Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-04
By Bill Fuchs

MI. anQ MIS-. y. LOUIS OCOu-
nor will have five horseshoes
going for them tomorrow in the
rich New Castle Handicap at
Delaware Park. -Four will carry
their mare. LaCorredora, over
the mile-and-a-quarter distance.
The other Is the proverbial one
the O'Connors always have with
them and without which they
would not be horse owners today.
If LaCorredora wins. carrying
Jockey Ira (Babe) Hanford and
124 pounds. it will mean about
100000 to the O'Connors. This
Is the same Washington couple
who Is years. ago wanted out
from under and could find no
takers.
incidentally, LaCorredora runs
in the colors of O'Connor's wife,
Marian. who would get check
for $l02,800 should the mare
win and all 81 entries go to the
post tomorrow. The mare has a
good chance, too.
The couples luck in racing,
O'Connor says. has been 'pheno-
menal." He would have said that
they had no chance at all to
achieve their present success. ut
just happened" he explained.
Workman Started il All
The O'Connors' rse-owning
career had its beginning when he
was a struggling attorney and a
vacation to California didn't cost
anywhere near what it does now.
ut was during the depression"
O'Connor says, land nobody had
any money. Sonny Workman was
riding on the coast and we
stopped in to see him. He sug-
gested meeting Sport Haymaker,
the trainer. and it was Sport
who put the horse-owning idea
into my head. Sure, I'd like to-
own a horse I said. but what do
use for money!"
A few years later. O'Connor
found enough money to buy a
horse in claiming race, but he
lost it back to claiming later, at
a small profit. <
I'VE lost every horse we owned
in Chalmers up to the time of
Nellie Mowlee," O'Connor says.
"but each time we made a profit.
Had we lost at any time, that
would have been the end Of the
O'Connors horse owning career"
Nobody Wanted Nellie Novice.
And then came Nellie Novice
and when the O'Connors wanted
to unload, nobody wanted the
mare. She had suffered a knee in
jury and all the O'Connors
wanted to do was get out Alto
gether.
What could we do?" O'Connor
asks when you own a mare
that no one will buy, all you can
do Is breed her and hope to get
even"
The O'Connors are more than
even off their first breeding at
tempt. Little Beans was the sire
and LaCorredora the foal. La
Corredora, now 5 years old, won
the Ladies Handicap. mile-and- /
a-nalf test at Belmont, for her
biggest victory to date.
"She won $40, 000," OConnor
says, as though he still can't
believe it. THAT was a real big
one"
Genial Bill Destroyed
Nellie Novice has had four
other foals since. The second,
Genial Bill by Alaking, cut a
tendon on the rail at Atlantic
City and had to be destroyed.
But Busy Nellie. now Swear
old by Occupy, was a winner last
year and finished fourth recently
in the Delaware Ooks In, a fast
field. Marian Royal, named for
Mrs. O'Connor. is by Alaking. A
2-year-old filly. 'she hasn't
started yet. Completing the
O'Connor stable is Land O'Lib-
erty, yearling full sister of La
Corredora.
In her most recent outing, La
Corredora was third behind Eve
ming Out and Grecian Queen in
q $1,000 handicap race for fillies
and mares last Monday at Della