view raw text
HUGH L FONTAINE Hugh L Fontaine Started Turf Career at Whit hey Farm in 30s Trainer of Needles Made D H Stable Affiliation While Being Yacht Broker BrokerBy By WILLIAM C PHILLIPS PHILLIPSHugh Hugh L Fontaine who was a classmate of Churchill Downs president Bill Corum at the University of Missouri is the man behind Needles The big man with the viuebrimmed straw hat who constantly carries a knotty black shillelah has had a most colorful career in racing racingHe He is training Needles now because he had an aversion to being a yacht broker Fontaine pursued that occupation at Ft Lauderdale Fla in 1952 Bonnie Heath who now owns the D H Stable with Jackson Dudley lived in that oceanside community and became acquainted with Fontaine as a boating enthusiast From his association with Fontaine he became in ¬ terested in thoroughbreds thoroughbredsSo So it was that in 1952 the D H Stable was formed Fontaine selected Needles from the Dickey Stable as a likely pros ¬ pect The price was 20000 Needles has already won 338605 338605Native Native of New Orleans OrleansHugh Hugh was born in New Orleans La some 60 years ago Shortly afterward his family moved to a plantation in northern Louisiana and then along about 1911 or 1912 they moved to Memphis Tenn TennFontaine Fontaine attended Memphis University School and also put in a stint at Kentucky Military Institute His college education consisted of two years at Washington Lee University and two years at the Uni ¬ versity of Missouri where he took a pre med course He was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity and was active in several sports sportsMedicine Medicine did riot appeal to Fontaine and he entered the first aviation school of the Signal Corps in Memphis When World War I was declared he was immediately commissioned as a first lieutenant lieutenantHugh Hugh went overseas with the 91st Ob ¬ server Squadron and later transferred to the 49th Pursuit Group During his flying career he was associated with Capt Eddie Rickenbacker the famed World War I ace aceUpon Upon his discharge Hugh moved to Tulsa Okla where he was a roughneck in the oil fields fieldsAfter After a spell in the oil fields Fontaine returned to farming raising cotton in Mississippi He later went back to Memphis and was an organizer of the Memphis Hunt and Polo Club He was a player of con ¬ siderable stature and rode against such stars as Tommy Hitchcock Rube Williams and Devereux Milburn MilburnThoroughbred Thoroughbred racing beckoned when Major Louie Beard who was in charge of the vast Harry Payne Whitney interests approached Fontaine to manage the farm in Kentucky After a year with Whitney he left to become manager of W R Coes Shoshone Stud and later became the train ¬ er for that establishment establishmentFontaine Fontaine saddled Ladysman to defeat the mighty Equipoise in the Suburban Handicap of 1934 The following year Coe disposed of his racing interests and Fon ¬ taine went to Upperville Va to manage the farm of Mrs Dodge Sloane owner of the Brookmeade Stable When Bob Smith resigned as the Brookmeade trainer Fon ¬ taine succeeded him and conditioned the Sloane horses for eight years yearsLeaving Leaving Brookmeade in 1945 Hugh op ¬ erated independently until 1950 Eugene Mori president of Garden State Park in ¬ terested him in becoming a racing official in 1950 and he served on the New Jersey circuit for a short time With winters of idleness in prospect Fontaine went into the yacht brokerage business and thus met Heath and Dudley DudleySince Since then the D H Stable has pur ¬ chased an 850 acre farm in Ocala Fla In addition to training the stable Fontaine is supervising the affairs on the farm turn ¬ ing a former cattle ranch into a modern thoroughbred nursery nurseryHugh Hugh is married to the former Lynn Logan who was a child movie star and heroine of the Winnie Winkle series She later organized a dancing act toured Europe and for two years appeared in Paris in a show with Maurice Chevalier
