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C; . | ► Maryland Breeding By JOE B. HICKEY JR Carter Is Self-Made Horseman Has Rare Insight of Problems Started With ,800 and Hope BALTIMORE, Md., May 2.— Meet Snow-den Carter, TRA award-winning hot-walker. This 37-year-old, self-made horse man didnt, to be sure, win his award for hot-walking, though he is rather proficient at it. Carters vocation is turf reporting and handicapping for the Baltimore Sun papers His 1956 post-Preak-ness story was adjudged the years best news-feature article on racing. • Carters avocation in breeding and racing horses, which gives him a rare and keen insight to the problems of the horsemen of whom he is in daily contact. A graduate of Duke University, he joined the Sun as a police reporter. In 1945 he switched his beat to thoroughbred racing and has been at it ever since. Seven years ago, Snowden, or Nick, as he is known to many, decided clean, fresh, country air would have a salubrious effect on his growing family, so he purchased seven acres in nearby Reisterstown. The property came equipped with a homestead, a ramshackle barn and a prolific crop of weeds, all of which were surrounded by two strands of barbed wire. AAA After establishing residence, he prevailed upon his writing cronies to exchange their latent rock-piling and fence-building talents for potables and good fellowship. Strangely enough, the ergs of expended energy exceeded the "empties" and the new fencing was erected along reasonably geometric lines. p Once his property was improved, Carter was unable to contain his urge to buy a horse. He had held a trainers license and campaigned a steeplechaser named Golden Flag a few years previous. He explained his feelings to his wife: "Honey, a barn is not a stable without a horse, and besides it would help keep the children happy, and keep the grass down. Trainer Louis Pascal, a friend since childhood, did nothing to discourage this newly rekindled interest. Shortly thereafter, Carter, with 18 hundred-dollar bills in his pocket and Pascal at his side for moral suppart, set out for the William Helis dispersal sale. The first of the two weanlings in the dog-eared catalogue sold for the just-out-of -reach price of ,800. His second selection, a colt by Attention — Shadow Proof, he bought for ,600. Named Dark Patrol, Carters first purchase since has won about 0,000. In the Continued on Page Thirty -Nine Maryland Breeding By JOE B. HICKET Jr. Continued from Page Eleven meantime, Carter and Pascal formed a partnership, calling their enterprise Binna Farm, after the nickname of the reporters wife. With Dark Patrol keeping the operation reasonably solvent, the partners decided to commence breeding their own stock. Pascal started the ball rolling by selling his partner a half -interest for in the Wildlife mare, Rising Temper. That was the beginning. In a neat bit of horse trading, they swapped a Double Brandy yearling colt and a Top Money yearling filly for the Royal Gem II. filly, Perfect Gem, a full sister to the Kentucky Derby winner, Dark Star. Bred to Nahar II., Perfect Gem produced the colt judged "best thoroughbred colt" shown at the 1956 Maryland State Fair. It was the second consecutive year Binna Farm had produced the shows top foal. Perfect Gems prize -winning colt is the three-year-old, French Father. Her two-year-old colt, Kingly Gem, is not far from the races. Perfect Gem since has been sold to Harry Z. Isaacs Brookfield Farm. AAA There are now three broodmares at Binna Farm: Gaylo Gino — Star Galla, by Sir Gallahad III., Little Lisa Mr. Busher Daybrook, by Blue Larkspur and Rising Temper Wildlife — Conspicuous, by Display. Gaylo is the dam of the three-year-old Foolish Fellow, winner of three races in 1958 and one this year for the Carter-Pascal combine. She is booked to River War. Little Lisa was claimed for ,500 at Charles Town a few years ago. Though chronically unsound, she qualified as a broodmare on her breeding and uncommonly fine courage. Little Lisa remained in the Binna racing stable four months and, although she never had an exercising saddle on her back during that time, she picked up a check in each of her 6 starts, winning three races, finishing second once and fourth twice. Her first foal is the two-year-old colt Lisas Gem, by the defunct Beau Gem. The mare had a colt foal by Colonel Mike a few weeks ago and has been bred to Brookfield. Rising Temper, whose dam produced 11 ; winners, dropped the first thoroughbred I foal at Binna Farm. He is the four-year-old Guilty Verdict, a winner in each of his three seasons on the track. Her second foal is the two-year-old non-starter Tem- I per Temper. The mare has a yearling colt by Double Eclipse and is in foal to the same 1 imported stallion. She goes to Tuscany. • AAA Hard work, skillful trading and wise investing has not been without its rewards for the team of Carter and Pascal. Last year Pascal, who trains the Binna Farm horses, purchased a 27-acre farm of his own in Westminster. Carter recently sold : his Reisterstown property to the Hannah j More Academy and purchased a 21 -acre showplace in Upperco. But this time there I wont be any rock-pickers and fence-mend-I ers from the press box to put the place in shape. The new homestead, to which the Carters will move in July, is in A-l condition. j There is an attractive three-stall barn for the broodmares and a larger structure which is to be outfitted for horses. And should the need arise there are other buildings which could be converted to horse use. Snowden Carters T. R. A. award is ample testimony to his writing skill. But he didnt get those leathery palms from pecking at a typewriter keyboard. No sir. He wields a pitchfork 365 days a year and hes as happy at his work as a blue jay in a cherry orchard. Even the modest success now enjoyed by this mild pipe-smoking Baltimorean didnt come easy. There were many pitfalls and heartaches along the way. Carter has survived the angiiish of having his best horse claimed, of losing hard-earned cash in a stallion investment, of destroying a crippled foal, and has contracted pneumonia while sitting up with a foaling mare. But any doubt that was worth it all is dispelled when one looks into his glowing face as he speaks of the new homestead.
