Cross Country Squire

At only six of the 45 big race tracks in the U. S. (Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Saratoga, Pimlico, Delaware Park, Laurel Park) can railbirds see the sportiest of all horse races, a steeplechase. Last week, when beautiful Belmont Park opened its 24-day spring meeting, most of New York's racing fans looked forward to seeing Bimelech and his high-toned contemporaries in some of America's most famed flat races. Dyed-in-the-tweed "regulars" were equally eager to scan the 1940 crop of jumpers.

In the past decade steeplechasing has come a cropper. With tracks sprouting up all over the country (thus creating a greater demand for horses, horses, even second-rate horses), more & more owners sent their dubious or jaded thoroughbreds into claiming races to earn their oats, in stead of converting them into jumpers.

With fewer & fewer owners racing jumpers (and purses consequently decreased), steeplechasing became the monopoly of a few rich stables. Two years ago, 30% of the jumpers at Belmont were owned by Mrs. Payne Whitney, F. Ambrose Clark and Thomas Hitchcock.

This year steeplechasing is coming back.

Many are the newly-registered racing silks, notably those of New York Racing Commissioner John Hay ("Jock") Whitney, who started his stable of jumpers last year; Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, enter prising young president of Belmont; and Hollywood's Cinemagnate Louis B.

Mayer, who has spent close to $1,000,000 on thoroughbreds in the last two years. At Belmont last week six or seven horses, in stead of the usual two or three of former years, went to the post in the daily steeplechase events.

To most U. S. sport fans, the name of Hitchcock means America's greatest polo player. To horsemen, Hitchcock also means America's greatest steeplechase trainer. Oldtimers remember well when Thomas Hitchcock Sr., father of Tommy the Poloist, was a hell-for-leather rider himself. A Long Island swell, he learned polo at Oxford, was one of the first ten-goalers in the U. S., captained the first international polo team that challenged England for the Westchester Cup in 1886.

In 1900 he began to train hunters, steeple chase jumpers and polo ponies-on his estate at Aiken, S. C. Before long, Horse man Hitchcock, already a famed gentle man rider, was recognized as headmaster of steeplechase schooling.

While his equally horse-minded wife, the late Louise Eustis Hitchcock, taught two-legged thoroughbreds such as Winston Guest, Mike Phipps, Stewart Iglehart, Pete Bostwick and her own Tommy the ABCs of polo. Squire Hitchcock taught four-legged thoroughbreds the ABCs of jumping. Unlike most jumpers, Hitchcock's are neither converted flat racers nor hunters. He buys weanling thoroughbreds (both in Europe and the U. S.), with infinite patience and understanding, develops them into extraordinarily tractable jumpers. As yearlings, when most thoroughbreds are mighty kickuppy, Hitchcock's pets are as stolid as plow horses, let stable boys shinny up & down their legs, take barriers again & again with no temperament.

For three decades, Hitchcock's jumpers have won more races than those of any other U. S. stable. Some years, they took almost half the total steeplechasing purses.

In 1936, alarmed that his monopoly was making other people lose interest in the sport, Owner Hitchcock decided to sell rival owners some of his outstanding money winners. Since then, he has sold seven or eight of his best 'chasers every year, but he is still the No. 1 money winner. Two years ago, in 55 starts, his horses won 25 races, finished out of the money only twelve times.

Last week, when six of the country's prettiest jumpers paraded to the post at Belmont for the 41st running of the International Steeplechase, 79year-old Squire Hitchcock was in his customary spot: un der a giant elm tree behind the clubhouse.

For the last four years, ever since his doctor told him his heart would not stand watching another horse race, he has followed his horses by listening to the roar of the crowd. When one of his stable boys brought him the results of the race, he was pleased but not surprised; his six-year-old Satilla, 6-to-5 favorite, had won, defeating Louis B. Mayer's Ossabaw by two lengths and Emile Pfizer's Farndale by six. Ossabaw and Farndale were also his pupils-two of the graduates he recently sold.

*Last week Tommy Jr. sold his famed string of polo ponies, announced his retirement from the game he has dominated for more than a decade. Same day Jock Whitney sold his string, retired too. Hitchcock names each year's batch of newcomers in specific series e.g., South Carolina towns (Saluda, Yemassee), Long Island towns (Amagansett, Massapequa, Canarsie).

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