The Washington times., 1935-05-06


Omaha md t h e
Bowie race track where lies
the Belair Stud, as elaborate
a stock farm as you'll set an
eye on, if you comb the
country over.
Yes, my friends, Omaha, the
winner of the sixty-first Ken
lucky Derby, breathed the same
serene air you and l inhaled
and basked under the same
summer sunshine while he was
getting his growth and develop
ing into a sturdy cold before
going up to Belmont Park to
be trained for racing.
Flambino's Bambino
For IL months this 3-year-old
champion to date, frollcked ana
frisked in the green pastures
which abut the Defense High
way as you travel toward An
napolis. Foaied in Kentucky
where he was kept with his
mother, Flambino, for seven
months, Omaha came east to
the Woodward menage so close
to Washington, where he turned
out to be a veritable Bambino,
as he proved by that handy fin"
ish at Louisville on Saturday.
Out at the Belair Stud yes
terday, the dozen-odd hands
who run Mr., Woodward's i'm
mense acres, seemed to take
Omaha's victory as matter OF
course. They we're elated.
surely, that the expected hap"
pened, but they were not sur
prised, because in their hum
BILE minds there had never been
a question or a doubt about
Omaha's winning.
Breeding Will Tell
Jim Davidson, who manages
the estate for Mr.. Woodward,
spoke the sentiments of the
House of woodward, man, maid
and farm hand.
Speaking a dialect somewhere
between Cockney and an Irish
brogue, Davidson declared the
overseers, housekeepers, stable
hands and gardeners who peo-
pie the immense thoroughbred
plant to the exclusion Of anyone
else except for a possible 30
days the year around that Mr..
Woodward sometimes visits, all
expected omaha to win for the
plain reason that he had the
stuff in him to win.
Its a simple matter of quail
Ity," said Davidson, with an air
of superiority which you
couldn't deny him in view of
Omaha's grand performance,
"and quality always stands out
when horsefIeSh gets together.
Image of Gallant Fox
eyes, we had Omaha here
. when he was a gangling little
fellow, just weaned from his
mumsy, and he was the Splittin'
image of his pappy, Gallant
Fox. who won the Derby in 1880
under Earl Sande. For just
short of a year, or until he was
about Is months old, Omaha
lived in that barn right over
the heather, and grazed these
fields along with seven or eight
others, some younger, some
older than him.
"Then in the fall they took
him up to Belmont to go in
training, and from the first day
they slipped a bit in his mouth
up until last Saturday at the
Downs, Omaha showed he was
q true son of the FOx-and he
can run like one, too"
It has occurred to me more
than once driving Annapolis
way, how few motorists who use
that road realize they are skirt
ing the great Belair Stud which
has given the thoroughbred
world such names as Peanuts,
Gallant Fox. Omaha, the Gala
hadS and many others.
Hidden From View
The houses and barns and
lovely rolling landscape with
lanes of fences and trees is hid
den from view by a thicket of
pines and frs, but they are only
few hundred feet deep and be-
yond that unfoldS this great
horse breeding and raising estate
which has twice won Americas
greatest classic.
Just after you have crossed
the concrete bridge over the
single track railroad at Colling-
ton, you get a glimpse of one Of
the sheet metal barns. with its
lightning arreSter, but it gives
no hint of what is beyond the
knoll.
Then. up the highway half
mile, you come to nicely fenced
grove Of evergreens with a big,