Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
This is Jimmy Powers ready to bring you another story
from the Tumult and the shouting. Hi there, This is
(01:40):
Jimmy Powers with another chapter from the colorful life of
the late and great Granny Rice. Today we go to
the racetrack with Granny. He takes us down the ears
with the great and near great horses he knew. Plus
an interview with the jockey Rice rated at the top
of the heap for many years, Earl the handy guy
Sandy with a bow of the spirit of Granny Rice.
(02:02):
I pick up his narrative in first person. The first
time I ever saw Man of War was at Jamaica
Racetrack outside New York City in nineteen twenty, where he
was entered in the Stuyvesant Handicap at one mile. I
had taken along an old boy from Tennessee who knew
(02:24):
nothing about the track. Can you give me a winner,
he asked, yes, I replied, a thing called man O
War in the fifth race, I had him, said, my friend.
After the race, he won, But he didn't pay much,
did he no, I replied, but he won. Man O
War was in all books at one to one hundred
(02:46):
or one penny on each dollar. Wagered. My friend, a plunger,
had risked five dollars on the nose. His winnings didn't
pay his car. Farrell back to Tennessee, checking back on
the great horses I've seen in action, The question comes
back who was the greatest? My pick would be first
Exterminator for speed, stamina, endurance, and most running. Second, man
(03:11):
O War no faster than Citation, but he had a
furious desire to win. He had more color than any horse.
Third Citation. That's the solid horse, always dependable. His later
defeats by Noor, though, brought him down a bit. Fourth
count Fleet, the high headed colt, was probably as good
as the best, as fast as any. Didn't quite last
(03:33):
out his three year old term, however. But the mostest horse,
the thoroughbred who gripped the imagination of racegoers, whether they
bet him one hundred dollars to win or two dollars
to show, was man O War. You know, the British
stud books refused to acknowledge him. They didn't rate his
breeding pure enough. This business of breeding, incidentally makes me snort.
(03:55):
When I'm trying to pick a horse. I don't ask
about his breeding. All I am is about six inches
of his nose in front of the wire. I've had
my first speaking acquaintance with running horses back in nineteen
one down the Ears. I've witnessed perhaps half a dozen
great match races, or at least for purposes of description,
they were match races in that it was strictly horse
(04:17):
against horse. The man o' war John P. Grier affair
at Aqueduct Park on Long Island in July nineteen twenty,
on a weather clear track fast day, was a corker.
It was the Dwyer Stakes at one and one eight miles.
This pair scared the rest of the expected field back
to the Barnes. John P was in with a feather
(04:37):
at one hundred and eight pounds, while man o War
carried one twenty six pounds, including Clarence Cummer in the
irons Well Aqueduct was a giant beehive. As these two
magnificent thoroughbreds came out onto the track, they were cheered
like a pair of heavyweights touching gloves before round one
of a world championship. Thereof roared the crowd as the
(04:58):
barrier snapped in. Two freight trains roared by the stands
and into the far turn at the three quarter pole,
man O War was lapped on John P. About a
half length and that's how it was right through until
they hit the head of the stretch a quarter mile
from home. Right there, John P. Greer made a lung
cracking challenge. It was head and head, neck and neck
(05:19):
as they thundered towards home. Suddenly, about two hundred yards
from the wire, the smaller horse seemed to go to pieces.
Man O War with that gigantic stride it measured twenty
seven feet between leaps, kept right on, rolling to win
by two or three lengths for a world record of
one forty nine and one fifth. That's one minute, forty
nine and one fifth seconds. Great as Man of War
(05:42):
was as a champion, I must cast my vote for
Exterminator when judged in all three directions speed, stamina, and time.
The time he lasts and Man of War was retired
to stud as a three year old because he was
a gelding. Exterminator's owner, Willis Sharp Kilmer, ran this gentlest
of horses from nineteen seventeen until mid June of nineteen
(06:03):
twenty four. That's a total of seven racing years, or
more than twice what Man o War faced and in
those seven years he was carrying high weight from one
thirty five to one forty pounds. Yet under this extreme
burden he won fifty of one hundred races before he retired.
Why the prettiest horse on a Coney Island Merry Go
Round doesn't pack as much weight as did Old Exterminator
(06:30):
As a Papa Man of war, stud performance was as
spectacular as was his racing career. From nineteen twenty four
when his first batch of colts went to the races
right on until nineteen fifty four. That's thirty consecutive years.
The magnificent patriarch of far Away Farms that's near Lexington, Kentucky,
sired winners of many races. Their earnings total more than
(06:50):
three and one half million dollars, and his number one
son was War Admiral. Ladies and gentlemen, when a champion
steps down, the saying is they never come back. Well
here in the studio as one chap who has returned
to the winner's circle twenty one years after riding his
last winter and calling it quits to a long and
(07:12):
brilliant career as America's number one jockey. Earl Sandy shucked
off his boots and his silks back in nineteen thirty three.
Then on October fourteenth, nineteen fifty four, after a rough
period of reconditioning his body and his nerves, Sandy smashed
through on a three year old Philly Miss Weezy. The
horse paid twenty seven dollars and ten cents, and the
(07:33):
second horse, the odds on favorite, was ridden by a
fellow named Eddie R. Carroll, who was considered the Earl
Sandy of the present day, and now standing beside me
is Earl Sandy himself, who was a good friend of
Granny Rice's.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I certainly was Jimmy. I had the extreme good fortune
to be a close friend of Granny's from nineteen twenty
right up to Granny's farewell in July nineteen fifty four.
I remember, just a couple of days before he passed on,
we were both coming out of the mutual pit with a
five dollars ticket on different horses. I don't think either
one of us had the winner.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Well, you must have discussed horses during your acquaintance ship
with Granny, all types of horses. We know how Granny
felt about the relentless power and drive of a man
of war. But you were there, you rode big Red.
Would you like to tell us about it? Earlanys, I
was there.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I had the great thrill of riding Big Red one time.
It was in the Miller Stakes at Saratoga a mile
and three six steats. And I remember before the race,
just before I mounted, I said, mister Riddle, you want
me to let Big Red run and break the track record?
He said, oh, the world, just to let him go
out there and gallop around, which he did.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
How did it feel to be a board him? I
was it like I think he once said it was
like being a board a runaway locomotive.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, he was a big, powerful horse and loved to run.
He was, a matter of fact, he was quite a
handful to ride. He was very anxious before a race.
They had to lead him to the post to turn
him over to an assistant starter. And of course we
didn't have any stallgates in those days, and anytime he
straightened up the right way of the track, he was
on his way, assistant starter and rider and all. But
(09:12):
after the race was over he'd come back and just
like an old saddle horse.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Earl, in addition to man of war, of course, there
was a Sea Biscuit and stage Hand. What did you
think of those two horses?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, they were wonderful horses, and I remember the greatest
thrill I ever had as a trainer. I trained stage
Hand when he won the Santa Nita Handicap and beat
Sea Biscuit of Nose. As a matter of fact, I
didn't know whether he'd beat him or not until they
hung up the number. It was a photo finish and
he just barely did beat him. I guess I would
have settled for a dead heat. Certainly was a thrilling race.
(09:46):
One hundred thousand dollars races sat I need a handicap now.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I think a lot of people listing would like to
know because they're worried about weight problems and that a
jockey makes his living with his weight, how about reducing
there doesn't a lot out of it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, that's side. My line on that is Jimmy that
in order for me to make the weight of a rider,
I had to be dehydrated, overworked, and under fed in
order to make the weight, and that's kind of a
bad combination. I just think it has pretty tiresome anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You're annoying that your stomach twenty four hours a day
for a year.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
On end side, you work up a terrific appetite and
can't satisfy it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
What were you under? Would you say your normal weight?
Had you not been a jockey? Would you been about
five pounds heavier? Ten or twenty oh?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I the last time you remember when I staged that little
comeback and wrote a few races nineteen fifty three. That
was I weighed one hundred and thirty eight strip a
few months before, and I got down to one hundred
and eleven strips, So you can see how much weight
I took off.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Earl Sandy, you had a lot of spectacular spills. What
was the closest call you think you had?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well? I had speaking of Saratoga, And the worst fall
I ever had was it Saratoga in nineteen twenty four.
I got busted up pretty well. I felt first and
three horses fell over the top of us, and I
had what you call a commonooted fracture of the femur
and a few cracked ribs and a broken collar bone.
(11:11):
Outside of that, outside that, you haven't heard that pretty
good ship.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Well, Ero, thanks a lot for the chat, and folks
you know now how it was like to ride Man
of War, the world's most famous horse. Of course, Man
of War died in nineteen forty eight at the extreme
agor of thirty one. We may never see the equal
of this horse, who so completely captured the imagination of those,
particularly Granny Rice, who rode full steam ahead through the
turbulent twenty and mister Jimmy Powers transcribed saying so long
(13:05):
to s
This is Jimmy Powers ready to bring you another story
from the Tumult and the shouting. Hi there, This is
(01:40):
Jimmy Powers with another chapter from the colorful life of
the late and great Granny Rice. Today we go to
the racetrack with Granny. He takes us down the ears
with the great and near great horses he knew. Plus
an interview with the jockey Rice rated at the top
of the heap for many years, Earl the handy guy
Sandy with a bow of the spirit of Granny Rice.
(02:02):
I pick up his narrative in first person. The first
time I ever saw Man of War was at Jamaica
Racetrack outside New York City in nineteen twenty, where he
was entered in the Stuyvesant Handicap at one mile. I
had taken along an old boy from Tennessee who knew
(02:24):
nothing about the track. Can you give me a winner,
he asked, yes, I replied, a thing called man O
War in the fifth race, I had him, said, my friend.
After the race, he won, But he didn't pay much,
did he no, I replied, but he won. Man O
War was in all books at one to one hundred
(02:46):
or one penny on each dollar. Wagered. My friend, a plunger,
had risked five dollars on the nose. His winnings didn't
pay his car. Farrell back to Tennessee, checking back on
the great horses I've seen in action, The question comes
back who was the greatest? My pick would be first
Exterminator for speed, stamina, endurance, and most running. Second, man
(03:11):
O War no faster than Citation, but he had a
furious desire to win. He had more color than any horse.
Third Citation. That's the solid horse, always dependable. His later
defeats by Noor, though, brought him down a bit. Fourth
count Fleet, the high headed colt, was probably as good
as the best, as fast as any. Didn't quite last
(03:33):
out his three year old term, however. But the mostest horse,
the thoroughbred who gripped the imagination of racegoers, whether they
bet him one hundred dollars to win or two dollars
to show, was man O War. You know, the British
stud books refused to acknowledge him. They didn't rate his
breeding pure enough. This business of breeding, incidentally makes me snort.
(03:55):
When I'm trying to pick a horse. I don't ask
about his breeding. All I am is about six inches
of his nose in front of the wire. I've had
my first speaking acquaintance with running horses back in nineteen
one down the Ears. I've witnessed perhaps half a dozen
great match races, or at least for purposes of description,
they were match races in that it was strictly horse
(04:17):
against horse. The man o' war John P. Grier affair
at Aqueduct Park on Long Island in July nineteen twenty,
on a weather clear track fast day, was a corker.
It was the Dwyer Stakes at one and one eight miles.
This pair scared the rest of the expected field back
to the Barnes. John P was in with a feather
(04:37):
at one hundred and eight pounds, while man o War
carried one twenty six pounds, including Clarence Cummer in the
irons Well Aqueduct was a giant beehive. As these two
magnificent thoroughbreds came out onto the track, they were cheered
like a pair of heavyweights touching gloves before round one
of a world championship. Thereof roared the crowd as the
(04:58):
barrier snapped in. Two freight trains roared by the stands
and into the far turn at the three quarter pole,
man O War was lapped on John P. About a
half length and that's how it was right through until
they hit the head of the stretch a quarter mile
from home. Right there, John P. Greer made a lung
cracking challenge. It was head and head, neck and neck
(05:19):
as they thundered towards home. Suddenly, about two hundred yards
from the wire, the smaller horse seemed to go to pieces.
Man O War with that gigantic stride it measured twenty
seven feet between leaps, kept right on, rolling to win
by two or three lengths for a world record of
one forty nine and one fifth. That's one minute, forty
nine and one fifth seconds. Great as Man of War
(05:42):
was as a champion, I must cast my vote for
Exterminator when judged in all three directions speed, stamina, and time.
The time he lasts and Man of War was retired
to stud as a three year old because he was
a gelding. Exterminator's owner, Willis Sharp Kilmer, ran this gentlest
of horses from nineteen seventeen until mid June of nineteen
(06:03):
twenty four. That's a total of seven racing years, or
more than twice what Man o War faced and in
those seven years he was carrying high weight from one
thirty five to one forty pounds. Yet under this extreme
burden he won fifty of one hundred races before he retired.
Why the prettiest horse on a Coney Island Merry Go
Round doesn't pack as much weight as did Old Exterminator
(06:30):
As a Papa Man of war, stud performance was as
spectacular as was his racing career. From nineteen twenty four
when his first batch of colts went to the races
right on until nineteen fifty four. That's thirty consecutive years.
The magnificent patriarch of far Away Farms that's near Lexington, Kentucky,
sired winners of many races. Their earnings total more than
(06:50):
three and one half million dollars, and his number one
son was War Admiral. Ladies and gentlemen, when a champion
steps down, the saying is they never come back. Well
here in the studio as one chap who has returned
to the winner's circle twenty one years after riding his
last winter and calling it quits to a long and
(07:12):
brilliant career as America's number one jockey. Earl Sandy shucked
off his boots and his silks back in nineteen thirty three.
Then on October fourteenth, nineteen fifty four, after a rough
period of reconditioning his body and his nerves, Sandy smashed
through on a three year old Philly Miss Weezy. The
horse paid twenty seven dollars and ten cents, and the
(07:33):
second horse, the odds on favorite, was ridden by a
fellow named Eddie R. Carroll, who was considered the Earl
Sandy of the present day, and now standing beside me
is Earl Sandy himself, who was a good friend of
Granny Rice's.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I certainly was Jimmy. I had the extreme good fortune
to be a close friend of Granny's from nineteen twenty
right up to Granny's farewell in July nineteen fifty four.
I remember, just a couple of days before he passed on,
we were both coming out of the mutual pit with a
five dollars ticket on different horses. I don't think either
one of us had the winner.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Well, you must have discussed horses during your acquaintance ship
with Granny, all types of horses. We know how Granny
felt about the relentless power and drive of a man
of war. But you were there, you rode big Red.
Would you like to tell us about it? Earlanys, I
was there.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I had the great thrill of riding Big Red one time.
It was in the Miller Stakes at Saratoga a mile
and three six steats. And I remember before the race,
just before I mounted, I said, mister Riddle, you want
me to let Big Red run and break the track record?
He said, oh, the world, just to let him go
out there and gallop around, which he did.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
How did it feel to be a board him? I
was it like I think he once said it was
like being a board a runaway locomotive.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Well, he was a big, powerful horse and loved to run.
He was, a matter of fact, he was quite a
handful to ride. He was very anxious before a race.
They had to lead him to the post to turn
him over to an assistant starter. And of course we
didn't have any stallgates in those days, and anytime he
straightened up the right way of the track, he was
on his way, assistant starter and rider and all. But
(09:12):
after the race was over he'd come back and just
like an old saddle horse.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Earl, in addition to man of war, of course, there
was a Sea Biscuit and stage Hand. What did you
think of those two horses?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, they were wonderful horses, and I remember the greatest
thrill I ever had as a trainer. I trained stage
Hand when he won the Santa Nita Handicap and beat
Sea Biscuit of Nose. As a matter of fact, I
didn't know whether he'd beat him or not until they
hung up the number. It was a photo finish and
he just barely did beat him. I guess I would
have settled for a dead heat. Certainly was a thrilling race.
(09:46):
One hundred thousand dollars races sat I need a handicap now.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I think a lot of people listing would like to
know because they're worried about weight problems and that a
jockey makes his living with his weight, how about reducing
there doesn't a lot out of it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, that's side. My line on that is Jimmy that
in order for me to make the weight of a rider,
I had to be dehydrated, overworked, and under fed in
order to make the weight, and that's kind of a
bad combination. I just think it has pretty tiresome anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You're annoying that your stomach twenty four hours a day
for a year.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
On end side, you work up a terrific appetite and
can't satisfy it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
What were you under? Would you say your normal weight?
Had you not been a jockey? Would you been about
five pounds heavier? Ten or twenty oh?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I the last time you remember when I staged that little
comeback and wrote a few races nineteen fifty three. That
was I weighed one hundred and thirty eight strip a
few months before, and I got down to one hundred
and eleven strips, So you can see how much weight
I took off.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Earl Sandy, you had a lot of spectacular spills. What
was the closest call you think you had?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well? I had speaking of Saratoga, And the worst fall
I ever had was it Saratoga in nineteen twenty four.
I got busted up pretty well. I felt first and
three horses fell over the top of us, and I
had what you call a commonooted fracture of the femur
and a few cracked ribs and a broken collar bone.
(11:11):
Outside of that, outside that, you haven't heard that pretty
good ship.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Well, Ero, thanks a lot for the chat, and folks
you know now how it was like to ride Man
of War, the world's most famous horse. Of course, Man
of War died in nineteen forty eight at the extreme
agor of thirty one. We may never see the equal
of this horse, who so completely captured the imagination of those,
particularly Granny Rice, who rode full steam ahead through the
turbulent twenty and mister Jimmy Powers transcribed saying so long
(13:05):
to s
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