GAVE UP RACING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 205, 29 August 1940, Page 8

GAVE UP RACING.

AMERICAN MAGNATE.

VISITOR TO AUCKLAND.

There were keen regrets in American horse racing circles when a recent announcement wa« made hv Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, that be had decided to give up racing. He is out of the passengers who will reach Auckland to-morrow afternoon by the PanAmerican Airways American Clipper, and is chairman of directors of tlut organisation.

The Whitney racing stable has held a high place for many years, on the American turf, and was inherited by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney in" 1930 from his late father, Mr. Harry Payne Whitney. It was then that intimated that he was less interested in raring tl*n in playing polo. • In those depression days, s Wall Street delegation actually lir icwclffl aim not to impair public confidence by giving up the country's 3fo. 1 stable, an act which would have looked Kke

•cenomy in high places. Sentiment, and enthusiasm for a horse named Equipoise, finally determined his application to the Jockey Club for permission to race onder his father's colours. Equipoise went on to become one of the greatest thoroughbreds of all times, and the second largest money-winner in history. For four years Mr. Whitney won more prizemoney than any other owner in the country. But maintaining a raring establishment was expensive. In 1936, when his trainer, Jimmv Kowe, wu complimented on a 407.139* dollars Whitney $ea*on, Rowe said: "Yes, Mr. Whitney had a pretty good year. I don't think his stable cost him* more than 100.000 dollars.- When Equipoise, in the spring of 1935, after making an unsuccessful attempt to win the 100,000 dollar Santa Anita Handicap, was retired to the stud, 35,000 dollar? s-hort of Sun Beau's record winnings of 376,744 dollars, Mr. Whitney began to think of celling. Last year 24 of his yearlings were sold at Saratoga. Recently Mr. Whitney's Old Westbury polo team won the U.S. open championship, and his two entries finishei fifth and seventh in the Futurity Stakes. After that, it was certain that'the lightblue jacket and brown cap would be seen on the American turf no more. Mr. Whitney, who is known to the American public as "Sonny/ , graduated from Yale University in 1922. In addi tion to his executive position in PanAmerican, he is a director of the Guaranty Trust Company of X'ew York the Hudson Bay Mining and Smeltir.? Company, the Beryllium Corporation the Whitney Realty Companv and ;he Metropolitan Opera' Company—to name but a few.