view raw text
J JOCKEY PETE ANDERSON —Gets big chance astride Our Dad. Anderson Product of New York City Our Dads Jockey Raised in Yorkville Victory Astride Jacobses Homebred Would Make This A Highly Citified Derby By TOM OREILLY CHURCHILL DOWNS. Louisville. Ky., May 1. — If little Pete Anderson, the Subway Centaur, who learned balance hanging to straps in Manhattans Lexington Avenue express trains, wins this "Run for the Rcses" aboard pretty Patrice Jacobs homebred equine. Our Dad, named for her famed father who parlayed pigeon racing from Brooklyn rooftops into a one-man world record for training horses nearly 3,000 winners, this will be the most "citified" Derby since Al Smiths brown bowler. Kentuckys hardboots will have to take to the hills and let the patent-leather pumps take charge. Went to Riding Academy in Queens Village Pete, who is 28 and bow-legged as any hombre raised on the range, learned to ride around turns on the Third Avenue elevateds "Death Curve," high above Manhattans 110th Street. He was raised in the heart of Yorkville, New Yorks "Little Germany," where the disc jockeys wear lederhoesen and the beer stubes feature seidels rather than saddles. A graduate of P.S. 30, and an ex-91st Street stickball star whose broomhandle homers rose higher than Rupperts Brewery and stretched for "two sewers." Pete grew up — well, 4 feet, 8 inches — to become a token-carrying member I of Notre Dames "subway alumni." I Pete met his first horse when a gal ! cousin, Helga Biennek Petes mother is German and his father a skilled Scotch I mechanic took him to Mike OConnors ! riding academy on Hillside Avenue in I Queens Village. Mike, in turn, took the boy, aged 12, to Belmont Park where he I I ! I ! I r braced trainer Max Hirsch for a job. The Texas sage opined the boy was too young. Disappointed,-they were plodding through the stable area when OConnor met an old friend who worked for trainer Oleg Dubas-soff. The elegent Russian, who rode not to hounds but to wolves on the pre-Soviet sterpes. listened to Petes plight and suggested he stay in school but drop around Saturdays and Sundays for a bit of work. In 1945, Dubassoff took Pete to Aiken, S.C., where he worked around the stable most of the day and spent the early evenings studying under a Mrs. Hilton, who also tutored Jack Bradley, now with trainer William H. Kelley, and Buddy Martens who, at that time, was working for Preston Burch. A bright pupil who had been listed as a "rapid advance student" at P.S. 30 where, incidentally, Jim Roach, sports editor of the New York Times, was first exposed to learning, Pete learned quickly but preferred live horses to Latin ones. The following year he went to galloping Jules Finks horses for Woody Stephens and stayed with him for some 10 years. In 1943. at 16, Pete rode first race race, aboard a filly named Sylvia Dear at Hialeah. A few months later he broke his maiden atop Vienna Waltz the Yorkville influence, owned by the late editor Neville Dunne, at Keeneland. He was a "hot" jockey at Saratoga but found prosperity increased his appetite and practically ate himself out of business. In 50 and 51, now known as "The Ice Cream Kid." because of his passion for that delicacy, his rides were few and far between. His natural weight shot up to 125 pounds. Strict dieting plus servitude in the steam box got him back to riding weight again in 1953. Now he can do 112 or 113 pounds. Last year was his greatest no matter how you look at it. First he married Patricia Patterson, of Detroit, in the town of Folks- ton, Georgia, while they were riding north from Miami. Then he won the coveted Bel- mont Stakes aboard the Irish galloper. Cavan. He won the Peter Pan and the Leonard Richards Stakes on Cavan, too. Continued on Page 56 D ► Anderson Product Of New York City Victory Astride Jacobses Our Dad Would Make This A Highly Citified Derby Continued from Page 23 D He won the Acorn and the Delaware Oaks on Big Effort; the Macomber and Sussex handicaps on Hindu Festival, and the Massachusetts Handicap on Promised Land. As you know, this year he finished third behind Manassa Mauler and First Landing on Our Dad in the Wood Memorial at Jamaica. Our Dad was running fastest at the finish and Pete was heartbroken to find himself trapped behind the other two in the home stretch. The only other stake horse he had ever ridden for Jacobs was Promised Land, with whom he won the Massachusetts Handicap. "I was furious at the finish," he recalls, "but Mr. Jacobs was tickled pink because his horse had done so well. That was a switch. Most owners give the jockey the works under those circumstances but Mr. Jacobs is one of the finest sportsmen in the game and also was smart enough to know that what happened there couldnt be helped. "Anyway, I consider it a great honor to ride Mr. Jacobs horse in the Derby and appreciate the chance he is giving me. This baby can go on and, win, lose or draw down here, I hope I get to ride him again in the Belmont Stakes." Pete took up golf two years ago and says the best score he ever made was an 86 for 18 holes over a Miami Springs course. He and his wife are keen bowlers and he was elated last week when he hit a smart 201 on an alley near his home in Hollis, Long Island. He goes out to see his Belmont Stakes winner, Cavan, every morning and reports the horse in fine shape. Pete is one of the star singers and dancers of the annual Jockeys Guild show and dinner dance. If his horse wins the Derby he may ask for top billing this year. Hell get it, too.
