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HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY Son of the thefounder founder of the Whitney racing stable stableand and father of the owner of Career Boy Boyand and Head Man CAREER BOY Hope of the Whitney family for its third success in the Derby Racing Proud of Whitney Heritage Three Generations of Family ProminentonAmericanScene Among Founders of Jockey Club Campaigned Abroad Owned Two Derby Winners Winnersby by BOB HORWOOD HORWOODThere There are few more hackneyed terms in racing than Pillar of the Turf but just as a few proverbs remain true in changing imes a few timeworn phrases are the only ones that truly fit a person or a situa ¬ tion And if the Whitney family starting with William Collins Whitney continuing with his son Harry Payne Whitney and his grandson C V Whitney not to mention VIrs Payne Whitney and her son and daughter John Hay Whitney and Mrs Charles Shipman Payson can be better de ¬ scribed than as pillars of the turf then his writer is an even poorer phrasemaker han is generally suspected suspectedJust Just when William Collins Whitney who raced extensively both in the United States and England first became interested in the thoroughbred horse is a lost date but he was instrumental in founding The Jockey Club 52 years ago and was one of the or ¬ ganizers of the Turf and Field Club a year later Harry Payne Whitney won the Ken ¬ tucky Derby of 1915 with the only filly to ever win that race the immortal Regret Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney who will be flying his colors today in their ninth Derby attempt saw that race and recalls I was a kid but I was excited excitedRode Rode Great Deal as Boy BoyC C V Whitney who will be represented by Career Boy and Head Man also recalls that he rode a great deal as a boy but was not particularly interested in racing be ¬ cause it was a spectator sport and as a young man he was primarily interested in things he could do himself However he did obtain a vicarious thrill from watching races in company with his father remark ¬ ing in an address delivered before the Na ¬ tional Press Club at Washington D C in 1953 I saw the Man oWarJohn P Grier race with my father who took me to the top of the stand I got a kick out of it I dont remember just why but I could see how excited my father was and how much it meant to him and I was stirred stirredWhichone Whichone was the first stakes winner to carry the C V Whitney silks taking the Futurity of 1929 the year in which Harry Payne Whitney passed on Equipoise was a yearling that year and Top Flight a wean ¬ ling so one can see that the present owner of the Eton blue silks and brown cap was wellarmed from his debut as an owner However it is an open secret that Whit ¬ neys interest in thoroughbred racing was comparatively slow in ripening not coming into full flower perhaps until Counter ¬ point won the Belmont Stakes and became Horse of the Year of 1951 Like Whichone Equipoise and Top Flight missed the Derbys for which they would have been favored because of infirmities Some years late Phalanx went to the post but also missed failing by inches to catch Jet Pilot in a race that most observers thought he should have won Phalanx too was never a sound horse but he went on to prove himself one of the best stayers of recent years His son Fisherman failed in the Derby after winning the Wood Memorial but became the first and only American horse to win the Washington D C International Now Career Boy an ¬ other son of Phalanx looms one of the favorites in the Run for the Roses RosesWhile While William Collins Whitney Payne Whitney Harry Payne Whitney and the present owners of Greentree Stable were substantial pillars of the turf almost from the beginning of their interest in the sport C V Whitney took some 20 years to develop his full stature in that respect The extent of that stature can be judged from both words and deeds He was the founder and inspirer of the National Museum of Racing which he opened at Saratoga Springs some years ago and has become one of the most intelligent and consistently successful of thoroughbred breeders breedersThese These achievements resulted in Whit neys being voted the N Y Writers Asso ¬ ciation award for 1952 as the outstanding figure in racing the previous year That same year he was also presented with a portrait of Counterpoint by The Morning Telegraph in recognition of his colts being named the previous seasons champion championIn In discussing racing from his ripened ex erience and particularly from the sport ng side Whitney has revealed a vast his ¬ torical knowledge of the thoroughbred sport even to the precise number of books published on the subject prior to the year 1868 He once remarked Our civilization was almost built up on he horse Before the mechanical age the lorse was used in our economics He was ised greatly in our military He has always been a figure of great imagination and commanded great respect throughout the ages and by all races Now why is that Because the horse as developed is an ani ¬ mal of great courage and stamina He is not as intelligent as a dog As someone once said you cant take him to bed with you But those are characteristics that all people like courage bravery and stam ¬ ina Ancestors Settled in Connecticut in 1636 1636Incidentally Incidentally in that same National Press Club address Whitney said that he had learned that the first John Whitney set ¬ tled in this countiy in Connecticut in 1636 where he raised a family including seven sons But the pQint is Whitney said that his youngest son from whom I anr descended was left my old gray mare Thats all he got So I come by my liking of horses the right way wayAs As said eailier C V Whitney had always liked horses but his liking of hprseracing came with maturity That is not too sur ¬ prising for actually thoroughbred racing as an interest is not a young mans sport it develops when a man or woman wants something less physically strenuous and which gives him something to constantly look forward to with each succeeding gen ¬ eration thus preserving his or her youth youthApart Apart from racing C V Whitney is a man of many and varied interests and has never been the playboy type During World War I he served in the Air Force in World War II he served as Assistant Secretary of Air while in 1949 President Truman appointed him to serve as Under ¬ secretary of Commerce In addition he is chairman of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company was a founder of Pan American Airways is a director of Cine ¬ rama Productions and with John Whitney was a founder of Sslznick International Pictures producers of Gone With the Wind WindMore More recently he became president of Whitrfey Industries a lumbering concern a director of the Metropolitan Opera Associa ¬ tion and trustee of the Museum of Natural History Somewhere along the line he found time to write a book concerning his experiences in the Near East during World War II That his military experience in World War II was decidedly combat is evi ¬ denced from the fact that he participated in the assault on Iwo Jima in 1945 and holds the following medals Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit a bronze battle star on the European Theatre ribbon and an invasion arrowhead on his Pacific Theatre ribbon
