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► . — , . : DUNCE Steve Brooks up Brooks Aims to Make Dunce Bright Score on Ponder Career Highlight Veteran Nebraskan Riding In Ninth Derby; Explains His Technique With Whip - CHURCHILL DOWNS. Louisville. Ky., May 1. — Veteran rider Steve Brooks, who will be up on Claiborne Farms Dunce in the Derby Saturday, to this day insists the high point in his career came in 1949 when he piloted Ponder to a brilliant victory in the Kentucky Derby. Brooks explains, "where ever you go. if you have won the Derby, it means something because everybody knows about the Derby. No other race is so well known and no other race can match it in prestige." Broke and Trained Small Ponies Brooks, a native of McCook. Nebraska, grew up on a farm but even as a youngster, he did a lot of travelling with his parents. His father was a horse and cattle dealer and trader, and not only did horses l pull their covered wagons, but often several were walked along in back to be on hand if a sale or a trade materialized at the farms they passed. Brooks first learned to ride on these horses as they plodded along the lanes and roads, and when he started as a rider, he took to the down to earth racing of the fairs in Montana, South Dakota. Colorado, and Nebraska. "I Earned about horses from the ground j up, so to speak," recalls Brooks. "For in- | stance, at one time I was breaking and training small ponies to be sold as childrens mounts. After my experience in the bushes. I started at the recognized tracks and in a little more than a year, I was riding my share of winners. Going into Derby week. Brooks had ridden 3.156 winners in his career. I had a big year in 47. l j | - 4 and as I recall, was leading the national list by 38 or 39 winners at the end of the Churchill Downs fall meeting, but decided to rest the remainder of the season, and Johnny Longden went on to win the title. But it was still a big year with 285 winners or thereabouts." Brooks is known as a strong whip rider, and he has arm muscles of truly spectacular strength for a small m~n. Brooks reveals a hitherto unpublished story as to "how he got that way." Recalls Brocks. "When I was really teaching myself to ride, my Uncle had a mare whom you couldnt touch with a whip and I had to learn to use great ingenuity to hand ride her. But because of that mare. I also found out that I really wanted to learn to use a whip as it should be used. so I took to practice. Just practice and more practice. But there is an interesting point Id like to make about the use of the whip. I have learned, and firmly believe, that the whip should be used to sting, not to hurt. For if you hurt a horse, he wont give his best. I always check after a race to see if there are any welts raised from my whipping, and there never are. I suppose I could really whale a horse with, a whip because Ive always been strong, but I dont and wont. I believe that when I whip, it locks harder than it actually is because Ive got the whole procedure down to what might be called a science." This will be Brooks ninth Derby. In addition to Ponder, he was second on Sub Fleet in 1952, fourth on Count Chic in 1956. In all other efforts, he was unplaced. A roster of the good horses he has ridden would look like an equine "whos who and for the three straight years he was number one rider for Calumet, good horse after good horse came under his saddle. Brooks and his wife. Elwana. and their 16-year-old daughter, have finally settled down and have a home in Miami. The rider, who will be 37 in August, believes he will be riding for many years to come. He keeps himself fit, and says he feels as good as he did 15 years ago. His riding bears out this contention.
