2011 paddock magazine full pdf version - Oak Tree Racing

2011

Paddock
2 0 1 1
C O N T E N T S
4 OAK TREE: HOME OF CHAMPIONS
Many Eclipse Award champions and Breeders’ Cup winners since 1969
developed into stars during the Oak Tree race meeting.
10
GREGSON FOUNDATION
HONORS OAK TREE
The annual Gregson Foundation dinner raises funds for college scholarships,
and this year it recognized the Oak Tree Racing Association’s many
good works.
14
EQUINE HEALTH AN
OAK TREE MAINSTAY
The Center for Equine Health, Southern California Equine Hospital, and
racetrack equine ambulances owe their existence to the Oak Tree Racing
Association.
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PADDOCK 2011
4
10
20
BARR BECOMES
OAK TREE’S THIRD PRESIDENT
In the 40-plus years of the Oak Tree Racing Association, John Barr follows
founders Clement L. Hirsch and Dr. Jack Robbins as its third President.
23 CTHF CARES FOR THE CARETAKERS
The California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation can offer inexpensive
and/or free medical services to backstretch workers due in part to the
Oak Tree Racing Association.
26
ZENYATTA AND
JOHN HENRY’S TRIPLES
20
Only two horses have won the same stakes three times at Oak Tree—the
incomparable legends Zenyatta in the Lady’s Secret and John Henry in the
Oak Tree Invitational.
14
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

www.oaktreeracing.com
26
30 HARPER GOT HIS START AT OAK TREE
Del Mar’s Joe Harper began his career in racetrack management when working for the Oak
Tree Racing Association during the 1970s.
34 WHERE WINNERS THRIVE
The Winners Foundation, with financial aid from the Oak Tree Racing Association, helps
racetrack and backstretch employees turn their lives around.
38 SIX WINS IN ONE DAY
Martin Pedroza, Patrick Valenzuela, Darrel McHargue, and Steve Valdez are the only jockeys
to have ridden six winners in one day at Oak Tree.
44 HOLLENDORFER ENTERS HALL OF FAME
Jerry Hollendorfer, trainer of such horses as Blind Luck and King Glorious, is the latest
inductee in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.
38
Officers and Directors
Dr. Jack K. Robbins
Chairman
John H. Barr
President
Sherwood C. Chillingworth
Executive Vice-President
Dr. Rick Arthur
Vice-President
Thomas R. Capehart
Vice-President
Richard Mandella
Vice-President
Warren B. Williamson
Vice-President
Robert W. Zamarripa, Sr.
Vice-President
Oak Tree Racing Association
285 W. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, California 91007
(626) 574-6345
Publisher
Benoit & Associates, Inc.
Editor
Tracy Gantz
Associate Editor
Jane Goldstein
Creative Director/Art Production
Jerri Hemsworth
Newman Grace Inc.
Editorial Contribution
Steve Andersen
Tracy Gantz
Jane Goldstein
Steve Schuelein
Jack Shinar
Hank Wesch
Art Wilson
Photo Coordination
Rayetta Burr
Photography
T.J. Abahazy
Tom Abahazy
Rayetta Burr
Rick Fernandez
Trevor Jones
Bill Mochon
Editorial Consultant
Sherwood C. Chillingworth
PADDOCK is published annually by Benoit & Associates,
Inc., with offices at 285 W. Huntington Drive,
Arcadia, CA 91007-3439, telephone (626) 574-6463.
Copyright ©2011 Oak Tree Racing Association. No part
of PADDOCK may be reprinted in any form without
written consent of the publisher. Send change of
address to the Editorial Offices.
COVER—The strength, heart, and courage of Oak
Tree racing action. Benoit Photo.
PADDOCK 2011
3

C h a m p i
Begin at Oak
Azeri (center) is one of several
to win Horse of the Year after
an Oak Tree campaign.
4 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

n s h i ps
Tree
Many Eclipse Award and Breeders’ Cup winners
earned their stripes through victory in Oak Tree’s
graded stakes.
BY STEVE ANDERSEN
The list begins at the start of a new era, back in 1984, when racing
was tip-toeing toward an event that would revolutionize the
way horses are raced and how their campaigns are judged.
When Chief’s Crown won the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at
Hollywood Park on Nov. 10, 1984, the very first race in the history of
that series, the champion colt started a trend that continues strongly
to this day. Chief’s Crown became the first horse to use a prep race
at an Oak Tree meeting—the Norfolk Stakes—as a springboard to
www.oaktreeracing.com PADDOCK 2011 5

C h a m p i
Chief’s Crown won the
1984 Norfolk Stakes
(top), and Julie Krone
and Halfbridled won
the 2003 Oak Leaf
Stakes (right) prior to
Breeders’ Cup
triumphs.
success in a Breeders’ Cup race. He was later
named champion 2-year-old male of 1984.
In almost every subsequent year, that milestone
has been duplicated, sometimes by several
horses in the same year. Last fall at Churchill
Downs, when Dakota Phone came roaring down
the stretch to post a 37-1 upset in the Breeders’
Cup Dirt Mile, the gelding became the 42nd
horse to run in an Oak Tree race and go on to
win a Breeders’ Cup race. He had finished third
in the Goodwood Stakes at Hollywood Park the
preceding month.
Typically run four weeks before the Breeders’
Cup, an Oak Tree stakes exists for essentially
every category of horse. The Oak Tree meeting
has been a proving ground for generations of
top-class Southern California Thoroughbreds
whose owners have Breeders’ Cup aspirations.
Two-year-olds compete in such Grade I races as
the Norfolk or Oak Leaf Stakes for fillies. Sprinters
have the Ancient Title Stakes on the main
track and the Morvich Handicap on turf. Older
runners can try the Goodwood on the main
track or, if they are turf specialists, the Oak Tree
Mile or Clement L. Hirsch Turf Championship.
Older females are featured in the Lady’s Secret
Stakes on the main track and the Yellow Ribbon
Stakes on the turf.
6 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Four Footed Fotos

Santa Anita photo
o n s h i p s
“You find out what you’ve got,” said Hall of
Fame trainer Richard Mandella, an Oak Tree
board member. “The timing is good for the
Breeders’ Cup.”
Many famous names appear on that list of 42
Oak Tree horses who won Breeders’ Cup races,
but none more than Zenyatta, who won three
consecutive runnings of the Lady’s Secret
Stakes—at Santa Anita in 2008 and 2009 and at
Hollywood Park in 2010. They were the eighth,
13th, and 19th wins of her 20-race career. In all
those years, she was the champion older female.
Twice she won Breeders’ Cup races at an Oak Tree
meeting—the 2008 Ladies’ Classic, an occasion
when her popularity truly began to soar, and the
2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic, the finest moment
in Oak Tree history.
The energy at Santa Anita on that afternoon
in 2009, the passion her fans showed in support
both before and after the race, and the heartstopping
way Zenyatta rallied from the back of
the field to beat the boys will never be forgotten.
Zenyatta was voted the 2010 Horse of the Year
after a game second to Blame in the Breeders’
Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. She became the
first horse to win that award and race at an Oak
Tree meeting since Curlin, who finished fourth
in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic and had won
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four Grade I races earlier that year.
Two other Horses of the Year in the 2000s
before Curlin—Tiznow in 2000 and Azeri in
2002—were campaigned at the Oak Tree meeting
in those seasons. Tiznow won the 2000
Goodwood Handicap and traveled to Churchill
Downs, where he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic,
clinching his title. Two years later, Azeri won the
Lady’s Secret Handicap and then the Breeders’
Cup Distaff (later renamed the Ladies’ Classic)
at Arlington Park.
The 2000 Goodwood was trainer Jay Robbins’
favorite race of Tiznow’s—at least until that point
of the colt’s career. The main competition that day
included the multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old
Captain Steve, who could only manage second.
“When he beat Captain Steve, it was a good
race,” Robbins recalled over the summer.
As the game evolved, with the late-season
emphasis on the Breeders’ Cup, the number of
horses who raced at Oak Tree and subsequently
won divisional championships soared. The prep
races at Oak Tree have become part of a national
playoff of sorts that horsemen and racing fans
follow for Breeders’ Cup clues.
The Oak Tree stakes are perfectly situated to
give leading horses, particularly those based in
Southern California, an important race.
Ack Ack won the
Autumn Days
Handicap in 1970
before going on to a
Horse of the Year title
in 1971.
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C h a m p i
Kotashaan (above)
and Tiznow (center,
right) used Oak Tree
as springboards to
Horse of the Year titles
in 1993 and 2000,
respectively.
“We are in a great position because we could
provide races four to five weeks out in graded
stakes,” said Oak Tree’s longtime Executive Vice-
President Sherwood C. Chillingworth. “It is an
advantage to us.
“We’ve done extremely well. We’ve had a lot
of horses come out of races and do well, not just
winners. It’s been some of the best racing around
the country.”
The Norfolk, Oak Leaf, Ancient Title, Goodwood,
and Hirsch have helped horses such as
Lookin At Lucky, Stardom Bound, Kona Gold,
Tiznow, and Kotashaan to year-end championships
in the season they won those races.
Kotashaan won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 1993,
the year he won the Oak Tree Invitational Stakes.
(The Invitational was renamed in 2000 to honor
Clement Hirsch, co-founder of Oak Tree and its
first President. Hirsch died in March 2000.).
Mandella trained Kotashaan and turned two
Breeders’ Cup days at Oak Tree into showcase
events for his stable. He has won six Breeders’
Cup races in his career, and all of those winners
ran at Oak Tree in prep races before capturing
Breeders’ Cup races that were run during those
same meetings.
In 1993, Mandella won the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Fillies with eventual champion 2-year-
old filly Phone Chatter, who had won the Oak
Leaf Stakes. He also won with Kotashaan.
A decade later, in 2003, Mandella doubled his
win haul. He won four Breeders’ Cup races, with
Halfbridled in the Juvenile Fillies, Action This
Day in the Juvenile, Johar in the Turf (in a dead
heat with High Chaparral), and Pleasantly Perfect
in the Classic.
The 2-year-olds were later named champions.
Halfbridled had won the Oak Leaf, Action This
Day a maiden race at Oak Tree. Johar had finished
second in the Hirsch, and Pleasantly Perfect
had defended his title in the Goodwood.
But the major stakes at the Oak Tree meeting
have even more history behind them. Back in the
early 1970s, when Oak Tree was in its infancy,
the meeting quickly filled a void of top-class racing
between the conclusion of Del Mar and the
start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. As
a result, opportunity developed for major stakes
competition in California in the autumn for
leading horses, and others being prepared for the
forthcoming season.
Ack Ack won the 1970 Autumn Days Handicap
at Oak Tree, and he was named the 1971
Horse of the Year. Typecast won the 1971 Las Palmas
Handicap at Oak Tree and won six stakes in
1972, the year she was honored as champion
8 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

o n s h i p s
older female. Cougar II won the 1971 Oak Tree
Invitational and repeated the following year, the
season he was named champion turf horse.
Trillion became the first champion turf
female in 1979 on the strength of a campaign
that included runner-up finishes to males in the
Canadian International at Woodbine, Turf Classic
at Aqueduct, and a second to Balzac in the
Oak Tree Invitational.
The list of champions from that era does not
include such notable near champions as
Ancient Title, who won the 1972 Sunny Slope
Stakes at Oak Tree, the second of 20 stakes wins
in a 57-race career, or Exceller, who won the
Oak Tree Invitational in 1978 in his first start
after beating eventual champion older male
Seattle Slew in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont
Park. With that New York race on the top
line of his past performances, it’s no wonder
that Exceller was sent off at odds of 3-10 in the
Oak Tree Invitational.
By the early 1980s, the Oak Tree races were
further established on the national stage. One
name stood out year by year in those seasons.
John Henry won seven championships from
1980 to 1984, including the Horse of the Year
award in 1981 and 1984. From 1978, at the age
of 3, to 1983, the year before his final start, he
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started at Oak Tree at least once a year.
Over the years, the highlights were three consecutive
wins from 1980-82 in the Oak Tree Invitational,
a race that greatly influenced the
balloting for the turf championship before the
Breeders’ Cup.
John Henry’s 1981 Horse of the Year title was
the first of three in that decade for Oak Tree
runners. In 1986, Lady’s Secret capped a
remarkable 15-race campaign with a win in the
Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Oak Tree, clinching the
Horse of the Year title. A year later, Ferdinand,
the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, won the
Goodwood on a muddy track and two weeks
later at Hollywood Park won the Breeders’ Cup
Classic against Alysheba, securing the Horse of
the Year award.
It would be no surprise if the list of champions
with Oak Tree stakes experience grows this
fall. For 2011, Oak Tree is not hosting a fall meeting,
but Santa Anita Park has been licensed to
run the Oak Tree stakes at its autumn meeting,
which means the races with familiar names will
continue. So will the top-class racing in major
stakes, as it has for more than four decades.
Steve Andersen is the Southern California correspondent
for Daily Racing Form.
Zenyatta became the
first female ever to win
the Breeders’ Cup
Classic when she
stormed home at Oak
Tree in 2009.
PADDOCK 2011
9

Investing in the Future
The Gregson Foundation honored the Oak Tree Racing Association at its
annual dinner that raises funds for scholarships.
Sherwood C. Chillingworth, Warren B. Williamson, Richard Mandella, Dr. Rick Arthur, Thomas R. Capehart, and John H. Barr
represented Oak Tree at the Gregson dinner.
The dinner took place
at the Grand Del Mar,
and Oak Tree
President John Barr
spoke during the
festivities, which were
emceed by Joe Harper.
10 PADDOCK 2011
Children of Southern California backstretch
workers are heading into just
about every field of study that higher
education offers, whether it’s law, biology, criminology,
nursing, veterinary medicine, linguistics,
or architecture. The Gregson Foundation
sees to it that these kids get a leg up on their education
with scholarship help, and no entity has
supported the foundation in its mission more
than the Oak Tree Racing Association.
A consistent supporter of the Gregson Founda-
tion, named for the late trainer Edwin Gregson, Oak
Tree and its directors believe in these kids’ future.
When the Gregson Foundation began its annual
dinner to raise funds for these scholarships, Oak Tree
was front and center with whatever was needed.
Past dinners have honored worthy individuals,
but for 2011 the Gregson Foundation chose
to spotlight Oak Tree as an association. It was an
opportunity to recognize the many charitable
contributions Oak Tree has made, not just to the
backstretch workers through the Gregson Foun-
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

Molly Robbins, Mace Siegel.
Jenine Sahadi, James Ellet, Mary Rose Ellet, Angie Carmona.
dation, but through many other organizations
such as the Winners Foundation and the California
Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation.
Oak Tree’s support of equine health and
research was also lauded at the Aug. 8 dinner held
at the Grand Del Mar. Those in attendance honored
the organization as well as the men who serve
on the board—Chairman Jack Robbins, Executive
Vice-President Sherwood C. Chillingworth, President
John H. Barr, and Directors Rick Arthur,
Thomas R. Capehart, Richard Mandella, Warren
B. Williamson, and Robert W. Zamarripa Sr.
Joe Harper, president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred
Club and an early executive vice president
of Oak Tree, emceed the festivities.
“Oak Tree was founded by leaders of the industry
in California,” said Harper. “They did it for no
money. They decided to start a racing association
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Karen and Thomas Capehart, Shirley Kimball.
Sherwood C. Chillingworth, Bo Hirsch.
Dr. Joe Cannon, Esme Gregson, Mark McCreary.
PADDOCK 2011
11

Jay Hovdey, Julie Krone.
Betty and John Barr, Sherry and John Fordham.
Warren Williamson, Carla Gaines, Alyce Williamson, grandson Warren
Williamson, Jake Vacek.
Richard Mandella, Jim Cassidy, Guy Lamothe.
Dr. Todd Borkken, Tescha Von Bluecher,
Charlene and Helmuth Von Bluecher.
and give all the money to the industry where it’s
needed. They’ve done an incredible job.”
In a video produced by Amy Zimmerman and
Stephen Nagler of HRTV shown at the dinner,
many people spoke eloquently about the importance
of Oak Tree.
“If I actually took the time to mention all of
the things that Oak Tree has supported with
funds from their meet, we wouldn’t have time to
do this interview,” said former trainer Gary Jones.
“Without Oak Tree, the Southern California
Equine Foundation would not be in existence,”
said Dr. Jeff Blea. “Due to their benevolence and
generosity, they provide three ambulances to the
racetracks of Southern California, and they provide
funds for a lot of equipment that we use in
the hospital.”
Thoroughbred owner Mace Siegel, who was
12 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

Samantha Siegel, Fran and Lou Raffetto.
Eddie Delahoussaye, Elizabeth Ellis, Joe Talamo, Juanita Delahoussaye.
honored at the Gregson dinner in 2008, spoke this
year, commending Oak Tree for its support of the
industry. He singled out Chillingworth and Harper
as “the kind of people who make this game great.
These are people who give of themselves, who do
the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”
Jay Hovdey, executive columnist for Daily Racing
Form, noted several of the young people who
have benefited from Gregson scholarships.
“You can reach out and touch a lot of the
things that the Oak Tree Racing Association has
been responsible for,” Hovdey said, “state-ofthe-art
equine ambulances, landmark veterinary
studies, five successful Southern California
Breeders’ Cups, a fully funded backstretch cafeteria
and recreation center.”
Oak Tree is the largest single supporter of the
Gregson Foundation, Hovdey noted. In the
Foundation’s 10 years, more than 300 grants
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Dr. Rick Arthur, Sherwood Chillingworth, Jenine Sahadi, Thomas Capehart,
Warren Williamson.
Steve Sahadi, Kerrie Cargill Sahadi.
have been awarded to help young people further
their education.
“Of all the things horse racing can do, this has
got to be one of the best,” said Hovdey. “And for
that, the Oak Tree Racing Association deserves
our thanks, and the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation
deserves our applause.”
Chillingworth in his remarks thanked trainer
Jenine Sahadi, president of the Gregson Foundation
and organizer of the dinner along with
Angie Carmona, the Gregson secretary.
“I’ve had three prior careers, and my career with
Oak Tree has been the most satisfying,” said Chillingworth,
“because you’re not competing with
anybody. You’re not trying to get the upper hand.
You’re just trying to help people. For many years
we have taken the greatest pleasure in being able
to assist not only individuals, but institutions that
do things for the horse racing business.”
“These are
people who
give of
themselves,
who do the
right thing
because it’s
the right
thing to do.”
PADDOCK 2011
—Mace Siegel
13

horse
High on
Through its contributions to the Southern California Equine
Foundation and the University of California at Davis,
Oak Tree has made a difference in equine health.
BY JACK SHINAR
14 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

health
Oak Tree Agenda
trainer Jenine Sahadi was sitting in her customary
spot in the grandstand overlooking
the finish line at Santa Anita early on the
morning of May 28, 2004, when it happened.
Annabelly, a 4-year-old filly she was preparing
for a stakes race in Northern California, had
just completed a blazing six-furlong drill in
1:10 2/5. Sahadi was fuming at
jockey Alex Solis, who was
aboard Annabelly, muttering to
an associate seated next to her as
she watched.
“She worked unbelievably, but I
was [miffed] because I don’t like
to work my horses fast,” she said.
Annabelly had finished her
jog afterward and was making her
way back to the barn near the
seven-eighths pole when she
suddenly went wrong.
Sahadi knew immediately
some thing was amiss. “It was a horrible,
horrible breakdown, just an
awful thing to watch,” she recalled.
Rushing toward the scene, she
used her cell phone to call her veterinarian,
who phoned for the
track ambulance. By the time
Sahadi got to the injured horse,
Solis had dismounted and was
holding Annabelly up, keeping
her off the injured left front leg.
Using the specialized horse
ambulance that arrived a few
minutes later, they were able to
load Annabelly aboard without
further stressing the damaged
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limb. Sahadi and her assistant trainer held the
filly in place, and they returned to the trainer’s
barn to evaluate the damage. Annabelly, her
vet said, had suffered a displaced condylar
fracture of the cannon bone and a broken
sesamoid bone.
It was decision time. Annabelly’s racing career
was done, but there was a slight chance she
could be saved as a broodmare. With surgical
facilities available right at Santa Anita through
the Southern California Equine Foundation
(SCEF), a major beneficiary from Oak Tree Racing
Association donations, Annabelly had a
better prognosis than most in that situation.
Sahadi noted that while veterinarians felt
Annabelly would likely come through the surgery
fine, they were concerned about the
recovery period, when dangers such as laminitis
loom.
But Annabelly, a barn favorite, held a special
place in Sahadi’s heart. Not only was she owned
by a top client, Richard and Sue Masson’s Green
Lantern Stables, she was out of the dam Crissy
Aya, a good sprinter during her racing career.
Crissy Aya, Sahadi said, was the smartest horse
she ever trained.
Sahadi had purchased Annabelly, who was by
Royal Academy, for Green Lantern for $150,000
at Barretts as a select 2-year-old.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw her for the
first time,” Sahadi said. “She was like a carbon
copy of Crissy Aya.”
Although reasonably well bred and a stakesplaced
winner of four of seven starts, “it was not
a slam dunk” to try to save Annabelly, Sahadi
said. “It wasn’t like she was going to be a $2
million broodmare.”
Owners Richard
and Sue Masson
(center) and
trainer Jenine
Sahadi (glasses)
were able to save
Annabelly because
of Oak Tree’s
donations.
PADDOCK 2011
15

Oak Tree provided
most of the funding for
the Santa Anita and
Hollywood Park equine
hospitals, much of the
hospital’s specialized
equipment, and three
equine ambulances.
16 PADDOCK 2011
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

But she made the call to the Massons, who
agreed to the surgery.
The following day, Annabelly was moved to
the racetrack hospital on the backstretch operated
by the SCEF. Dr. Rick Arthur, now the California
Horse Racing Board’s equine medical
director, performed surgery to repair the breaks.
Under the watchful care of Sahadi, Annabelly
was a good patient and completed her recovery,
despite a few close calls during a 10-month
recuperation period, when the filly nearly
developed laminitis. Annabelly, accompanied by
Sahadi, soon boarded a plane for Kentucky to
begin her new life.
Annabelly now lives near Keeneland Race
Course at the Massons’ Golden Age Farm. She
has delivered five foals to date, including two
starters who are both winners.
It’s a dramatic story, one with a happy ending.
And quietly in the background, Oak Tree has
played an important role.
The not-for-profit charitable organization
provided most of the funding for the hospital
dedicated at Santa Anita in 1981 and for the
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building of a similar facility a few years later
at Hollywood Park. Oak Tree is responsible for
much of the specialized equipment needed to
furnish a surgical suite and X-ray room. And it
paid for three ambulances, at a cost of nearly
$80,000 apiece, that include a hydraulic system
that lowers the loading ramp to ground
level, a laterally moving wall that can hold an
injured horse upright, and a winch that can
assist loading a horse that cannot rise on its
own into the trailer.
Dr. Jack Robbins, one of Oak Tree’s founders,
and Dr. Greg Ferraro, among others in the
equine medical fraternity, saw that an onsite
equine hospital could be instrumental in saving
lives, said Karen Klawitter, the administrator for
the SCEF. They approached Oak Tree and the
California Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective
Association.
Santa Anita management gave the go-ahead
to build the hospital on the backstretch, and
“Oak Tree stepped up with the promissory
note,” said Klawitter, who started as a technician
and has been associated with the facility
almost since it began.
Arthur, who is a member of the Oak Tree
board of directors, said he got his start as an
equine surgeon at the Santa Anita hospital and
that veterinarians there have done hundreds of
condylar surgeries such as the one he performed
on Annabelly.
“The hospital was originally intended for
emergency purposes,” Arthur said.
Oak Tree’s involvement in equine health
did not begin with the SCEF. It has provided
close to $5 million for the Center for Equine
Health (CEH) at the University of California
at Davis. The university and Oak Tree initiated
a partnership in 1973 aimed at solving the
racing industry’s equine medical problems
through research and development. The SCEF,
which was founded in 1976, has been a longtime
collaborator.
“Simply put, there would be no Center for
Equine Health if not for Oak Tree,” said Ferraro,
who is the director of the CEH. “They were our
sole support at the time.”
Like Annabelly and her offspring, thousands
of horses likely owe their lives to advances
in equine health and safety supported by
Oak Tree’s Hal
Ramser and
Herman Smith
flank Dr. Greg
Ferraro in front of
the Santa Anita
equine hospital (far
left). Dedicating
one of the equine
ambulances paid for
by Oak Tree are
Smith, Oak Tree cofounder
B.J. Ridder,
Mary Jones Bradley,
Ferraro, Ramser,
and Oak Tree cofounder
Lou Rowan.
PADDOCK 2011
17

Dr. Sarah
Puchalski
reads a CT
scan, one of
the many
specialized
diagnostic
tools at the
U.C. Davis
Center for
Equine Health
that were
made possible
by grants from
Oak Tree.
18 PADDOCK 2011
Oak Tree donations. That funding has led to
better care of injured racehorses as well as the
prevention of major problems and a reduction
in illness.
Oak Tree’s support has played a huge role not
only in the treatment of injured horses at the
track, but it also helps shape day-to-day care.
For example, the CEH produced the first
study on the incidence of exercise-induced pulmonary
hemorrhage (bleeding) in racehorses.
The radiographic portion of that study was
done at the SCEF equine hospital. The landmark
work by U. C. Davis’ Dr. John Pascoe from
a 1978 research project informs the debate over
the role of Lasix (furosemide) in controlling
bleeding to this day.
Ferraro said Oak Tree provided unrestricted
support of the center until the mid-1990s. As the
program became more self-sufficient through
other funding sources—for instance, through
legislatively mandated funding as part of the
satellite-wagering bill of 1987—Oak Tree asked
to fund research and development projects that
were directly related to racing issues.
Further studies in orthopedic research led to
drastic reductions in the number of knee slab fractures,
uncovering the inherent dangers of longer
toe grabs, and the use of nuclear scintigraphy to
diagnose tiny stress fractures in bones that often
lead to serious breakdowns when not given
proper time to heal. Working with the SCEF, the
CEH also called to attention the need for trainers
and veterinarians to recognize and treat suspensory
ligament inflammation, Ferraro said.
Oak Tree also has provided U. C. Davis with
funds for the Dr. Jack Robbins Endowment,
which allows faculty members to acquire specific
training in specialized areas such as magnetic resonance
imaging (MRIs) and acupuncture.
Ferraro and Dr. Roy Dillon, a track veterinarian,
were responsible for developing the improved
horse ambulance, which was built by Kimzey Inc.
The same company built the Kimzey Leg Saver
Splint, a simple device that has proved to be
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

instrumental in stabilizing shattered limbs to
prevent damage to delicate blood vessels. Both
inventions are now in widespread use around
American racetracks.
“It certainly has withstood the test of time,”
Arthur said of the splint.
Arthur notes that Oak Tree was one of the
original supporters of the Racing Medication
Testing Consortium in its pursuit of drug
research, model testing rules, effective withdrawal
times, and rule uniformity.
“Oak Tree has always been there for us,” said
Dr. Scott Stanley, who directs the Kenneth L.
Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory,
the CHRB’s official drug-testing facility at
U. C. Davis. “They have been a staunch supporter
of the laboratory and have supported
various projects. They were very proactive in
pushing the legislation [which made the
Maddy Lab the state’s official drug-testing facility]
forward initially.”
In addition, Oak Tree has been a longtime
www.oaktreeracing.com
Courtesy Center for Equine Health
steady supporter of the Grayson-Jockey Club
Research Foundation, according to Ed Bowen,
Grayson’s president. Oak Tree has provided
funds that have supported laminitis and equine
herpes studies, as well as the work at U. C. Davis
on racetrack surfaces and California’s wellregarded
equine necropsy program.
Ongoing studies at Davis on hoof impact are
expected to achieve a safer horseshoe and better
racing surfaces as well.
Dr. Jeff Blea, president of the SCEF, says he
hopes people in the industry understand the
benevolent role Oak Tree plays.
“Obviously, I’m a big proponent of Oak Tree,”
he said. “People in racing have taken it for
granted. I don’t think they realize the scope of
Oak Tree’s contributions, both to racing and to
the community.”
Jack Shinar is a turf writer and website editor for
The Blood-Horse and bloodhorse.com. He lives in
Sacramento, Calif.
Courtesy Center for Equine Health
“Simply put,
there would
be no Center
for Equine
Health if not
for Oak
Tree.”
—Dr. Greg Ferraro
The Kimzey splint
helps stabilize a
horse’s injured leg.
PADDOCK 2011
19

Robbins Hands
Reins to

John Barr knew he was stepping into big
shoes when he became President of the Oak
Tree Racing Association earlier this year. In
Oak Tree’s 43-year history, only two men had
served in that position—co-founders Clement L.
Hirsch and Dr. Jack Robbins.
“I was very honored that the rest of the board
saw fit to give me this job,” said Barr.
It was a long way from the little town of Hynes
(now Paramount), Calif., where Barr grew up and
placed 10-cent bets with a bookie at the age of 12.
“The bookie would take those bets from me if
I promised not to tell his wife, who ran a local
restaurant,” recalled Barr. “I was fascinated with
horses as a kid. I used to bet jockeys whose
names were Johnny—Johnny Longden, Johnny
Adams—because that’s what my name was.”
After he married, began raising a family, and
established his real estate business, Barr had the
wherewithal to enter the industry as an owner. He
raced a few Quarter Horses before he purchased
his first Thoroughbred in 1971. Today, he and his
wife, Betty, live in Orange, Calif., and campaign
runners in the name of their Oakcrest Stable.
Barr believes in giving back—he is treasurer of
the Richard Nixon Foundation and has served a
variety of racing industry organizations. A former
president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders
Association, he continues as a member of the
CTBA’s board. He is a past steward of The Jockey
Club and past director of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., and
he currently serves on The Jockey Club Thoroughbred
Safety Committee.
The Oak Tree board named Barr as President
when Robbins decided earlier this year—at age
90—to step down. Robbins had served as President
since Hirsch’s death in 2000. Robbins, Hirsch, and
the late Lou Rowan first put together the idea of the
Oak Tree Racing Association in 1968 as a race meet
run by horsemen to benefit horsemen.
Not that the Oak Tree board would actually let
Robbins leave. As one of the most respected veterinarians
in the country as well as a major owner
of such horses as Nostalgia’s Star and Most Host,
Barr, as Oak Tree’s third
President, leads a board
dedicated to the health and
welfare of the equine industry.
BARRJohn
BY TRACY GANTZ
Robbins brings a wealth of knowledge to the Oak
Tree board, something no one wanted to lose.
“We insisted that he stay on as Chairman,”
said Barr. The position of Chairman was newly
created for Robbins.
As has been the case throughout Oak Tree’s
history, Barr leads a board filled with knowledgeable
businessmen and horsemen. Barr, Thomas
John Barr, Oak Tree’s
new President, with his
predecessor, Dr. Jack
Robbins (above left),
and Executive Vice-
President Sherwood
C. Chillingworth
(above right).
www.oaktreeracing.com PADDOCK 2011
21

Oak Tree board
present and past—
Barr, Warren B.
Williamson, Thomas
R. Capehart, Dr. Jack
Robbins, Richard
Mandella, Dr. Rick
Arthur, Sherwood C.
Chillingworth, and
Robert W. Zamarripa
Sr. (top) and Louis R.
Rowan, B.J. Ridder,
Clement L. Hirsch,
William T. Pascoe III,
Robbins, and Harold
C. Ramser Sr. (above).
R. Capehart, Warren B. Williamson, and Robert
W. Zamarripa Sr. are all major horse owners with
successful outside business interests.
Sherwood C. Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s Executive
Vice-President since 1993, joined the board
in 1988 after owning a Pasadena real estate
development company for 15 years. He owned
or was the majority owner of horses that won 12
graded stakes, of which five were Grade I events,
including the Metropolitan Mile, Coaching Club
American Oaks, and Oak Tree Invitational.
Richard Mandella is a Hall of Fame trainer
who has won six Breeders’ Cup races, all of them
when Oak Tree hosted the championship series.
Dr. Rick Arthur is the equine medical director of
the California Horse Racing Board and brings 30
years of racetrack veterinary practice to the table.
Robbins and Arthur are past presidents of the
American Association of Equine Practitioners.
They and the other board members see to it that
equine health and welfare are at the forefront of
Oak Tree’s mission.
Barr’s business and equine experience fit right
in.
“When John joined the Oak Tree Board in
1997, it was obvious from the first meeting that
he was a valued addition,” said Chillingworth.
“He was not only knowledgeable about industry
matters, but had a financial background that was
extremely useful. Perhaps most importantly, he
could express his opinions with regard to controversial
issues in a reasonable manner that did
not result in hurt feelings.”
Barr enjoyed the experience from the very
beginning.
“Oak Tree is all about having a great race
meet, having good horses, having fun, making as
much money as we can, and then we get to give
it all away,” said Barr. “We try to give the lion’s
share back to the industry.”
All of the Oak Tree board members have contributed
ideas on the best way to use the money
to benefit the horses and the people who care for
them. Barr was the one who suggested paying for
backstretch workers’ flu vaccinations.
“I was wandering around the backstretch of
Churchill Downs, and I heard an announcement,
‘Come get your free flu shots,’” said Barr.
“I came back and convinced this board we ought
to do that.”
Not many people showed up the first year
Oak Tree funded the flu shots. But word soon got
around, and now the program is extremely popular
and helps reduce the incidence of illness on
the backstretch.
Barr is proud of the strides in equine health
that have occurred because of Oak Tree’s involvement,
as well as the contributions Oak Tree has
made to help the people in the industry.
“We’ve made life better for a lot of people and
horses,” said Barr. “That’s what we’re about—
that’s our mission.”
22 PADDOCK 2011
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

Caring for the Caretakers
The California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation, with big support from Oak Tree,
sees that backstretch workers receive quality health care.
BY JANE GOLDSTEIN
Santa Anita Park, with its distinctive architecture
and blue green façade, is an Arcadia
landmark and an icon of the international
Thoroughbred racing world. Most people know
about the exciting sport it showcases, but few realize
that a whole world exists behind the scenes of
this, or any, racetrack.
Horses, of course, but also people live in the
stable area. They have the same needs as those
living outside the fences of a racetrack—housing,
food, entertainment, health care.
The health and welfare of backstretch workers
are the focus of the California Thoroughbred
Horsemen’s Foundation, which has benefited
from donations by Oak Tree Racing Association
totaling more than $300,000 through the years.
It wasn’t racetrack executives or the California
Horse Racing Board that spearheaded this solution
to a real need for stable workers. Rather it
was one man, someone who worked among
them—the late trainer Noble Threewitt.
“Noble should get all the credit in the world for
having the vision to start the foundation,” said Oak
Tree Executive Vice-President Sherwood Chillingworth.
“He didn’t quit—he stayed with it all his life.
“It’s one of the best resources the industry has
The CTHF team
includes Veronica
Nolasco, Angela
Valverde, Aracely
Cedeno, Kevin Bolling,
Dr. Tri Vo, Brian
Martinez (back row);
Monica Inda, Sister
Soledad Hernandez,
Grace Vera (front row).
www.oaktreeracing.com PADDOCK 2011
23

“It’s one of the
best resources
the industry
has created
anywhere for
the benefit of
backstretch
employees.”
—Sherwood C. Chillingworth
Welfare assistant Sister
Soledad Hernandez
helps in a variety of
capacities, and Kevin
Bolling oversees the
CTHF as its executive
director.
created anywhere for the benefit of backstretch
employees. It’s not an offsite agency, but a place
they can walk to.”
Kevin Bolling, the CTHF executive director,
explained that the CTHF extends services to backstretch
workers and their immediate families at
California racetracks, racing fairs, and official
training centers like San Luis Rey Downs. About
65% of care is for workers. That care ranges from
attending to scrapes and bruises to hip surgery,
knee replacement, even brain surgery.
“We feel we’re a partner in their health care
and provide the best quality that we can,”
Bolling said. “We’re constantly looking for ways
to assist.”
The CTHF accounts for 10,000 patient visits a
year at clinics and via referrals. Services are
arranged around work hours, usually starting
when workers finish their morning duties.
By and large, backstretch workers have limited
incomes. They might ignore symptoms of illness
or injury if the cost were prohibitive, and so the
CTHF takes that into consideration. Co-pays
include $5 for an office visit, $5 for an EKG, and
$5 and $10 for lab fees.
There are four medical clinics, and two of
those—at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields—
also have dental care. Santa Anita’s is the largest
facility and serves all of Southern California, but
a smaller one at Hollywood Park is staffed with
a doctor twice a week.
The stable area is a small world. That can be
good, Bolling said.
“Fortunately, the backstretch is a closed society.
We educate them about flu and vaccines, and
we’ve had no flu outbreak. If we did, it would
spread rapidly.” Oak Tree has paid for all inoculation
programs.
It also means that staff gets to know many of
24 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

the people who entrust their care to the CTHF.
“Dr. [Linda] Rosette, the dentist, has been
there almost from the start and has seen three
generations,” Bolling noted. They have also
seen children they helped with mental health
problems overcome their situations. One just
started college.
Bolling makes an interesting observation
about the stable workers—“These people are
hard workers and would rather take care of their
horses than themselves.”
He relates the story of one man who had been
an exercise rider, pony boy, and groom. The
CTHF arranged for a necessary knee replacement.
“Afterwards, he checked himself out of the
hospital,” Bolling said, but they found him and
got him back to finish his recuperation. In the
end, the fellow felt it was so successful that he’s
going to do the other knee. “He can’t wait to get
the other one done,” Bolling said.
For services not provided by the on-track
facilities, the CTHF negotiates favorably priced
contracts with health providers and makes referrals.
The CTHF also works with other groups,
including the California Thoroughbred Trainers
and the Winners Foundation, the latter dealing
with substance and alcohol abuse.
“We work with Winners to decide when someone
needs in-house rehab and then pay the
majority of cost,” Bolling said. One person who
www.oaktreeracing.com
completed rehab through Winners returned to
the CTHF seeking a way to stop smoking because
he wanted to continue to improve his health.
The overall welfare the CTHF encompasses
goes beyond health. Projects include holiday celebrations,
where the staff volunteers. “The staff
has an attachment” to the people, Bolling says.
Sister Soledad Hernandez, who is the CTHF
welfare assistant, presents English classes, coor-
dinates an annual recognition program for those
who have become U.S. citizens, and started a
community vegetable garden at Santa Anita for
stable workers.
A specialist lawyer helps with immigration
problems. A social worker gives support with
Medicare and Medicaid procedures. There is
even a thrift shop, which receives donations of
goods such as clothing and books from organizations
and individuals. Everything at the thrift
shop is free.
The Santa Anita facility now bears the name
of Noble Threewitt, who started the CTHF in
1983 and was its longtime president. He died in
2010 at the age of 99.
Threewitt’s intention was to help the people
who work with the horses and their families. The
CTHF adds another benefit, Bolling points out.
“We save the state a lot of money by serving as
an urgent care facility and keeping [patients] out
of emergency rooms.”
“These people
are hard
workers and
would rather
take care
of their
horses than
themselves.”
Medical assistant
Veronica Nolasco gives
one of the many free
flu shots, and dental
hygienist Grace Vera
assists in teeth care.
PADDOCK 2011
—Kevin Bolling
25

John Henry and Zenyatta are
the most popular horses ever
to compete at Oak Tree and the
only ones to have captured the
same Oak Tree stakes three
consecutive times.
BY TRACY GANTZ
oak Tree
© Bill Mochon

separated by nearly three decades, John
Henry and Zenyatta have plenty in common.
Two of the most crowd-pleasing
horses ever to step on a racetrack, the gelding
and mare each gave their fans a show, from
interacting with the crowd in the paddock to
complete domination at the finish line.
They also starred each fall at Oak Tree, and
they are the only two horses ever to win the
same stakes there three consecutive years. John
Henry owned the Oak Tree Invitational (now
(continued on page 28)
Legends

John Henry
1980 Oak Tree Invitational
1981 Oak Tree Invitational
1982 Oak Tree Invitational
the Clement L. Hirsch Turf Championship)
from 1980–82, while Zenyatta destroyed her
competition every year in the Lady’s Secret
Stakes from 2008–10.
Both strutted, posed, and enjoyed the adulation
of the crowd. Both won multiple Eclipse
Awards and were named Horse of the Year, in
John Henry’s case twice. They differed greatly in
personality, though. Zenyatta is sweet and gentle,
always eager to pose for photos and receive a carrot
or a pat. John Henry was cantankerous from
his early days on the racetrack into old age in
retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Their Oak Tree exploits were just part of phenomenal
careers, but their return year after year
made them Oak Tree legends.
When Jerry and Ann Moss’ Zenyatta attempted
her first Lady’s Secret Stakes in 2008, her undefeated
winning streak stood at seven, enough to
bring her national recognition, but nothing compared
with what she later accomplished.
Only three challenged her, which meant
front-running Hystericalady could set a pace
advantageous to her and potentially lethal
to Zenyatta’s last-to-first style.
Despite Garrett Gomez slowing the pace
down with Hystericalady, Mike Smith
unleashed the Zenyatta freight train for a 3 1/2length
triumph in the 1 1/16-mile race on the
main track. It would be the biggest winning margin
of her Oak Tree triple.
In 2009, Zenyatta had run her streak up to 12,
including a Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic win.
With her second Lady’s Secret, this time 1 1/4
lengths ahead of Lethal Heat, Zenyatta matched
champion Personal Ensign’s record of 13 wins
without a loss.
“She’s like a ship when she’s coming
down the stretch,” said her trainer, John
Shirreffs. “Thirteen in a row; Personal
Ensign—it’s historic.”
Zenyatta’s third Lady’s Secret in 2010
turned out to be even more historic. Switch, a gallant
3-year-old, had the lead in the stretch, and
for a moment it looked as if Zenyatta’s charge
would come too late. But she swooshed past
Switch to win by a half-length, and she received
her trophy from none other than Penny Chenery,
owner of Triple Crown winner Secretariat.
That put Zenyatta’s streak at an amazing 19
and was the final victory of her career. She lost her
last start, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic by a head to
Blame, but finally earned her Horse of the Year
trophy. Zenyatta’s third Lady’s Secret also sent her
lifetime earnings past that of Ouija Board to
$6,404,580, more than any other female to
race in North America. Zenyatta retired with
earnings of $7,304,580.
Oak Tree purses also added considerably to
28 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Four Footed Fotos © Bill Mochon
George Andrus Photography

John Henry’s lifetime bankroll of $6,591,860, at the
time a record for a North American horse of either
sex. Owners Sam and Dorothy Rubin made Oak Tree
an annual stop as trainer Ron McAnally had John
Zenyatta
2008 Lady’s Secret Stakes
2009 Lady’s Secret Stakes
2010 Lady’s Secret Stakes
www.oaktreeracing.com
Henry at the top of his game three years running.
The Oak Tree Invitational of 1980 was truly an
international race, with South African Bold Tropic,
New Zealander Caterman, Italian Garrido, and
Polish Pawiment in the field.
But it was all USA at the wire, as
John Henry and jockey Laffit
Pincay Jr. defeated Balzac by
1 1/2 lengths at the end of 1 1/2
miles on the turf.
Two years later, with Bill Shoemaker
in the saddle, John Henry
returned to the winner’s circle in
just his second start after a sevenmonth
layoff. He defeated
Craelius by 2 1/2 lengths to prove
that at age 7 he was far
from over the hill.
“He ran like his old
self,” said Shoemaker.
“This is the comeback of
the year.”
But neither the 1980
nor 1982 Oak Tree Invitational
could compare to the one in the
middle. In 1981, John Henry put
on a performance for the ages,
one that any racing fan present
that day would never forget.
John Henry led through out
the race and into the stretch,
when Spence Bay, ranging up
from sixth, collared the
champ from the outside.
John Henry took one
look at the upstart and
said, “Not today,” re-rallying
to wrest back the
lead and the victory by a neck.
After the race, Shoemaker
said he knew John Henry
would fight back. McAnally and
the Rubins weren’t so sure,
prompting Sam Rubin to quip,
“Bill, do me a favor? Next time,
when you know you have it
won, will you wave?”
Shoemaker pointed to his
heart and said, “You know, that
horse has got it in here.”
Nearly 30 years later,
Zenyatta showed the same
kind of courage as John
Henry—two unforgettable
champions.
Watch
the
Videos
If you want to
watch videos of
Zenyatta’s three
Lady’s Secret Stakes
and John Henry’s
three Oak Tree
Invitationals, you
can view them on
YouTube.
From your
computer: Go to
www.youtube.com
and in the search
bar type in
“OakTreeRaces
Paddock magazine.”
From your
smartphone: If
you have a tag reader
app on your
smartphone, scan the
QR code (quick
response code) next
to each photo in this
article. These square
black and white
codes will take you
right to the YouTube
video of that race,
and you can watch it
on your phone. You
can find several tag
reader apps—many
for free—at Apple’s
App store, the
Android Market, or
your smartphone
equivalent. Search
for “tag reader” or
“QR code reader.” •
PADDOCK 2011
29

Growing Up at Oak Tree
Del Mar’s Joe Harper learned racetrack management skills from Oak Tree’s founders when he
served as assistant to President Clement L. Hirsch.
BY HANK WESCH
30 PADDOCK 2011
Summertime is Joe Harper’s time for managing
a racetrack.
As the man in charge of the Del Mar
Thoroughbred Club, with titles to include president,
CEO, and general manager, Harper has
been for the past 32 years the face of what has
become the premier meeting, in terms of prestige
and business, on the Southern California
Thoroughbred racing circuit.
He can seem to be omnipresent there from
mid-July to early September: on the backstretch
in the mornings, sometimes on horseback, facing
the music from critical owners or trainers, or
taking bows from those who were pleased with
the last show; in the Turf Club or Directors’
Room in the afternoon, chatting up or calming
down and seeing to the needs of the VIPs; in the
jockeys’ room or boardroom when needed; in
the press box to deliver state-of-the-meet
addresses at the beginning and end of the summer
session or when called upon for an interview
or comment.
Harper is widely considered to be one of the
most liked and respected individuals in the field
of racetrack management.
But the man of summer at Del Mar since
1978 got his start, and on-the-job training, when
the Oak Tree Racing Association board of directors
chose him for the position of Executive Vice-
President—although he remembers the title
being assistant to the board president Clement
L. Hirsch—in 1971. Harper, the grandson of legendary
Hollywood film producer-director Cecil
B. DeMille, had observed racetrack life through
the lens of a camera as an assistant to cinematographer
Joe Burnham.
Dr. Jack Robbins, among the Oak Tree
founders, took part in the proceedings that led
to Harper’s hiring.
“We were getting a used photographer, and we
knew it,” Robbins said last summer. “But we knew
Joe was a good, sharp young guy, and we thought
he could handle it and would grow into it.
“We didn’t give him a helluva lot of money.
No car. I think we gave him an Arco card for gas
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

ut told him not to use it too much. Now, I
don’t know anybody who has done more for
racing than Joe has, so he was sure worth every
penny we paid him.”
About that compensation package. . .
“I always kid Jack Robbins,” Harper said. “I
say, ‘I know where you saved a lot of money, and
that was on the administrative assistant to the
president’s salary.’
“I think I started out at $14,000 a year. With
that in mind and three children by then, I decided
it was best to spend some time working with Joe
Burnham as well. I did double duty for a while.”
Harper was no stranger to the men he’d be
working for—Oak Tree founders Clement
Hirsch, Ben Ridder, Lou Rowan, and the rest. But
he said he had “no idea” what he was supposed
to do when named to the position. His office
was a storeroom without a window in the
accounting department. He was told he needed
to hire a secretary.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do, much
less what a secretary was going to do, but I said
okay,” Harper said. “The first one I hired my wife
made me get rid of for some obvious reasons.
“Then I hired a friend of mine’s girlfriend,
who had graduated from U.C. Santa Barbara,
whose name was Molly McGinnis and who later
became Molly Robbins. She is still working in the
executive offices at Santa Anita.
“Oak Tree was billed as the horsemen’s meet,
www.oaktreeracing.com
and the concept of Oak Tree was interesting,”
Harper said. “Here were these guys—seven successful
businessmen and horse owners, sort of the
cream of the crop of the state of California—and
they decided to run it on a not-for-profit basis, to
take the money and put it back into the industry
where the industry might need it. They had to pay
Santa Anita rent, but that was okay and they did.
It was a labor of love for all of them.
“That was uncharted territory for racetrack
management or ownership, and of course it
helped that they were all independently wealthy.
But they loved the game, and looking back it was
a perfect marriage.
“They had a stake, obviously, in every aspect of
racing. They were well connected politically,
which certainly helped. With Ronald Reagan as
governor, any one of those guys could pick up
the phone and say, ‘Hey Ronnie, what do you
think?’ And good things got done.”
In time, Harper realized that since Santa Anita
personnel took charge of the operational management,
his job focus was more an administrative
management of the Oak Tree company.
“My major duties included writing the minutes
of board meetings and making sure that
everybody had tables in the Directors’ Room
that they liked,” Harper said. “So I worked on
my spelling and my maitre d’ skills.
“Fortunately, my office being in the accounting
department, I became good friends with the
“We knew Joe
was a good,
sharp young
guy, and we
thought he
could handle
the job and
would grow
into it.”
—Dr. Jack Robbins
Now head of Del Mar,
Joe Harper learned
from men such as
Oak Tree Racing
Association President
and co-founder
Clement L. Hirsch.
PADDOCK 2011
31

“Seven
successful
businessmen
and horse
owners
decided to run
Oak Tree on a
not-for-profit
basis, to take
the money and
put it back into
the industry
where the
industry might
need it.”
—Joe Harper
Harper worked as a
cinematographer
before signing up
with Oak Tree.
accounting staff, who told me what things Santa
Anita was charging Oak Tree for. So I found out
my real purpose in life was to make sure that Oak
Tree wasn’t buying too many things for Santa
Anita’s racing season as well as represent them at
California Horse Racing Board meetings and
other meetings and things.”
Harper’s road to management with Oak Tree
began with his previous job.
“When I went to work with Joe Burnham, one
of the guys I worked with was Frank Tours, who
was one of those unforgettable characters,”
Harper recalled. “He was a writer. But he was
also an entrepreneurial do-all kind of guy who
had worked in the Hollywood Park publicity
department off and on and had also gone back
east for a while to work as the general manager
at Latonia [now Turfway Park] in Kentucky and
then in New York.
“When Oak Tree started, Frank was picked as
the head guy. He had a couple of seasons with
Oak Tree, then went back to New York when
Alfred Vanderbilt asked him to come back to
work for the New York Racing Association as a
liaison between the backstretch and the press box.
“When he was going back, he approached me
about taking over his job. I didn’t know anything
about it, but he said, ‘Joe, don’t worry about a
thing, I’m going to recommend ya.’”
Second thoughts or apprehensions about
whether he was cut out for track management
never entered his head.
“I always felt comfortable there,” Harper said.
“The directors were great to work with. I learned
a lot about business from them, especially from
Clement Hirsch. The original job title was assistant
to the president, and anyone who knew
Clement will tell you first off that he was a character,
but a great guy.
“He always liked to look at both sides of any
issue. And even if he were inclined to agree with
you, he would purposely take the opposite side
in a discussion to see what people had to say to
support or justify their position. He taught me
a great lesson in looking at problems and issues
from both sides in deciding how best to solve
them. I’m not a contrarian, but I do like to look
at all sides.”
The Oak Tree Racing Association and meeting
actually came about because Del Mar abandoned
fall racing dates after a 1967 season that
was a financial disaster. Harper worked that
meeting, and the first two for Oak Tree when it
commenced in 1969, as a cameraman.
“The horses came down and the horsemen
came down, but the people didn’t come down
[for the Del Mar fall meet],” Harper recalled. “In
those days, most of the patrons came down from
the L.A. and Orange county areas, and when they
were back in school and at work, there weren’t
enough San Diego patrons to make it work.
“In those days there wasn’t any off-track
wagering, and what you got through the gate
was it. With 2,000 people a day or so, I think
the word was they lost $1 million, so they
decided not to do that again.”
32 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Bill Scherlis

A few short years later, Harper was in a high
management position for Oak Tree.
In one of his first years on the job, in 1973,
the mutuel clerks, who had a signed contract,
walked out on opening day in dispute over rejection
of three union members’ work permits. Normal
procedure was for a grievance to be filed and
the matter to be settled by arbitration. But aggressive
union leaders fomented a walkout that came
as 10,000 people arrived for the races.
The dispute was settled a few days later and
racing resumed. As with any race meeting, controversy
and confrontation occurred, but Harper
looks back on his time at Oak Tree fondly.
“Working for Oak Tree gave me a business
experience I otherwise never would have developed.
I was pretty naive when it came to reading
a balance sheet—remember, this is a guy who got
kicked out of three or four different colleges. But
when I went to work for Oak Tree, there were
three or four guys sitting on the board who were
among the most successful businessmen in the
country who kind of took me under their wing.
I owe them a lot.”
After Harper moved to Del Mar, Herman
Smith took over as Oak Tree’s Executive Vice-
President. Ray Rogers succeeded Smith, and Sherwood
C. Chillingworth, who joined the Oak Tree
board in 1989, has served as Executive Vice-President
since January 1993 and continues in that
position today.
At Del Mar, Harper in turn mentored Craig
Fravel. A former lawyer, Fravel was a Del Mar
www.oaktreeracing.com
Santa Anita photo
Thoroughbred Club vice-president starting in
1990, and he took over the titles of president and
general manager from Harper early in 2010. In
May of 2011, Fravel was named president and
CEO of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., the group in charge of
racing’s fall championship series, which was
staged at Oak Tree five times, most recently backto-back
in 2008-09.
Fravel’s reflections on Harper: “When I first
started and people asked, ‘What’s his job?’ Joe
would say, ‘Do everything I don’t want to do.’ But
in reality, he let me spend time learning the people
and the business and then sprout wings and
do the things I wanted to do.”
Likewise, Oak Tree is sprouting wings, leaving
its longtime home at Santa Anita. After a 2010
meeting at Hollywood Park, Oak Tree may ultimately
alight at Del Mar, another not-for-profit
race meeting. The marriage could prove a natural.
“Times have changed drastically since I started
at Oak Tree, and it’s hard to keep the dance going
when the band’s changing,” Harper said. “You
hate to throw out the concept after all the millions
of dollars Oak Tree has poured into equine
research and other things.”
Said Fravel: “The racing meets run on a not-forprofit
basis, where the emphasis is on fan experience
and racing, have largely been successful.”
Hank Wesch is a freelance writer, retired after a
36-year career of sports writing with the San Diego
Union-Tribune, and author of the recently released
book Del Mar, Where The Turf Meets The Surf.
“Clement
Hirsch always
liked to look at
both sides of
any issue. He
taught me a
great lesson
in looking at
problems and
issues from
both sides in
deciding how
best to solve
them.”
Joe Burnham took
the young Harper
on as his assistant
cinematographer
(left). Sherwood C.
Chillingworth is
currently Oak Tree’s
Executive Vice-
President.
PADDOCK 2011
—Joe Harper
33

Up by Their Bootstraps
The Winners Foundation, begun by Lou Rowan of Oak Tree, gives people in trouble a leg up on rebuilding their lives.
BY ART WILSON
Jo Ann Lopez (talking
with jockey David
Flores) and Clyde
Higgins turned their
lives around with help
from the Winners
Foundation.
34
PADDOCK 2011
If the walls on the Winners Foundation’s trailers
and offices throughout California could
talk, they’d spin a tale or two that might look
something like a scene out of the tele vision
series “Cops.”
Those men and women you see leading the
horses in the paddock at Santa Anita? Some of
them have problems they can’t deal with and
turn to alcohol for relief every chance they get.
They don’t think they have a drinking problem,
but their numerous DUIs say otherwise.
That usher who helped you find your seat last
time you sat in the grandstand? She may have
gone home later that night and used cocaine or
heroin in an effort to forget life’s problems. She
might even have drug paraphernalia in her car.
Oh, and the mutuel clerk who sold you that
winning Daily Double ticket last week? He could
have a gambling problem and be placing wagers
with money from the till. If so, chances are he’s
three or four months behind in his mortgage
payment, waiting for that one big score that will
make everything right again.
Depressing? The late owner-breeder Lou Rowan,
a recovering alcoholic himself, sure thought so.
He started the Winners Foundation in 1984
with the help of a generous donation from the
not-for-profit Oak Tree Racing Association.
Rowan and Herman Smith of Oak Tree were
among the organization’s first board members.
The Winners Foundation has gradually grown
the past two-plus decades with continued financial
aid from Oak Tree, the Thoroughbred
Owners of California, the California Thoroughbred
Horsemen’s Foundation, and the Jockeys’
Guild. It has helped hundreds of people in the
industry each year battle substance abuse, gambling
problems, marital woes, and anything else
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

that adversely affects people’s lives.
Bob Fletcher, one of the Winners Foundation’s
earliest success stories, is now its executive
director. He and his staff see that people in
trouble have a welcoming place to come. They
set up support meetings, aid in arranging any
needed treatment, and work hard to help people
help themselves.
One problem that has just recently crept
up, according to Fletcher, is a fear over horse
racing’s future.
“We have found a slight increase in people
who are just frustrated, sad, afraid because of the
downturn in the industry,” Fletcher said. “Will we
have a job? Is this track going to close? Where
are we going to go? What are we going to do?
There’s a lot more fear than there used to be.”
But the majority of the hot walkers, trainers,
jockeys, mutuel clerks, and management types
www.oaktreeracing.com
who visit the Winners Foundation for help are
there for much more serious problems. Many are
on the fast road to ruin or even death if they
don’t change their lifestyles.
Jo Ann Lopez, a barn foreman for trainer
Jennie Green the past four years, admits she
could be dead today if not for the Winners Foundation.
She remembers blacking out while
driving from Sierra Madre to Arcadia one day,
running a stop sign and crashing into another car.
“I was probably on my way to get beer or dope
or whatever,” she said.
Faced with jail time or rehab after more than
30 years of substance abuse, she chose the latter
after meeting with Fletcher. She has been sober
for close to five years.
“Finally, I just said to myself, ‘I’m not going to
do it today. No matter what happens, I’m not
going to do it today,’ ” Lopez said. “You have to
“You have to go
to meetings,
meetings,
meetings until
you’re sick of
them. But I
wanted to do it;
I wanted to
change my life.”
—Jo Ann Lopez
Bob Fletcher is the
executive director of the
Winners Foundation.
PADDOCK 2011
35

“Bob Fletcher
goes all out.
Winners
Foundation will
go the extra
mile for people
if they want to
be helped.”
—Clyde Higgins
Senior case manager
LeRoy Martinez and
administrative
assistant Yolanda Pina
help Fletcher at the
Winners Foundation.
have an attitude like that, a willpower. And
you’ve got to go to meetings, meetings, and
[more] meetings until you’re sick of them, but
you have to go. But I wanted to do it; I wanted
to change my life.”
Lopez, 58, lives on the Santa Anita backside,
stops by the Winners Foundation office virtually
every day, and has turned her life around. She
says she’s happy now and knows her life will con-
tinue to improve if she stays on the Winners
Foundation’s 12-step program. She knows her
story could have had a far different ending.
“Everybody has stories; we’ve all been there
and we all know them,” she said. “Some did
things worse than I did probably. There was a
girl one time when I was in rehab whose husband
beat her up all the time, and finally one
day she just pulled a gun on him. When there
are drugs and alcohol involved, there’s always a
lot of violence. If you don’t pay that person you
get stuff from, then they come after you. There
are a lot of bad areas you [normally] wouldn’t
go in, but when you’re loaded and drinking,
you don’t care.”
Clyde Higgins, a 61-year-old San Gabriel resident
who has worked the main horsemen’s gate
at Santa Anita for the past 3 1/2 years, had been
drinking since he was 19. He said alcohol abuse
helped destroy his 12-year marriage in 1988 and
cost him the two sons he had legally adopted
when the couple was married in 1976.
“I know now I just wasn’t taking care of
business, keeping the house in order, not paying
this or that,” Higgins said. “My wife had a
good job with Pacific Bell. I had a great job with
Arco, and money was no issue. But she let me
take control, and one thing led to another. I got
behind on things, and she got tired of that.
Drinking was the problem.”
It became an even bigger issue after the
divorce. Higgins blacked out at a park one day
while behind the wheel of his car. Luckily, his
foot was on the brakes. He also had four DUIs in
one year.
“When we got divorced, I kind of lost everything,”
Higgins said. “I gave her custody of the
two boys. We had two cars, and I gave her both
cars. The house was just about paid for, and I put
that in her name. I gave her everything, gave her
the whole thing, and I had to start over.”
Higgins credits Fletcher and the Winners
Foundation for his ability to regroup.
“If it wasn’t for Bob, I wouldn’t be here right
now,” Higgins said. “He’s been very instrumental
in my life. It’s a great foundation. I’ve seen it
help a lot of people, and it really did help me. I
was just really, really down, but Bob told me
things like that happen in life and you have to
be strong. I had to pull myself back up and get
back on track.
“One day the light hit me. Once you get so
low, you just start coming back up. I had a lot of
support around the racetrack, which was one
good thing. I just didn’t give up.”
Higgins said he hasn’t talked to his two sons
in more than 20 years. The youngest joined the
Marines, and he doesn’t know what became of
the oldest. He said losing them hurt deeply for
many years.
“I don’t even know where they’re living,” he
said. “Later, I fell in love with another woman
and that didn’t work out. That hurt too.”
But Higgins, who had met Fletcher previously
while working with him at Santa Anita
in the parking department, had someone he
could fall back on for help and has been sober
for 18 1/2 years.
“The ones that didn’t make it, they didn’t
help themselves, because Bob provides good
footsteps to go there,” Higgins said. “He goes all
out. Winners Foundation will go the extra mile
for them if they want to be helped.”
Then there’s the story of 59-year-old Bill
Beavers, a recovering alcoholic from Arcadia who
has been in charge of the liquor at Santa Anita
for about 25 years. He stocks all the track’s bars,
receives the trucks that deliver all the beer, liquor,
36 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

and wine, and also does all the ordering.
“It’s kind of ironic, but it’s funny too,” said
Beavers, who was abusing one substance or
another for 45 years until a personal tragedy
pushed him over the edge and almost led to his
demise. “The truth is, even before I quit drinking,
it wasn’t a problem at work. My problem
was when I left work.”
Beavers’ wife of 16 years died of cancer in
2002, and he lost custody of his son. Suddenly,
he didn’t care anymore. He had stopped using
drugs in 1979 and stuck to alcohol so “I could
be legal.” But when the drinking intensified and
his life became a bigger mess, his wife’s brother
intervened and had his son taken away.
“My son was only 11 at the time, and everything
was fine at that point—we got along great,”
Beavers said. “But it was afterward that I just went
to hell. My drinking and my attitude, even when
my son was with me, was what prompted her
family to step in and say this isn’t working out. I
lost custody of the boy, and I didn’t see him
for like a year or two. It was very strained and
www.oaktreeracing.com
awkward when we talked on the phone.”
After he’d piled up three DUIs in about a
three-year span and was spiraling out of control,
a co-worker from Clockers’ Corner took
him to see Fletcher at the Winners Foundation
in 2006.
One relapse later, Beavers has reconciled with
his son, who is now 20 and a student at
Louisiana State University. Beavers has been
sober since New Year’s Eve in 2006.
His is one of the many feel-good stories that
began at Winners Foundation, which helps lead
to improved lives.
“Besides the fact it’s given me a lot of new
friends, it turned my life around,” Beavers said.
“It changed it around without any pressure,
without any fear, without any reprisals, without
anything. It just turned my life around, and
I’ve seen these people do this for other people
just as well.”
Art Wilson is a horse-racing writer for the Los
Angeles Newspaper Group.
The Winners
Foundation conducts
English classes as
part of its mission
to help people.
PADDOCK 2011
37

PICKSIX
jockey style
Martin Pedroza, Patrick Valenzuela, Darrel
McHargue, and Steve Valdez each rode
six winners in a day at Oak Tree.
BY STEVE SCHUELEIN
j
ockey Martin Pedroza vividly remembers
Breeders’ Cup Day 1992, but not for
the same reason as the connections of the
winners that afternoon at Gulfstream Park.
Pedroza rode six winners that day, Oct. 31, to
join three other riders to accomplish that feat in
the history of the Oak Tree Racing Association
race meeting.
Martin Pedroza and
Patrick Valenzuela
are still riding on the
Southern California
circuit.
PADDOCK 2011
39

“I was thinking
if I rode a tree
that day, I
could have
made it move.”
—Martin Pedroza
Pedroza completed his
sixth win in 1992
aboard Regal Groom.
40 PADDOCK 2011
“I was in a zone that day; I felt like I could do
no wrong,” said Pedroza recently as he recalled
that dream day 19 years ago. “I was thinking if I
rode a tree that day, I could have made it move.”
The absence of several leading rivals, who
were at the Breeders’ Cup in Florida, facilitated
business for longtime agent Richie Silverstein,
who put Pedroza aboard three favorites, two
second choices, and a third choice that comprised
the sextet.
Pedroza rode six straight winners that muddy
day and had the unusual experience of a fourhour
break at the midpoint while seven Breeders’
Cup races were simulcast to the track.
“I went home during the break, covered myself
pedroza
with a little blanket, and watched the Breeders’
Cup races on television,” said Pedroza of the
short commute to nearby Duarte.
Pedroza swept the first three races in the
morning aboard Redneck Ways and Father Six to
Five in claiming events and Crystaltransmitter in
an allowance test.
The Panamanian native returned in the afternoon
from his prolonged break and remained in
his groove, sandwiching minor stakes wins in the
Commissary aboard Now Showing and the Mor-
vich with Regal Groom around a maiden score
with Cut to Run.
The only race that was close was the Commissary,
for fillies and mares on a turf course
listed “good.” Now Showing, the 3-1 second
choice, rallied from fifth along the rail on a day
the Red Sea would have parted for Pedroza and
got up to win by a head in a three-way photo.
Silverstein recalled the role of fate in Pedroza’s
big day. “It had rained a couple days before,” said
Silverstein. “Crystaltransmitter was not supposed
to run, but he was by a good sire on an off track,
and I talked [trainer] Brian Mayberry into entering.
That was a late audible.
“In the Commissary, I had given a call to Jude
Feld on Slip With Me, who finished third. Ann
Priddy, who trained Now Showing and who I had
never ridden for before, came to me,
and Jude was kind enough to let me off.
“Cut to Run was a 2-year-old trained
by Bill McMeans and would have been
ridden by Gary Stevens if he had not
been at the Breeders’ Cup. Ray Kravagna,
Stevens’ agent, recommended
Martin to replace him.
“I don’t think I ever rode for Ann
Priddy or Bill McMeans before or after
that day,” said Silverstein of the stars
aligning.
The Morvich was taken off the soggy
hillside turf course and transferred to
the main track. “Regal Groom had just
won the Pomona Handicap for Caesar
Dominguez with a different rider,” said
Silverstein, who was in the mix for a
Pomona call decided at the last minute.
“I kept after Caesar, and he gave me the
call for the Morvich.”
Pedroza had a chance for a seven-race
sweep in the last race of the day, but finished
sixth on a 10-1 shot named Forlock.
“I thought I had a good chance to win with a
horse for Julio Canani, but he decided not to
enter,” said Silverstein. “My second choice was a
horse for Marcus Murphy who drew the rail and
was scratched. Forlock, who was trained by Dave
Bernstein, was my third choice.”
Pedroza’s achievement was overshadowed by
the Breeders’ Cup, but it remains a day the 46year-old
veteran will never forget.
VALENZUELA MAGIC
Jockey Patrick Valenzuela’s magic day in 1988
included a victory aboard a 3-year-old maiden
named Magic Johnson.
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

Four Footed Fotos
“I love basketball and used to go to Lakers
games all the time with Doc Kerlan,” said Valenzuela
of famed orthopedic specialist Robert Kerlan,
Los Angeles Lakers team physician and
co-owner of the horse.
“I met Magic once in the locker room after
the game, and he said, ‘You’re Patrick Valenzuela?
I’m a fan of yours,’ ” said Valenzuela, both
flattered and surprised. “And I said, ‘Wow, I’m a
fan of yours!’ ”
Both athletes dished out their magic in different
sports at the heights of their careers in Los
Angeles at the time of the sextet on Oct. 21, four
days after Valenzuela’s 26th birthday.
There was magic in the air from the outset as
valenzuela
Valenzuela won the opener on Raise You, a 3-1
shot trained by Marcus Murphy. He came back
in the second race on Magic Johnson, a California-bred
trained and bred by Mike Mitchell.
“I had to go through Doc Kerlan to get permission
to name the horse Magic Johnson,”
said Mitchell. “He didn’t turn out to be much
horse, which is kind of embarrassing. You kind
www.oaktreeracing.com
of wish you could take the name back.”
On this day, however, Magic Johnson proved
best in $32,000 claiming company, battling for
the early lead before drawing off to a 1 3/4length
score.
Valenzuela, who rode in all nine races, came
back to win the fourth on Caro’s Ruler for Joe
Manzi, the sixth on Defend Your Man for
Jimmy Jordan, the seventh on Beat for Neil
Drysdale, and the ninth on Unrepressed for
Jerry Fanning.
“That was a real cool day; I was blessed to have
a day like that,” said Valenzuela. “It all kind of
fell together well, and I only got beat a neck in
one of the other races [fourth in a five-horse
blanket finish]. You know me; I go in optimistic
every day and feel like I’m going to win every
race. And when a day starts like that,
it gives you more confidence.
“You know, I’ve always got the
fans behind me, and they kept
yelling, ‘C’mon, Patrick, win another
one!’ after each win,” recalled Valenzuela
of the uplifting crowd clamor.
“I told Jerry that we’d win the last
race,” said Valenzuela of greeting Fanning
in the paddock before the nightcap.
“I had already won five, and I
told him we had a heckuva shot.”
MCHARGUE MASTERY
Oct. 25, 1979, was a day when Darrel
McHargue could do no wrong.
“Every time it came to an opening,
it opened up clearly,” recalled
McHargue of his six-win day.
“Things were just falling into line.
Whatever decision you made, it was
the right decision.”
McHargue, who now makes decisions
on the rides of other jockeys
from the stewards’ booth, primarily
at Northern California tracks, credited
agent Scotty McClellan for lining up the winning
mounts.
“They were all live horses, and from good
barns,” said McHargue of a duo of winners for
trainer Gary Jones and one each for Richard Mandella,
Tommy Doyle, D. Wayne Lukas, and David
Hofmans. Three were favorites, two were second
choices, and one was a third choice.
The only “name” horse of the six was Great
Lady M., who led all the way to win the $25,000
allowance feature by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:08 4/5
for six furlongs. Great Lady M. won several major
“I’ve always
got the fans
behind me,
and they kept
yelling, ‘C’mon,
Patrick, win
another one!’
after each
win.”
—Patrick Valenzuela
Valenzuela won six on
one card four days
after turning 26.
PADDOCK 2011
41

Four Footed Fotos
“Every time it
came to an
opening, it
opened up
clearly.”
—Darrel McHargue
Darrel McHargue won
six in 1979 and today
works as a steward.
42 PADDOCK 2011
stakes and became the dam of Lady’s Secret,
Horse of the Year in 1986.
McHargue won a pair of claiming races for
Jones, the opener on a 3-year-old colt named
Bold Seventeen and the fifth on a 2-year-old colt
named Getaway Mandate.
Jones was happy to have McHargue aboard,
especially with the latter. McHargue rode first-call
for Jones after winning an Eclipse Award the previous
year. “Getaway Mandate’s dam, Miss Rose
Away, was the craziest mare you ever saw, and she
passed some of her craziness on,” said Jones of
her nutsy son.
mc hargue
McHargue’s only close win was in the second
race aboard Keith’s Reb, who snatched a threeway
photo separated by noses. The jockey also
won the sixth race with Misty Mem and the
nightcap with First Victory.
On the nine-race card, McHargue had seven
mounts. His only loss occurred in the seventh
race aboard Qualification, who finished fourth
in a five-horse field, beaten by about two lengths.
McHargue retired in 1989 before making the
switch to become a steward. “It’s good because it
keeps you in the game,” said McHargue, 57, from
Golden Gate Fields of his second career. “But
nothing compares with the highs and lows of racing,
and that day was definitely one of the highs.”
NEARLY SEVEN
“I remember that day very well,” said Steve
Valdez from his home in New Plymouth, Idaho.
“I won six and should have won seven.”
The date was Oct. 15, 1973, and teenage
apprentice sensation Valdez was immune from
making any mistakes.
Valdez had already won six of the first eight
races when he climbed aboard Aberion Bob, the
4-5 favorite, in the nightcap.
“I made the lead in the stretch and was going
to win,” said Valdez. “But he broke down inside
the eighth pole, and I was pulling him up the
last sixteenth.” Aberion Bob finished third,
beaten by four lengths.
Valdez’s sextet came as no surprise to him. “At
that time, in my mind, I could win every race,”
said Valdez 38 years later. “I was 17 at the time,
and you couldn’t beat me. I thought I was
[Eddie] Arcaro.”
Valdez’s big day put an exclamation point on
a year in which he became the first West Coast
jockey to win an Eclipse Award as leading
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Bill Vassar Photography

Courtesy Steve Valdez
apprentice, an achievement not repeated for 27
years until Tyler Baze earned the honor in 2000.
Valdez thanked his agent, George Hollander,
for enabling him to run away with Oak Tree
honors with 36 wins and putting him in contact
with leading barns. Three of his wins that day
were for a brash young New York transplant
named Bobby Frankel, and two were for veteran
Bob Wheeler.
After finishing last in the first race, Valdez
won back-to-back races for Wheeler and owner
Hastings Harcourt, the first by a neck on 8.40-1
Cheung and the second on 21-1 outsider Noche
de Gala by disqualification.
Noche de Gala crossed the wire second, a
half-length behind Monter under Don Pierce,
but Valdez lodged a claim of foul and stewards
reversed the order of finish for interference in
the stretch.
“Pierce packed me out and took me out to the
middle of the racetrack,” said Valdez, who was
rallying on the outside. “Otherwise, I would have
beaten him.”
After finishing second by seven lengths in
the fourth race on My Broadside, Valdez won
the fifth for Frankel on Pataha Prince, part of an
www.oaktreeracing.com
valdez
entry favored at 7-10. Valdez returned to capture
the sixth aboard On Tune, a 6.50-1 shot
trained by Ray Priddy, husband of the conditioner
who put Pedroza on one of his six winners
19 years later.
Valdez continued his spree by guiding favored
Phoenix Fats to victory in the seventh for Frankel.
He completed his big day in the eighth aboard
Golden Doc Ray, a 4.70-1 shot who won by a
neck on turf for Frankel and owner Marion
Frankel, no relation to the trainer and also the
owner of Pataha Prince.
Valdez encountered weight problems after
losing his bug and rode on and off through
1996 before moving to Idaho 11 years ago. He
currently works in partnership with Don Horne
in a company called Bulls Are Us, which owns
about a dozen bucking bulls that compete in
rodeos in the Pacific Northwest.
“I’m proud of what I did that day,” said
Valdez. “I know I’m in very elite company.”
Steve Schuelein is a freelance turf writer, Hollywood
Park publicist, and Southern California correspondent
for Thoroughbred Times. He is based in
Playa Del Rey, Calif.
“At the time in
my mind, I
could win
every race.”
© Bill Mochon
Steve Valdez now
wrangles bulls in
Idaho and rode six
winners in 1973.
PADDOCK 2011
—Steve Valdez
43

Hard Work Rewards Hollendorfer
Trainer of champion Blind Luck, California-based Jerry Hollendorfer this year was
inducted into the national Hall of Fame.
Jerry Hollendorfer
dominated Northern
California while also
winning such races as
the Santa Anita
Handicap, Kentucky
Oaks, and Haskell
Invitational.
44
PADDOCK 2011
It is typical of the man that when Jerry Hollendorfer
spoke upon his induction into the
National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame,
he talked of how good the trainers and horses
are on the West Coast rather than about himself.
“The East Coast is important, and sometimes
they don’t know what we do out on the West
Coast,” said Hollendorfer. “But there are a lot of
very good horses and trainers there and a lot of
competition.”
All California trainers—especially those who
ply their trade in Northern California—know
that much of that competition comes from Hollendorfer’s
stable. He was a one-person juggernaut
in Bay Area racing for decades. Take any race
any day, and chances are one or more Hollendorfer
runners had the event surrounded.
Consider what Hollendorfer accomplished in
Northern California before he ventured south on
a more permanent basis: 37 straight training
titles at Bay Meadows and 38 titles at Golden
Gate Fields. He has won more than 6,000 races,
with career earnings of well over $120 million,
much of it in Northern California.
Along the way, the 65-year-old native of
Akron, Ohio, managed to win training titles at
Arlington Park and Thistledown as well. And for
someone based in California, he sure found ways
to win the Kentucky Oaks. Three times he has
swooped in and won the companion jewel to the
Kentucky Derby—with Lite Light in 1991, Pike
Place Dancer in 1996, and the incomparable
Blind Luck in 2010.
Blind Luck, last year’s champion 3-year-old
filly, may have propelled Hollendorfer into the
Hall of Fame, but he couldn’t have reached that
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

pinnacle without the rest of his vast stable. Over
the years, they have included California-bred King
Glorious (1989 Haskell Invitational), Heatseeker
(2008 Santa Anita Handicap), Dakota Phone
(2010 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile), and the good
distaffers Tuscan Evening and Hystericalady.
As tough as Blind Luck was last year, when she
added the Alabama Stakes and Las Virgenes Stakes
to her Oaks victory, she is proving even more exciting
in 2011. She and East Coast-based Havre de
Grace have staged a series of battles that may be
www.oaktreeracing.com
the best rivalry ever between female racehorses.
Hollendorfer credits the people around him
with his success.
“I’ve enjoyed being an owner as well as a
trainer, and I’ve enjoyed working with many top
riders like Russell Baze,” said Hollendorfer at the
induction ceremonies in Saratoga on Aug. 12.
“We’ve won more than 2,500 races together. I’ve
had some great employees to help me over the
years, and you can’t get here without these people.
It’s very special.”
Chief among Hollendorfer’s assistants are his
wife, Janet, who is also his stable manager, and
Dan Ward, who manages the Southern California
division when Hollendorfer is out of town.
The trainer has many longtime owners, with
whom he partners on several of his runners, people
like Dr. Mark DeDomenico, George Todaro,
and Ted Aroney.
Aroney, who owned King Glorious and now
is the racing manager for the Craig Family Trust,
hosted a beach party at Del Mar about two weeks
before the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies to
toast and roast his longtime friend.
Trainer John Sadler, a dominant force in
Southern California who used to race against
Hollendorfer in Northern California, paid tribute
to his colleague at the beach party. Sadler
noted that Hollendorfer always does his homework,
is a hard worker, and thoroughly deserved
his Hall of Fame honor.
“You look at his numbers and horses like Lite
Light, King Glorious, and now Blind Luck, and
there’s no question he belongs,” said Sadler.
“I’ve had
some great
employees to
help me over
the years, and
you can’t get in
the Hall of
Fame without
these people.”
—Jerry Hollendorfer
Hollendorfer with
other California-based
Hall of Fame trainers
Bob Baffert, Richard
Mandella, Jack Van
Berg, Ron McAnally,
and Neil Drysdale
(top) and with his
current champion
Blind Luck (left)
PADDOCK 2011
45

&
PROJECTS PEOPLE
A L O O K A T T H E P E O P L E , H O R S E S , A N D P R O J E C T S T H A T M A K E O A K T R E E U N I Q U E
Chachamaidee, ridden by Tom Queally, won the 2011 Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood in England.
Trevor Jones /thoroughbredphoto.com
Oak Tree Stakes, Unbeaten Frankel
Highlight Glorious Goodwood
THE SPOTLIGHT SHONE ON trainer Sir Henry Cecil and jockey
Tom Queally when they won the Oak Tree Stakes at Glorious
Goodwood—but not quite as brightly as just two days before, when
this same team guided Frankel to victory in the Qipco Sussex Stakes
at the English racecourse in late July.
The Oak Tree Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs is a
highly regarded Group III fixture, named for the Oak Tree Racing
Association. Yet Oak Tree had another connection this year in Frankel,
the 3-year-old named for Oak Tree’s all-time leading stakes-winning
trainer, the late Bobby Frankel.
Owned by Juddmonte Farm, Frankel was a five-length winner of
the Sussex, where he stepped out for the first time against older horses
and put his unbeaten record of seven on the line. It was his fourth
Group I victory. Frankel’s chief competition was Canford Cliffs, who
beat Goldikova in his previous start and who boasted a five-race winning
streak. He finished second to Frankel.
Cecil, who now has won the one-mile Sussex Stakes six times,
said of Frankel, “He’s a very, very good horse, probably the best
I’ve ever seen.”
Since 1982, the Oak Tree Racing Association and Goodwood have
enjoyed a warm reciprocal relationship across the Atlantic, each naming
a major stakes for the other. Oak Tree’s Goodwood Stakes has
lured outstanding competitors and with its positioning ahead of the
Breeders’ Cup has been an instrumental lead-up for success for the
championship races.
The favorite for the 2011 Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood, Maqaasid,
46 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Trevor Jones /thoroughbredphoto.com

Trevor Jones /thoroughbredphoto.com
was saddled by John Gosden, a familiar name at Oak Tree meetings
from when he trained full time in California and when he took part in
Breeders’ Cup races hosted by Oak Tree at Santa Anita. Maqaasid
could finish only fifth, however, as Chachamaidee provided Cecil with
an impressive effort in the Oak Tree. Owned by R.A.H. Evans and bred
in Ireland, the 4-year-old got to the lead in the final furlong and won
by nearly three lengths with Queally up. n
Chaplaincy Benefits from Oak Tree Donations
THE RACE TRACK CHAPLAINCY of America and the Oak Tree
Racing Association grew up together, and Oak Tree has been a
major benefactor of the California divisions ever since. Salty
Roberts founded the national organization in the early 1970s, and
today Eddie Meza in Southern California and Chris Belluomini in
Northern California serve as chaplains to the racing industry.
Begun as a non-denominational Christian organization, the California
chapters have expanded beyond their spiritual beginnings.
Meza explained that the chaplaincy is dedicated to helping the people
within the racing industry any way it can, regardless of a person’s religious
beliefs.
“I believe that the Race Track Chaplaincy belongs to the people of
the racetrack,” said Meza.
The chaplaincy aids backstretch workers with everything from
applying for citizenship to translation and filing taxes. The Southern
California division works with local churches, the YMCA, and teen
support groups.
In Northern California, Belluomini organizes clothing donation
drives and food banks, both of which are available free to backstretch
workers. He is trying to begin English classes as well. Recently, the
Northern California chaplaincy worked with the University of California
at Berkeley and the city of Albany on a mural therapy project.
About 40 backstretch workers participated in creating a 12-foot mural,
which now hangs in the recreation hall at Golden Gate Fields.
The chaplaincy also sponsors picnics to foster a sense of community
among those on the backstretch. It works in conjunction with
other groups, such as the Winners Foundation and the California
Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation.
www.oaktreeracing.com
Gino Roncelli (left), representing the Oak Tree Racing Association,
presented the trophy to trainer Henry Cecil, who also trains unbeaten
Frankel (top).
The chaplaincy is able to help people primarily because of Oak
Tree, Meza said.
“They’ve supported us for 40 years,” he said. “Every time we said
we were going to hold an activity, they would open up the doors and
sponsor us.” n
Eddie Meza (left) and Chris Belluomini are the chaplains in Southern and Northern California,
respectively. This mural (below) was a therapy project coordinated by the Northern chapter.
PADDOCK 2011
47
Trevor Jones /thoroughbredphoto.com

Beryl and Noble Threewitt were popular at California racetracks.
Racing Loses Noble Threewitt
NOBLE THREEWITT, WHO CARED passionately for horses and
the people who worked with them, died in September 2010 at
age 99, two months after the death of his wife of 77 years, Beryl.
A Thoroughbred trainer from 1932 until his retirement in 2007,
Threewitt won the Wood Memorial and Florida Derby with Correlation,
the Swaps and San Rafael Stakes with Devoted Brass, the California
Derby with Cuzwuzwrong, and the San Carlos Handicap with
Debonaire Junior. His other stakes winners include Old Topper,
Theresa’s Tizzy, Cerise Reine, Hairless Heiress, and Hula Blaze. King
of Cricket, a sprinter, set track records at four California tracks during
the 1970s for Threewitt.
The venerable conditioner was witness to plenty of racing history.
He was at Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana when Australian champion
Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932. He
attended the inaugurals of Santa Anita Park in 1934, Bay Meadows
the same year, Del Mar in 1938, Hollywood Park in 1938, and
Golden Gate Fields in 1941.
Although he was known to be one of the earliest arrivals in the
stable area each day, Threewitt did not spend his whole time with
the horses. Vitally concerned with the welfare of backstretch workers,
he served many years as president of the California Horsemen’s
Benevolent and Protective Association and as a national vice president
of the HBPA. He also was president of the California Thoroughbred
Horsemen’s Foundation, of which he was the leading
organizer. Its purpose was—and is—to provide broad health and
welfare services for anyone who works on the backstretch. Its facility
at Santa Anita, which is also its headquarters, is named in his honor.
(See the article about the CTHF on page 23.)
Noble and Beryl Threewitt were popular figures at the tracks and
knew everyone. “I used to tell people that one of the wonderful things
about this business is that you meet people from all walks of life,”
Threewitt said in an interview. Certainly one of those was actress Mae
West, whom Threewitt met during the filming of the 1935 movie
“Goin’ to Town,” in which Noble played a jockey. n
48 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION

Zenyatta’s Owners Receive Pincay Award
JERRY AND ANN MOSS, owners of champion Zenyatta, received 19 races in a row, losing only once when she nearly caught Blame in
the eighth annual Laffit Pincay Jr. Award July 9 at Hollywood Park. the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
They followed the Oak Tree Racing Association, which received the Jerry Moss has served as a member of the California Horse Racing
award in 2010. Hall of Fame jockey Pincay made the presentation Board since being appointed in 2003. Ann Moss is an active environ-
during the Hollywood Gold Cup card. The Award is presented annumentalist and founder of the Dolphin Connection.
ally to people or organizations that have served racing with integrity, The Pincay Award began in 2004 by honoring racing executive and
extraordinary dedication, determination, and distinction.
publicist Bob Benoit, who also created Paddock magazine. Other Pin-
“Racing owes the Mosses a debt of gratitude for keeping Zenyatta cay honorees are trainer Noble Threewitt, trainers Mel and Warren
in training for an extra year [in 2010],’’ said Pincay. “They have been Stute, California owner-breeder E. W. “Bud” Johnston, steward Pete
huge supporters of the sport for a long period of time and have con- Pedersen, and jockey Merlin Volzke. n
tinued to promote racing in
numerous ways.”
During Pincay’s riding
career, he piloted Ruhlmann
for the Mosses and trainer
Charlie Whittingham to win
the 1989 Mervyn LeRoy
Handicap at Hollywood.
Jerry Moss, co-founder of
A&M Records with Herb
Alpert, has been involved as
a Thoroughbred owner since
1970, owning such stakes
winners such as 2005 Kentucky
Derby winner Giacomo,
Fighting Fit, Kudos,
Sardula, and Tiago.
However, Zenyatta,
Horse of the Year in 2010
and a multiple champion, is
the best horse the Mosses
have ever campaigned.
Trained by John Shirreffs,
she became the first female
ever to win the Breeders’
Cup Classic, prevailing
under regular jockey Mike
Smith in 2009 at Santa
Anita. Zenyatta won her first Jerry and Ann Moss with their champion mare Zenyatta.
Videos Show Careers for Retired Racehorses
THE OAK TREE CHARITABLE Foundation provided funding for
seven “webinars” (web seminars) about second careers for
Thoroughbreds produced by the California Thoroughbred Breeders
Association. Tat Yakutis McCabe of Yakutis Enterprises edited
the videos.
Interviews with people in California involved in developing new
careers for Thoroughbreds after racing reveal how they work with
the horses to find their most suitable skills, such as retraining as
hunters, jumpers, and dressage competitors. One webinar is about
www.oaktreeracing.com
an exhibition at Cal Expo in Sacramento that gave the public
insight into the many uses for former racehorses.
In several cases, footage of the horses winning races is shown
alongside video of their follow-up careers in other equine activities.
You can find the seven videos on Oak Tree’s YouTube channel at
OakTreeRaces or at yakutisenterprises.com. There is also a link to the
videos on the CTBA site (www.ctba.com) under the “After Racing”
tab near the top of the home page. Each video is under 10 minutes
in length. n
PADDOCK 2011
49

Oak Tree on the Internet
YOU MAY BE HOLDING a traditional magazine in your hands
right now, but it is also a portal to the Internet. You can find
the Oak Tree Racing Association in many places online.
Oak Tree has a website as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts
and a YouTube channel. You may have already experienced the
YouTube channel back on pages 28-29 of this Paddock magazine.
There you can access videos of the amazing John Henry and Zenyatta
winning their three consecutive stakes at Oak Tree. The YouTube
channel is called OakTreeRaces, and you can browse other Oak Tree
races and events there as well.
Check out Oak Tree information on its website at
www.oaktreeracing.com. Like us on Facebook at Oak Tree
Racing Association, and follow us on Twitter at @OakTreeRaces. n Find Oak Tree videos on YouTube on the OakTreeRaces channel.
Yellow Ribbon Winner, Champion Brown Bess Dies
LOOK UP BROWN BESS on the Internet, and most of the information
is about a historically famous British flintlock musket
put into use in the early 1700s
and used in numerous wars
around the world.
The Brown Bess who won
the 1989 Yellow Ribbon Invitational
Stakes at Oak Tree was
a formidable weapon, too. The
15-hand powerhouse by
Petrone from the Windy Sands
mare Chickadee used her Yellow
Ribbon victory to assure
earning the title of champion
grass mare that year, when she
was 7 years old. The Yellow
Ribbon was her fifth graded
stakes win of 1989. Her time
for the 1 1/4 miles was
1:57 3/5, a fifth of a second
slower than the course record.
Brown Bess won the 1989 Yellow Ribbon Invitational at Oak Tree.
Oak Tree Supports Horse and Human Welfare
OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION’S intense interest in caring for
Thoroughbreds and the people who work with them is reflected
in the organization’s donations for the last fiscal year. Oak Tree, which
is a not-for-profit endeavor, has given more than $27 million to such
causes and to community organizations since it began racing in 1969.
Among the groups concerned with retired racehorses that have
received support by the Oak Tree Racing Association and Charitable
Foundation are the United Pegasus Foundation, Tranquility Farm, and
the California Equine Retirement Foundation (CERF).
Brown Bess was bred in California and campaigned by Suzanne
Pashayan’s Calbourne Farm exclusively in her home state. She
raced extensively in Northern
California for trainer Chuck
Jenda, earning eight of her
11 stakes victories there.
Overall, Brown Bess won
16 of 36 races and placed in
30 of them.
She was the first of four
Yellow Ribbon winners
named champion turf female
the same year. The others
were Ryafan in 1997, Fiji
in 1998, and Golden Apples
in 2002.
Brown Bess died at age 29
on July 15 at John C. Harris’
Harris Farms, where she had
spent several years in retirement.
n
Research groups that have benefited from Oak Tree include the
Northern and Southern California Equine Foundations, which operate
veterinary hospitals at the tracks, and the Racing Surfaces Testing
Laboratory.
The welfare of track workers was supported with gifts to the Winners
Foundation, California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation,
Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, Edwin J. Gregson Foundation,
and Race Track Chaplaincy of America, Northern and Southern California
chapters. n
50 PADDOCK 2011 OAK TREE RACING ASSOCIATION
Four Footed Fotos

oak Tree Beyond 2011
FOR 42 SEASONS, the Oak Tree Racing Association has conducted a
fall race meeting, with the proceeds going to support such worthy
causes as you have read about in the pages of this issue of Paddock magazine.
In 2011, for the first time in its history, Oak Tree will not be conduct-
ing a race meeting. Those organizations that help the racing industry—both
its people and its equine competitors—have seen a corresponding and nec-
essary cutting back in the funds Oak Tree has been able to donate.
However, the intent is that this is a brief hiatus only. Oak Tree is pur-
suing a new partnership with the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and will apply
for racing dates for the fall of 2013.
“While our future dates have not been resolved yet, we are anticipating
returning to a racing status,” said Sherwood C. Chillingworth, Oak Tree’s
Executive Vice-President. “We anticipate resolution of this issue sometime
before the end of the year.” n
www.oaktreeracing.com PADDOCK 2011 51

Oak Tree Racing Association
Santa Anita Park
Arcadia, California 91007-3439