Here and There on the Turf: American Riders Abroad Saddle Veterans for Lads to Copy New Feminine Owner Embarking, Daily Racing Form, 1922-12-20

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Here andThere on the Turf American Riders Abroad. Saddle Veterans for Lads to Copy. New Feminine Owner Embarking. "While some of the apprentice jockeys who are striving for advancement are misled by the bad examples furnished by a few of the older riders, there are many of this class who have set them examples worthy of emulation. There are many jockeys who have endured year after year and a large proportion of them are American riders. WheD a jockey has been in the saddle ten or twelve years he is a veteran, and we have many veterans. Some of them arc riding abroad, but they go on and on, year after year, with a measure of success that brings honor to their chosen profession. Frank ONeill, the best rider in France, has been riding for nineteen years, and in the racing season just closed he easily topped the list in the country of his adoption. Some years ago ONeill married and he is a man of affairs. He has lost none of his skill in the saddle and must necessarily have all the courage and vigor of a youngster to remain at the top of the list of riders in France. George Archibald, who rode Lord Woola-vingtons Town Guard in all of his races in England, is another American and has been in the saddle fifteen years. Town Guard was the best two-year-old of the British racing year, and Lord Woolavington has announced that Archibald will continue to ride him next year. Guy Garner is another of the old-timers who was the leading jockey in France in 1910, and he is still riding. Matt McGce is usually close to ONeill in winning mounts and rides skillfully for Baron E. de Rothschild in France. Winkfield, the colored rider, is another of the Americans that finished well up in the front end of the French list. He has had a long service in the saddle. Everett Haynes is still another that made good adequately in France after long years in this country. There are several others that went abroad to bring new fame to American riders, after having ridden for many years in this country. Eddie Dugan, who recently returned after a long imprisonment in Russia, is another that in long years of riding made good on both sides of the Atlantic. He is back in the saddle again in this country and will probably be in demand. But all of the old timers did not go abroad to grow old in the saddle. We have a number of riders still left who have reached the veteran class without losing their skill or their courage. Some of them are: William Obert, James Butwell, A. Pickens, Eddie Martin John Callahan, Ted Rice, Frank Keogh, M. "Happy" Buxton, Jess "Longshot" Conley, Andy Schuttinger, John McTaggart, M. Garner and Clarence Turner. Butwell has been in tho saddle for seventeen years. Obert, Pickens, Martin, Rice, Keogh and Buxton have all been riding for sixteen years, and Conley, Schuttinger and Callahan have all been in the saddle for a longer term. Probably Conley, the black boy, who earned his soubriquet of "Longshot" further back than many of the present-day turf followers remember, has a longer record of service than any rider of the present. Keogh has now gone abroad to ride for Joseph E. Widener next year, and ONeill will have to look to his laurels in 1923, for this jockey showed in his races of last season that he belonged on top of the division. Vincent Powers, who now trains and rides through the field, is another of the many veterans. He headed the list of jockeys in both 1908 and 1909, and he showed the same skill through the field when he took up that branch of racing after having become too heavy for fiat riding. All of these riders and many whose names cannot be brought to mind at the moment will always be shining examples for the aspiring young apprentice. Some of them have from time to time been in trouble, but they have endured year after year. That would not have been possible without a strict attention to their profession and the leading of clean lives. They must of necessity be fit bodily to ride, and must have skill to go on year after year still showing the way to the lighter youngsters who are annually springing up to crowd them from the top. It is such riders that mean something to the profession and they are the ones to point the way to the little fellows who would succeed. Next year will see a new racing establishment striving for turf honors when Mrs. K. E. Hitt will show her silks on New York and Maryland tracks. Mrs. Hitt, who was Miss Kathcrine May Elkins, has registered her colors with the Jockey Club, and thus far this fair J sportswoman has three yearlings that John Hastings will fit for the races for her. But this I will only be a beginning for Mrs. Hitt. Her present intention is to devote much of her attention to steeplechasing, and to that end Irish jumpers are being sought. The yearlings Hastings has in his care were bred by Mrs. Hitt at her Virginia farm near Middlebiirg, where she proposes to go into thoroughbred production on a large scale. Mrs. Hitt has ahvay3 been an enthusiastic horsewoman and became a breeder when she was presented with Ed Crump by A. K. Macomber. Ed Crump is a ten-year-old son of Peep oDay and Evaline, by Deceiver, a horse of fine individuality; has an excellent opportunity to make good as a stock horse. Mrs. Hitt has some mares of good breeding on her Virginia farm, and now that she has definitely come into racing her brced- ing operations will be expanded.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1922122001/drf1922122001_2_6
Local Identifier: drf1922122001_2_6
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800