Re: forego (1082 Views)
Posted by:
richiebee (IP Logged)
Date: June 26, 2009 08:31PM
Alan:
Without a doubt, the blue Garren colors were only rarely seen in the winners
circle.
Murray was well liked by the racing secretary, though, as many of his runners
started 20 times per year (gasp), and Murray was always good about tossing in a
couple of hopeless horses to fill stakes races. As I recall with 5 or less
entrants NYRA would scrap the exacta and go to the "instant double"; Murray
saved that exacta numerous times.
Can't mention Gil Puentes and Murray Garren without thinking of their good turf
runner Peat Moss, who won the Kelso Handicap 2 straight years when it was run at
2 miles.
As for Pancho, at about this time he was training for Viola Sommer, who was on
the NYRA Board of Trustees. My recollection is that Pancho, who won training
titles in bunches, realized he couldn't compete with the "Holy Trinity" -- the
3 wine men -- and tried buying decent young horses at auction and had very
little success.
Will comment once again that the quality of racing was so much better back
then, but that wagering options (the wagering "menu") were quite limited, and
the closest thing you had to Living Room Downs was a "social club" somewhere in
Brooklyn which was able to pirate the OTB video feed.