Winning Willie

In Miami and New Orleans, horse-clippers were busy snipping winter coats from thoroughbreds, which were arriving by the trainload. Publicity men in loud jackets and louder shirts were booming next week's opening of the winter racing season. Cagey Hirsch Jacobs, who has trained the most winners for eleven of the past 13 years, prepared to head south--too late to do his 1946 record any good. He had won a mere 97 races this year.

Out at San Mateo's picturesque Bay Meadows, a sorrel-haired and taciturn young (35) rival, Willie Molter, had already won 114. Four of Willie's horses galloped home out front last week. Many a West Coast horse fan, convinced that betting on Willie is as good a way as any to win, bet on everything he sent to the post. They did it without Willie's blessing; like Jacobs, Willie seldom bets on a horse race, and never more than $10. (A typical paddock conversation goes like this: Owner: "Well, Willie, how do you like my horse today?" Willie: "I like him a little." Owner: "Good bet to win?" Willie: "He might.")

Willie Molter, who never says two words if one will do, learned his lesson the hard way. He comes from Fredericksburg, Tex. (pop. 3,500), also the home town of Max Hirsch, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Assault. As a jockey on dusty, jerkwater tracks in Reno, Emeryville and Butte, Willie blew most of his apprentice salary finding out that nobody could tell who was going to win. Says he: "I couldn't even pick the winners I was riding myself." His toughest job is trying to hold down his five owners (including Movieman Louis B. Mayer, whose second-stringers are Molter-trained). Like most owners, the five tend to overestimate their horses. If a horse wins, the owner wants to enter him in a higher class. Willie prefers to enter horses in races they can win.

Thirty Horses, Ten Cats. Willie's 30-horse stable at Bay Meadows has a barnyard look about it. He owns two goats, two ducks, one dog, one rooster and ten cats. He says it settles his horses to look out of the door and "see something moving around."

He cuts down traveling expenses by racing only in California. Because it doesn't cost any more to hire a good jockey than a bad one (established fee: $35 for a winning mount, $15 for a loser), he usually uses a top one, Johnny Longden. But he believes a good exercise boy is more important than a good jockey, and hires the best grooms he can find, at top wages. The rest is a matter of bookkeeping: Willie pays the feed bills and the help, collects $10 a day for each horse, plus 10% of all purses. He will clear $40,000 this season.

Like most trainers who win a lot of races, Willie Molter deals mostly in mediocre horses. Last week, two of his clients paid $52,500 for Bric a Bac, five-year-old son of War Admiral. With a bona fide stake horse to work with, Willie is now pointing for the $100,000 handicap at Santa Anita.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.