Judges Stand: Owner Turner Discusses Tomy Lees Plans; Does Not Care to Exploit Game Colt; Silver Spoon Outran Regret But Still Lost, Daily Racing Form, 1959-05-06

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Judges Stand By Charles Hatton I Owner Turner Discusses Tomy Lees Plans Does Not Care to Exploit Game Colt Silver Spoon Outran Regret But Still Lost PIMLICO, Baltimore, Md., May 5. — So the Preak-ness has 50,000 added. So Tomy Lee does not need money, owner Fred Turner Jr. tells us. And so of course there can be no Triple Crown winner in this lush year of 1959. The Derby winner, having first got all the American dollars he wants for the moment with true British caution, will share the wealth with his Yankee cousins. Sword Dancer now is favored to win the upcoming Preakness. The Thoroughbred Club of America may think him rather mercenary, for it recently went on record in the HBPA con- vention to the effect it considers 50,000 too much prize money to take out of circulation in one role. But in extenuation it might be pointed out that, after all, Sword Dancers earnings do not yet include any "100-granders," so that he need feel no embarrassment about accepting the MJCs estimated 37,700 for two minutes work if he can get it. Some of his prospective rivals are even more impecunious, and already are vulgarians in the opinion of captious form students, so are unlikely to feel any compunctions about the question of taste involved. Money has not yet gone out of style, but discussing Tomy Lees plans with us from his Midlands, Texas, home yesterday, oilman Turner made it clear that he is in racing for kicks and his first concern is for Tomy Lee. This is refreshing. Especially at a time so many horses are being fragmented racing around the calendar. "We have no intention of exploiting Tomy Lee," Turner said. "He has had three hard races and as you know is made sort of light. We wish to give him a chance of building back up before racing him again. He is such a game little fellow. It would be an injustice to reward him by overdoing it." Another refreshing thing about Turner is that he did not want to insist Tomy Lee is the greatest horse since Herod, Matchem and Eclipse. Tough Kentucky Campaign He does permit himself to think of Tomy Lee as a good colt, and a notably well-bred one. We think that nobody will quarrel with either premise. It is possible the Britons Kentucky campaign jarred him a bit. He wore tendon bandages in Saturdays tour de force, and trained with a bandage on his left Jiind as well. As for his sparse frame, he comes by this honestly, for he is out of a mare by the Rothschilds tiny Brantome, whose issue usually are deceptively delicate in appearance. Trained the European way, for a particular race rather than a campaign, they are formidable racing tools. In all probability we shall hear from Tomy Lee next in the Hollywood Derby. Tomy Lee is not the only outstanding three -year-old to whom money is not everything. There is C. V. Whitneys magnificent filly Silver Spoon. She can always make 00,000 a week carrying Ward Bond around in a western. Instead she may go from California to Delaware, where Bryan Field pursues the theory "money makes the mare go," oblivious of the Thoroughbred Clubs dim view, the widespreading upstage attitude toward money, and Silver Spoons potential. If it is any solace to owner Whitney, Silver Spoon carried 121 a mile and a quarter in 2:03 in the Derby. "The only" Regret won her Derby with a mile and a quarter in 2:05% carrying 112 pounds. Ironicial. Extensive Film Record of Derby Turf ana: The knowing say Governor Tawes is a cert to veto the notorious Ripper Bill. . . . Unheard in the yakking over the last week end was septagenarian Frank Childs estimate that: "Had Shoe switched and rode Sword Dancer, he might have beaten me. It was that close." Childs, incidentally, was driving his fathers horses in trotting races at 15. . . . The eight film patrol cameras at the Downs ground out enough close-ups, front views and side views on the Derby for a full-scale spectacular rivaling "Gone With the Wind." Bolands claim occasioned 18 anxious minutes delay while the stewards went to the movies. A few stiff fines for frivolous claims would discourage needless repetitions of these unfashionable interludes. . . . Archivist Jack OKeeffe of ThistleDown finds the Ohio Derby is antedated by the Kentucky Derby by 76. . . . Leonard Hancock, the widely popular boniface just one year, which is to say it was introduced in of the Henry Watterson at Louisville, where he also heads the hotel association, confirms that reservation-wise it was the towns biggest Derby. Horace Wade is pleased with the volume of stall applications for the new Latonia, which will be unveiled for 37 days beginning August 27. He says of the course: "The steel all has been erected and four floors of the building poured. We are several days ahead of schedule, which calls for completion of the plant July 1. This gives us the leeway to add such gingerbread flourishes as we feel are indicated. The paddock is ready. Construction of 18 new barns has begun. And the course has been formed, with the rails going in soon." . . . Some years ago this observer, who enjoyed going racing at the old Latonia, wondered stands were not built on a new, more popular and democratic principle, with the lower levels for grandstand patrons, the upper tiers for clubhouse patrons. This puts everyone on the finish line. Latonia has adopted the idea, with a promenade on each tier that overlooks the paddock.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1959050601/drf1959050601_5_2
Local Identifier: drf1959050601_5_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800