Horse Racing: If at First You Succeed, Try, Try Again

Breeding a race horse is like baking a soufflé: you find a good recipe, follow it exactly—and heaven only knows what the result will be. Mating a mare named Geisha to a stallion named Polynesian may result in 1) a Native Dancer, who won 21 out of 22 races, or 2) a Noble Savage, who never won a race at all. August Belmont gave his name to a famous race track (New York’s Belmont Park), but he is better remembered as the fellow who bred Man o’ War—and sold him as a yearling for $5,000. Aghast at his blunder, Belmont tried to reproduce the champion that got away. He mated Mahubah to Fair Play all over again and was rewarded with My Play, who won only nine minor races in four years.

Seven for Two. All of which says something for the process of natural selection—unless the sire happens to be Nantallah and the mare is Rough Shod II. Neither ever amounted to much on the track, but they are all business in the barn. The first product of their union was Ridan, a huge colt who won $635,074 before he was retired to stud in 1963. Next came Lt. Stevens, who is still racing as a four-year-old and has won $240,949. Then there is Moccasin. A strapping chestnut filly, Moccasin is two years old, and has been to the post seven times. She has won all seven races, by a total margin of 48½ lengths.

Owned jointly by Kentucky’s A. B. (“Bull”) Hancock Jr. and Virginia’s William Haggin Perry, Moccasin seems to have inherited all her family’s good traits, none of the bad. Ridan was an incorrigible people-hater who ran away with his exercise boys. Lt. Stevens once threw Jockey Johnny Heckmann so heavily that Heckmann was out of action for two months. Moccasin, insists Trainer Harry Trotsek, 53, is “a perfect lady,” so mild-mannered and businesslike that Trotsek refuses to take any personal credit for her success. “Good horses,” he says, “overcome all sorts of things—including their trainers.”

10¢ on the Dollar. Moccasin has overcome her share. As a yearling, she grew so fast that she was inclined to be lazy; to keep painful calcium deposits from forming in her ankles, she had to be “fired”—a process in which a veterinarian cauterizes the ankles with a hot iron. She has also had her share of bad racing luck. Last month, in a warmup race for the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland, Moccasin broke so badly that she was ten lengths behind the field by the time she got untangled. She still won the 6½-furlong race by three lengths, repaying her shaken admirers at the rate of 10¢ on the dollar—the minimum that Kentucky law allows.

That was the closest Moccasin has ever come to losing. In the Alcibiades itself, Moccasin was such a commanding favorite (1-10 in the early line) that the Keeneland management converted the race into a betless exhibition. Moccasin won by 15 lengths. The same thing happened two weeks ago at Maryland’s Laurel Race Course. Only four fillies showed up to challenge Moccasin in the $93,620 Selima Stakes, so track officials canceled all betting on the 1 1/16-mi. race. Moccasin won by five lengths, leading every step of the way.

With $209,517 already in the bank, Moccasin can wrap up the two-year-old filly championship with a victory in the $75,000 Gardenia Stakes at New Jersey’s Garden State Park this week. But Trainer Trotsek is a persistent pessimist. “This game is made up of ‘shoulda,’ ‘coulda’ and ‘woulda,'” he says glumly. “Who knows? A better filly might come along.” Sure, Harry-next year. Owners Hancock and Perry are watching the progress of a little bay yearling whose parents’ names are Nantallah and Rough Shod II.