veterans who have trained the horses for this years Kentucky Derby, it would have to be J. Elliott Burch, the tall, 35-year-old, former Yale student and army veteran who prepared Sword Dancer for this race under the colors of Mrs. Dodge Sloanes Brookmeade Stable. Burch, a handsome, blue-eyed, brown haired and regular-featured six footer, dresses up the saddling enclosure in stylish tweed jackets, striped ties and a manner that Madison Avenue likes to describe as "the young executive air." Well, he belongs. His late grandfather, William Preston Burch is in the National Museum of Racings Hall of Fame at Saratoga. His father, Preston Morris Burch, is author of the deeply respected backside bible called "Training Thoroughbred Horses." No young man ever had better teachers. Father Saddled First Winner in 1902 There is no wiser trainer on the American turf than Elliotts father, now in his seventies, who saddled his first winner at New Yorks old Gravesend track in 1902. Burch, Sr. was managing John Danfords stable when the latters George Smith won the Kentucky Derby, in 1916. He trained for two years in France, during the period Governor Hughes banned betting on races in New York, and returned to his country aboard the Lusitania just two trips before it was torpedoed. He bred, trained and owned Tambour, winner of the 1930 Selima and the 1931 Coaching Club American Oaks, and was the breeder of the renowned j ► Gallorette. He now manages Brookmeades beautiful farm at Upperville, Va. Elliott took out his assistant trainers license in 1949. His name first appeared on a race program at Keeneland in 1954, when his father took a trip to Europe. The elder Burch left Rennie Parish, now training for Mrs. J. P. Adams, in charge of the horses in New York and Elliott took a string of seven to Kentucky. In 1957 the elder Burch suffered a heart attack and Elliott took complete charge. Older Brother Sells Helicopters His sun-lit, airy offices, on Belmont Parks famed "Millionaires Row," are neatly decorated with a map showing the horse farms of Maryland, pictures of Bold winning the Preakness, Sunglow taking the Widener, Sailor in his John B. Campbell Memorial and Flower Bowl lifting the Ladies Handicap at Belmont Park. Special shelves contain the stud books, American Racing Manuals and various tomes offering veterinarian advice. A small table holds a pile of New York magazines, a publication to which the young trainer is addicted. Elliotts best horses to date have been Oligarchy, winner of the Widener, Laurel and Camden handicaps, and Big Effort, who took Belmonts Acorn and the Delaware Oaks. Elliotts elder brother. Bill, sells helicopters to the army and navy for Republic Aviation. His sister. Mrs. Margaret Friendly, lives in Beverly Hills, Cal. His father, one of the turfs more charming gentlemen, used all his powers of persuasion to stop Elliott from becoming a trainer, without any success at all. While Elliott attended prep schools in Lawrenceville, N. J. and Tucson, Arizona, he spent Mr summers at Saratoga, where he really grew up with the horses. He played polo at Evans School in Tucson and was at Yale only a year j when the army called. Through 1944 and Continued on Page 47 D JOCKEY WILLIAM BOLAND — Rides Sword Doncer. Tall, Educated, Well-Groomed Derby Trainer Is Young Burch Continued from Page 13 D 46 he served in France and Belgium as a Signal Corps cryptographer. He only got to Paris for one weekend — AWOL — with his fathers good friend, Frank ONeill, a noted racetracker who had gone to Europe in 1910 and remained to open a bistro on the Rue Volney. Elliott spent another year at Yale, after being discharged from the army in 1946, and then switched to the University of Kentucky, where he studied agriculture and journalism, fertile pursuits of a close chemical association. For a short period he wrote articles for the Morning Telegraph, and did well. He saw his first Derby when his father started Liberty Road, in 1946 and the race went to Jet Pilot. Brookmeade now has 22 horses in training at Belmont Park. Divided between Up-perville and Kentucky are 39 broodmares, 29 yearlings, 26 foals and two stallions — More Sun and Sky Ship. Mrs. Sloane also has a majority interest in the stallions Sun-glow, at Merewoth Farm; Greek Ship, at Crown Crest Farm, and Sailor, at Darby Dan Farm, all in Kentucky. "Father told me racing was a wonderful sport," smiles Elliott, "filled with marvelous people, and that I would be training a truly great animal — the thoroughbred. He added, however, that a trainers life is filled with headaches. He was obviously reluctant to expose me to those headaches. "It was his Garden State performance that made me suspect he might be a potential Derby horse," says Elliott.
