Dreyfus of Hobeau Farm, JC, NYRA dead

[Indulto]

http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=14460
Dreyfus, Hobeau Farm owner, dies

… A financier who created the Dreyfus Fund, one of the first widely marketed mutual funds during the 1950's and 1960's, Dreyfus was a longtime participant in racing both on the track and in the boardroom. A member of the Jockey Club who also served two stints as chairman of the New York Racing Association board of trustees, Dreyfus was the recipient of the Eclipse Award of Merit in 1977, the Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons Award in 1967, and was also honored by the New York Turf Writers Association in 1966 as the "Man Who Did the Most for Racing."

Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens earned the nickname "The Giant Killer" largely due to his work with Dreyfus-owned runners. Among these were Beau Purple, who upset five-time Horse of the Year Kelso three times during the early 1960's; Handsome Boy, who downed Buckpasser in the 1967 Brooklyn H.; and Onion and Prove Out, who each defeated Secretariat during the legend's 1973 campaign. Onion upset the Triple Crown winner in the Whitney S. (G2) at Saratoga, while Prove Out bested the great champion in the Woodward S. (G1).

Other noted Hobeau Farm runners include Grade 1 winners Flip's Pleasure, Group Plan, Miss Shop and Poker Night, as well as sprint specialists Duck Dance, Chas Conerly, Kelly Kip, Put It Back and Smokume.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/102540.html
Dreyfus of Hobeau dead at 95
By Glenye Cain Oakford 3/27/2009

…

In the Thoroughbred sport, he was best known as owner of Hobeau Farm and owner of four horses famed for upset victories. They were Onion and Prove Out, who beat Secretariat in the 1973 Whitney and the 1973 Woodward, respectively; Handsome Boy, who won the 1967 Brooklyn Handicap over Buckpasser; and Beau Purple, who defeated Kelso three times - in the 1962 Suburban and Man o' War and in the 1963 Widener. Dreyfus also bred Onion, Beau Purple, and Handsome Boy.

Hobeau stallion Beau Gar was the sire of many good Dreyfus runners, among them Beau Purple, Handsome Boy and his full sister Blessing Angelica, and Grade 2 winner Garland of Roses.

… Built on a 1,250-acre former cattle farm Dreyfus bought in 1961, Hobeau Farm grew into one of Florida's largest and most famous breeding and training operations, and its unusual blue fences became iconic. The farm had grown to more than 1,800 acres when Dreyfus sold it to Roy Lerman in 2005 for $12.75 million. …

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123817411499658641.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
By STEPHEN MILLER

Jack Dreyfus, who died Friday at age 95 in New York, helped found the retail mutual-fund business through his Dreyfus Fund and carried the sobriquet "The Lion of Wall Street" -- after a stroke of advertising inspiration that made a live lion his firm's symbol.

A keen competitor who excelled at golf, tennis, gin rummy, horse racing and especially finance, Mr. Dreyfus's main setback in life was failing in a decades-long crusade to get the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug he credited with overcoming his depression.

The Dreyfus Fund, which he founded in 1951, was among the first mutual funds to be marketed to the investing public through ads, most famously a TV spot of a lion emerging from a subway and leaping onto a pedestal to strains of Saint-Saëns's "Carnival of the Animals." Another time, he published his fund's prospectus as a color-glossy insert to the New York Times.

… Born in Montgomery, Ala., Jack J. Dreyfus Jr. grew up the son of a candy maker. He showed his competitive edge as early as age five, when he beat his grandfather -- a cousin to Alfred Dreyfus, the victim of France's Dreyfus Affair -- at dominoes. Growing up, he excelled at golf and earned his pocket change by solving for a quarter apiece the bridge puzzles in Collier's magazine for his father. But he was an uninspired student at Lehigh University, where he said he graduated "Summa Cum Ordinary."

His first job on Wall Street, as a clerk in a trading firm, came about after his father paid the firm the first 20 weeks of his salary up front, he learned years later. He wrote that he resented his early jobs on Wall Street because they got in the way of playing bridge at Manhattan's Cavendish Club.

… Despite his success, Mr. Dreyfus suffered from depression, fear, obsession and other mental-health problems in the late 1950s. After trying a veritable pharmacopoeia of cures, he hit on the drug Dilantin, normally prescribed for epileptic seizures. A several-decade campaign to have the drug approved for treatment of depression came to naught despite his funding clinical trials, ad campaigns and even writing two books, "The Story of a Remarkable Medicine" and "Written in Frustration." He thought the drug showed promise for other psychological problems, as well as narcolepsy, diabetes, hypertension and stuttering.

… Mr. Dreyfus had better success in sports. He said he had won 18 amateur golf championships, and at age 62 won the U.S. Open Doubles Lawn Tennis Championship for those 60 and over. He was hailed by the Encyclopedia of Bridge as "the best gin rummy player in the United States." His 1,200-acre horse farm near Ocala, Fla., Hobeau Farm, produced thoroughbred champions. He was for many years a trustee of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, and served in the 1970s as president of the New York Racing Association, where he helped introduce big-screen TVs at racecourses.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a5HkbZ0W1GaE&refer=us
Jack Dreyfus, Pioneer in Pitching Funds to Public, Dies at 95

Once known as the “Lion of Wall Street,” Dreyfus in 1957 made the Dreyfus Fund the first mutual-fund company to start a retail advertising campaign, according to a history on the Web site of the Dreyfus Corp. The following year, the fund published a full-color prospectus as a supplement to the New York Times.

A 1964 profile in Life magazine called him the “maverick wizard behind the Wall Street lion” who was guiding both Dreyfus’s brokerage and the billion-dollar fund. “For almost two decades Dreyfus has taken impish delight in stepping on Wall Street’s respectable corns,” the article said.

It also took note of Dreyfus’s considerable investment skills. Money invested in the Dreyfus Fund in 1952 and left there would have grown by 604 percent by 1964, the article said, compared with 346 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

… Dreyfus was born on Aug. 28, 1913, in Montgomery, Alabama. He attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

His father, who worked in the candy business, got him his first job on Wall Street by paying the first 20 weeks of his salary, according to a 2006 article in Stocks, Futures and Options that is reprinted on Dreyfus’s medical Web site.

He worked as a broker at Merrill Lynch & Co., then borrowed money from his father, wife and other relatives to create Dreyfus & Co., a member of the New York Stock Exchange, with his friend Jerry Ohrbach and Ohrbach’s father, Nathan.

With business slow, they decided to try advertising. “In those days, New York Stock Exchange ads were proper -- and dull,” Dreyfus wrote.

He took it upon himself to draft some ad copy. “Our firm had little to brag about, so I just tried to give general advice hoping it would reflect favorably on us,” he wrote. “Apparently it did.” The firm won the first Standard & Poor’s Gold Trophy for excellence in advertising.

… At 33, Dreyfus became the firm’s managing partner. When it formed the Dreyfus Fund, he served as head of research for 12 years.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03272009/news/regionalnews/wall_street_legond_in_center_of_court_fi_161625.ht m
WALL STREET LEGEND IN CENTER OF COURT FIGHT DIES AT 95
By DAREH GREGORIANMarch 27, 2009

Jack Dreyfus, the elderly Wall Street legend who was at the center of a sensational court fight over his care, died early this morning.

The 95-year-old Dreyfus Fund founder died at 3:10 a.m. at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said lawyer Raoul Felder.

Felder was representing Dreyfus' longtime girlfriend, Laima Drobavicius, who charged Dreyfus's caretakers were isolating him his friends and family. She also claimed that his health care proxy was signed under "dubious circumstances," and that longtime employees were let go over the past year, including a favorite nurse.

The judge hearing the case, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Shafer, appointed a court evaluator to look into Drobavicius' claims. Based on the evaluator's interim report earlier this month, she replaced Dreyfus's caretaker, Mary Beth Whitehead Gould, with a temporary guardian.

The guardian, Sam Leibowitz, had Dreyfus moved from his penthouse apartment to the hospital last week.

"We did our best, the judge did her best, but nature always wins," Felder said.

Dreyfus grew up in Alabama, where he became a golf and cards enthusiast. He moved to New York in his 20s and got a job on Wall Street that he soon parlayed into his own firm.

After some early struggles, Dreyfus found a way to set himself apart from the competition - advertising. Print and TV commercials featuring a lion roaming around Wall Street became a sensation, and his business was suddenly booming.

Success at business, golf, horse breeding, tennis and cards couldn't bring Dreyfus happiness - he struggled mightily with depression, which he said he was able to conquer in mid-1960s thanks to the drug Dilantin.

… Dreyfus sold his firm for an estimated $100 million in 1970, and established two charitable foundations to raise public awareness about Dilantin and to champion its different uses.

… Drobavicius's concerns led Shafer to order a court evaluator to investigate Dreyfus's finances and medical care, but his death effectively ends the currently court case. The allegations will likely come front and center again when his will is filed in surrogate's court.

Dreyfus is survived by his son John, 66, who court papers say is poor health. Court filings say the "Lion of Wall Street" was married to his son's late mother for four years, and the couple separated for 17 years until finally divorcing in 1961.

[Indulto]

http://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/stories/DreyfusObit.shtml
Thoroughbred owner Dreyfus, “Lion of Wall Street,” Dies at 95
By NYRA Press Office March 28, 2009

John “Jack” Dreyfus, Sr., the “Lion of Wall Street” who became one of Thoroughbred racing’s more prominent owners, died Friday. Chairman of the New York Racing Association’s Board of Trustees in 1969 and 1975, Dreyfus was 95.

… Racing fans, however, knew him as the owner of the 2,200-acre Hobeau Farm in Ocala, Fla., which he sold in February, 2005 for more than $12 million. He named the farm after he combined his once secret desire to be a hobo with the first name of his first horse, Beau Gar.

“Jack Dreyfus was a major figure in the field of Thoroughbred racing and a prominent owner of Hobeau Farm for more than 40 years,” said NYRA President and Chief Executive Officer Charles E. Hayward. “Jack was the consummate racing enthusiast and he will be long remembered and dearly missed.”

… It was Hobeau Farm that helped Jerkens earn the nickname “The Giant Killer.” In 1975, Jerkens, at age 45, was the youngest trainer at the time to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“Jack was just a great guy,” Jerkens said from Florida. “I met him in 1962 when Pat Lynch (the late NYRA vice-president) came up to me and said that Jack wanted to see me. Pat told me that Jack was building a new farm in Ocala and that I really should talk to him.

“I was leading trainer at the (Aqueduct) spring meet at the time we met. Three days later, he gave me six horses – including Beau Purple - -and all of them won. I trained for him exclusively for 20 years. And then, one day, he told me I had better get some more owners because he didn’t have enough good horses for me. He was just a terrific person.”

Dreyfus married in 1939 Joan Personette, from whom he was divorced; they had one child, John (Jonny). Dreyfus’ paternal grandfather was a first cousin of Alfred Dreyfus, who was unjustly found guilty of treason in the infamous Dreyfus Affair of 1894.

[Indulto]

The following excerpts are from Dreyfus's website:

http://www.remarkablemedicine.com/Biography/horseracing1.html
Horse Racing: Page One

… While watching the thoroughbreds, I observed a two-year-old filly named Bellesoeur and thought she was great. She was second to Bewitch in the Experimental Handicap that year. Bellesoeur didn’t race at three and was bred to Count Fleet, who had just retired. Count Fleet was a great horse—not nearly as great as a stallion—but that wasn’t known at the time. I wanted part of that first foal. At the time, I couldn’t think of buying all of him. A friend at the City Athletic Club was a friend of Laudy Lawrence, owner of Bellesoeur. He arranged for me to buy half of the foal, named Beau Gar, for $14,000. A friend of my father bought one-quarter. I could barely afford my $7,000 purchase.

… Three weeks later Beau Gar had his first race. … Beau Gar raced under Laudy Lawrence’s name and won a few more races. He had to be retired because of an injury to his back. I still had faith in him. A few years later, and a few bucks richer, I bought the other three-quarters of him, at the original price.

Beau Gar had shown plenty of speed before his injury, and Maje Odom, his trainer, thought well of him. I loved his breeding and decided to take the long shot of trying to make him a successful stallion. Of course, no one else wanted to breed to Beau Gar and I didn’t have any mares, or a lot of money.

If you have a mare and want a foal, you buy a service to a stallion. As you know I do things backwards. I had a stallion and wanted foals, so I leased mares, six of them for a year. I don’t know if it’s been done before or since, but it turned out well. I bought one mare, Water Queen. Bred to Beau Gar, she produced Beau Purple, a great horse. Beau Purple won the Kentucky Derby Trial, but in it he fractured a bone in his leg and had to be retired for over a year. When he came back, he was sensational. He established five track records in a period of eight months, from seven-eighths of a mile, to a mile-and-a-half on the grass. Kelso was Horse of the Year five times in a row. Beau Purple beat him three times out of the six times they raced. He also beat Carry Back, Kentucky Derby winner, three times. Beau Purple was the result of breeding my first horse, Beau Gar, to my first mare, Water Queen. In Sports Illustrated, I was quoted as having said, “It was 110 percent luck, the rest was skill.”

For the first few years, Maje Odom was my trainer. Later, when my stable got larger, it wasn’t convenient for him to handle it exclusively. I met up with Allen Jerkens, an exceptionally fine trainer, and to this day he trains for Hobeau Farm. Allen and I are the closest friends. He’s a bit of a nut, quite like me, so we understand each other thoroughly.

… For years I was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), a group of horse owners who defend the rights of the horse owners. On one occasion the president of the HBPA was absent for three months, and I found myself temporary president. It happened at a critical time. The owners were justifiably upset about the small end of the track profits they were getting. They were furnishing the entertainment, the horses, and felt they were not being paid properly. The directors wanted to boycott the races, but accepted my suggestion to try discussion. I made arrangements to see Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He was gracious, listened to the story, and recognized that it was valid. The governor said he would make arrangements for us to get an extra half percent of the handle. The horse owners had wanted more, but they agreed.

About a week before we were supposed to get the half percent we found out that some members of the legislature had blocked the governor’s proposal. At that point it was felt necessary to have the boycott. (For reasons best known to lawyers, we couldn’t call it a strike.) I found myself the equivalent of a labor leader of the HBPA. It was a lot of responsibility, and not a lot of fun. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) made it especially tough by saying that if only one horse was entered in a race, he’d get the purse. Somehow we held together for a week, and there weren’t any races. That was a tough week. I got two phone calls, with sinister overtones, from an alleged friend of one of the legislators. I pretended not to understand, but I did, and was worried. The weekend was particularly trying. I decided that on Monday I’d call Governor Rockefeller and get together with him again. When I got to my office I found the governor had called me. It had been arranged for us to get the half percent. That was my first and last experience as a labor leader. The HBPA graciously presented me with its annual award, in memory of Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, “One Who Contributed Most to the Best Interests of Racing.” …

Horse Racing: Page Two

… After I had been chairman of the NYRA for a year I had to resign to spend full time in the medical field. Much new information had been published on phenytoin, and I had to assist in preparing a supplementary bibliography. This work was completed in 1975. By coincidence, I was again offered the position of chairman of the NYRA. I accepted again.

The second time I became chairman, I did it with the reservation that I might not be able to keep the position long, and suggested we have an assistant chairman. Dinsmore (Dinny) Phipps took the job. It was a pleasure working with him and we have been the best of friends ever since. When, a year later, I felt obliged to spend more time in the medical field, Dinny became chairman and did a splendid job. The second time I was chairman I had some fun stirring up the advertising for the track. A series of ads was done on the race horse as the fastest animal in the world. He is not as fast as the cheetah for a hundred yards, but for a mile, he’s the fastest animal (I think). Other ads were done on taking a half-day vacation from the city by going to the track. There was a noticeable improvement in attendance following these ads.

Hobeau Farm won the Turf Writers’ Award for best breeder, twice. This was a tribute to Allen Jerkens’ training. One year we won nineteen races at Saratoga, a twenty-four-day meet—a record at the time. In 1977 I received the Eclipse Award, Man Who Did the Most for Racing, which I deeply appreciated. …

… I’m still on the Board of the New York Racing Association. I miss a few of the meetings because of medical research. Every once in a while I make a speech about how crazy it is for the state to charge the bettors seventeen percent per race. It’s ruined the business. Anybody but government would change it to ten percent. Now I’ve said it in writing, and gotten it off my chest—again.

… Before leaving this section I should say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my association with the members of the Board of the NYRA. As a group, and as individuals, they have been a pleasure to be with.

[sonnyp]

since i was a young boy i've been fascinated by jerkins and his owner dreyfus.

ive been told the name "hobeau" was dreyfus's zing directed at the mostly "waspish" members of the jockey club who gave him such a difficult time in his early days since he was jewish. i was told he presented himself as a hobo with a sophicated twist.

does anyone know if this is true, and if not ,what was behind the name ?

p.s. duck dance, blessing angelica, knight in armor, tunex, red shoes, onion many memories !!

[Indulto]

This is the more hard-hitting article I remember reading early in my horseplaying career when Dreyfus’s photo (or that of H. Allen Jerkens, Ogden Phipps, or Eddie Neloy) always seemed to be on the front page of the Morning Telegraph:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075804/index.htm
The Dreyfus Case
By Joe David Brown March 30, 1964

... Dreyfus probably is the only owner of even middling status who does not have a clubhouse box at a single racetrack. "It is not that I have anything against clubhouse boxes," he says. "It is just that racing is my hobby, and if I sat in a clubhouse I would not be able to relax. I would always be dragged into conversations about Wall Street and investments."

As far as it goes, this explanation seems valid enough. But it also is obvious to anyone who knows him that Dreyfus enjoys the jostling, colorful, seamy side of racing that most rich owners do not appreciate or even know much about. Dreyfus has a tender regard for pious but poor horseplayers, and it always pleases him mightily when he is mistaken for one. One of his happiest memories is of the time a racetrack guard sized him up as he was standing around tieless and unpressed, and tried to eject him from the owners' enclosure at Gulf-stream Park. ...

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1075786/index.htm
Letter From The Publisher
By Sidney L. James March 30, 1964

...

Brown quickly found that his problem was getting enough time with his subject, without interruption, to show the dimensions of his man. " Jack Dreyfus does get away to the track or to his breeding farm in Florida occasionally, but not at the expense of his Wall Street affairs," notes Joe David. Sessions in Dreyfus' office were not enough for Brown ...

... Finally, after he had talked also with Dreyfus' friends and associates in Wall Street and had scouted the Florida horse farm, Brown and his subject slipped off to Dreyfus' Manhattan penthouse for a long and leisurely luncheon, followed by a long and leisurely talk—"and only then did I feel I knew him well enough to put him down on paper." ...

[strapper]

I remember reading Dreyfus book and found it interesting. Of course, he operated a fantastic racing stable for many years with bloodstock that seemed to outrun their bloodlines time and time again.

[sonnyp]

i know we're in a different time and a different place but its the memories of owners such as dreyfus and his trainer jerkins that evoke such discomfort from racing fans when they are confronted with the current edition of IEAH and their guy dutrow.i guess it's just a reflection of how we've evolved as a society.

[Indulto]

Originally Posted by sonnyp

i know we're in a different time and a different place but its the memories of owners such as dreyfus and his trainer jerkins that evoke such discomfort from racing fans when they are confronted with the current edition of IEAH and their guy dutrow.i guess it's just a reflection of how we've evolved as a society.

sp,
There may be something to what you say. I believe a lot of it had to do with the escalation of the Vietnam War by then President Johnson in 1963 (even after the opposition to the war began in 1962), and with the subsequent increase in the use of drugs.

It seemed to me that people of all generations lost confidence in government, and in pulling together as a nation, over the course of that and the following two administrations. Congress appeared to lose its effectiveness after the Watergate hearings.

From what I read about Dreyfus, it seemed that despite all his success on Wall Street and in racing, he became depressed. That depression, and his subsequent focus on promoting the medication he believed helped him battle it, coincided with that period.

[sonnyp]

i'm almost 60. i have stubbornly held onto the values and attitudes of my dad in a changing world. he was an immigrant, ditch digger and his ethics would shame most in business and politics today. he's dead and i'm a dinasaur.

as i look back, it changed in this country around the time of the kennedy assasination. i think that was the first of many events that touched and shocked all of us on such a personal level that we as a society changed in our beliefs and we lost our direction and i can never see it coming back.

i find it fascinating that many gifted, successful people in history overcome by the inevitability of the major implossion(which we may or may not be experiencing now) found that suicide was the best answer perhaps not in surrender but in protest to changing times they could not condone or support.

life is for the living but quality of life is in the eye of the beholder.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by sonnyp

i know we're in a different time and a different place but its the memories of owners such as dreyfus and his trainer jerkins that evoke such discomfort from racing fans when they are confronted with the current edition of IEAH and their guy dutrow.i guess it's just a reflection of how we've evolved as a society.

It's funny, you mention Dutrow, you mention IEAH, you invoke images of cheating and whatnot.

Yet, you also invoke the image of Dreyfus and Jerkens. An interesting pair.

Riddle me this sonnyp:

If the following upsets happened during the 21st century instead of the 20th, would we still have kind things to say about Jerkens, or would he be made out to be even worse than Dutrow?

Great Upsets

In1962, he beat Kelso three times with Beau Purple in the Suburban Handicap, Man o' War and Widener Handicap.
In 1963, he beat three-time filly champion Cicada in the Black Helen Handicap with Pocosaba.
In 1967, he beat Buckpasser in the Brooklyn Handicap with Handsome Boy.
In 1973, he beat Secretariat twice: in the Whitney Handicap with Onion and in the Woodward with Prove Out.
In 1998, be beat both eventual Horse of the Year Skip Away and Gentleman in the Jockey Club Gold Cup with 34-1 Wagon Limit.

The man defeated some very heady company on many an occasion, often with much inferior stock. These days, when you do that, you're called "The Juice Man."

What say you sonnyp?

[Indulto]

http://www.paulickreport.com/blog/tag/ecliopse-awards/
CONFUSING WEALTH WITH VISION
By Ray Paulick August 13th, 2008

…

Phipps was moved up to a newly created position of vice chairman of the NYRA board in 1974. The chairman, Jack Dreyfus, bred and raced under the name Hobeau Farm and was best known as the creator of the mutual fund through his financial company, the Dreyfus Fund. Dreyfus also spoke willingly about his bouts with clinical depression and became a vocal proponent of a drug he was given to treat the problem.

In an extraordinary editorial in the Feb. 16, 1976, Bloodhorse magazine, editor Kent Hollingsworth called for Dreyfus’ ouster as NYRA’s chairman.

‘The roof is leaking,” Hollingsworth wrote of NYRA and its three racetracks, Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga. “In other sports when the trend is downward, the coach or manager is fired. … (Dreyfus) has lost the confidence of a growing number of New York owners and trainers and cooperation of management and horsemen is absolutely essential to reverse the downward trend of New York racing.”

Hollingsworth then endorsed Phipps to become the new chairman.

“Young Dinny Phipps, vice chairman of NYRA, has the support of most New York owners and trainers. As chairman, Phipps would be more accessible, and greater cooperation with horsemen could be attained. Also, the vacant slot for a director of racing needs filling now, by a man who has the experience and rapport with both management and New York horsemen. … The NYRA needs new – not just new, but better – direction. It needs it now, for all of racing cannot afford to have New York racing continue downward.”

Five months later, in July 1976 Dreyfus stepped down and Dinny Phipps was appointed NYRA’s chairman. “I hope I can fulfill the duties of this office with the same energy, foresight and creativity displayed by Jack Dreyfus,” Phipps was quoted in the Bloodhorse. “Working under him has been a valuable experience.” The Bloodhorse article gave no professional or business background on Phipps, only saying that he was the son of Ogden Phipps.

… The major emphasis after Phipps took over as NYRA chairman was to convince then-Gov. Hugh Carey to push for a reduction in takeout in hopes that it would stimulate handle and on-track attendance. Independent research commissioned by NYRA, the Pugh-Roberts Study, showed business would go up between 12-15%. How hard did Phipps work on this? “We put in two hours every working day just on this one thing,” said Phipps, who even made two trips to the state capital in Albany. Eventually, a 20-month takeout reduction experiment was approved, and Phipps became the toast of racing.

The New York Turf Writers named him “the man who did the most for New York racing.” In February 1979, Phipps was given the Eclipse Award of Merit by a committee representing Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers Association and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations.

… “Despite reduced takeout and million-dollar promotion campaign, no light has appeared yet at the end of the tunnel,” Bloodhorse’s New York correspondent William Rudy wrote. “Nor was the atmosphere a happy one. Horesmen were irate over what they termed general ineptitude in the racing department, and a new organization, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Benevolent Association, was formed with Jack Gaver president and Joe Trovato and Murray Garren vice presidents. The group issued a statement that said: “You must be able to communicate with the NYRA if you have a problem or disagree with existing policies. … The fact is that the NYRA now is pretty much a closed shop at top levels.”

The critical Bloodhorse article said NYRA’s board members were mostly yes men who “all go along with decisions made. … Members are often informed at board meetings of actions already taken. There is, on occasion, dissent from former NYRA chairman Jack Dreyfus Jr., a gentleman who seems inhibited by a feeling he should not criticize his successors.” …

[Indulto]

http://www.remarkablemedicine.com/otherwritings/bloodhorse.html
A Genuine Gentleman
by David L. Heckerman
The Blood-Horse August 28, 1999

…

Currently, Hobeau owns about seventy thoroughbreds, including twenty broodmares on its Ocala, Fla., farm and seventeen runners at the track with Jerkens. …

… Nevertheless, Hobeau’s inventory of thoroughbreds is down from an early 1970s peak of 300, when the farm annually ranked among the continent’s leading breeders and the racing stable occupied a similar position among leading owners. Dreyfus, who celebrates his 86th birthday Aug. 28, has put 2,100-acre Hobeau Farm on the market (at an asking price of $15 million) in order to concentrate his resources on his principal life pursuit of the past thirty years.

That would be his all-out promotion, some would call it proselytizing, for the drug Dilantin (generic name phenytoin), which helped Dreyfus recover overnight in 1963, at the age of fifty, from a five-year bout with a debilitating depression. …

… The thirty-five-year effort has absorbed much of Dreyfus’ time and thoughts and substantially depleted his personal fortune.

“I’ve spent $90-to-$100 million on this, and so much more needs to be done,” Dreyfus said recently in his Manhattan office, which overlooks Plaza Square from windows on 58th Street near Fifth Avenue. “I hate to sell the farm and I won’t say I’m broke, but I need the money for the most important thing in the world to me.”

... Dreyfus’ friends have long since become accustomed to such statements from him, as did Presidents Nixon and Reagan and numerous cabinet secretaries, senators, and congressmen to whom he personally pled his case in the past thirty years. Needless to say, this circumstance has given him a bit of a reputation.

More than a few people who have known Dreyfus during his crusade concede to having two firm impressions of him. One is that he is a genuinely nice man. The other is that he has become a bit of an eccentric.

… “Years ago, he would hang out with us trainers around the paddock when they led the horses out to the track. He had all of us—Woody (Stephens), Allen (Jerkens), me, and several others—on that drug for a while. Even now when I see him, he asks me if I`m still using Dilantin. I’ve learned to tell him, ‘Yes,’ and he says, ‘Good, you’ll live a long life.’ ”

Though retired from the NYRA board, Dreyfus has requested on occasion to appear before current trustees with an appeal, which usually has three elements. One is to argue the case for elimination of exotic wagers, which Dreyfus believes perpetually reduce pari-mutuel churn to the detriment of all of racing. Another is to give bettors a break by reducing pari-mutuel takeout. And the third is to inquire if anyone needs any Dilantin.

Ogden Mills (Dinny) Phipps, also a former NYRA chairman and longtime friend of Dreyfus’, welcomes his continued participation.

… “He’s a great guy,” Phipps said. “He always calls me ‘Dinsmore.’ ”

… “Horse racing should be a sport, without so much emphasis on gambling,” he said. `You breed and train these wonderful animals, and it`s a beautiful game to watch.”

As parting words to a visitor, he adds: “Thanks for coming to see me. Keep on with your love of racing. And take Dilantin—you’ll live a long life.”

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do...6&subs=0&arc=1
Dreyfus has tonic for success
By JOE HIRSCH9/11/2003

…

His racing career was similarly successful. He started as a fan with a winning day at old Jamaica Race Track, and quickly began to appreciate the subtleties of handicapping. Through a friend he met Laudy Lawrence, MGM's representative in Europe and a breeder with exquisite tastes. Dreyfus bought 25 percent of Lawrence's Count Fleet colt Beau Gar for $7,000, later acquired the other 75 percent and turned him over to trainer Maje Odom.

… Many of Beau Purple's signal victories were directed by Allen Jerkens. He was New York's leading trainer in 1962, and that spring, when Dreyfus decided to make a change, Jerkens was recommended by turf writer Pat Lynch. The two men met for lunch in New York and formed an association that lasts to this day. Another at that luncheon was Elmer Huebeck of Ocala, Fla. He built Hobeau Farm in Ocala for Dreyfus and supervised the breeding of many outstanding homebreds.

… Several years following his entry into racing, Dreyfus was elected a trustee of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. He led a workplace action against the New York Racing Association in a bid for higher purses, and shortly after was invited to become a trustee of the NYRA by its chairman, James Cox Brady. In 1970, when Brady stepped down, Dreyfus succeeded him as chairman. During his tenure, he had Aqueduct's backyard turned into a fan-friendly garden that proved quite popular. Taking a leaf from the Dreyfus Fund's prize-winning ad campaign featuring a lion on Wall Street, he organized a successful NYRA campaign with the emphasis on horses as among the fastest animals on earth.

Dreyfus resigned as NYRA's chairman in 1971 to deal with problems confronting his medical foundation, but in 1975 felt free to accept another term, and is the only man to hold the chairmanship twice.

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=31384&subs=0&arc=1
A man of few words but many victories
By JAY HOVDEY 8/31/2001

…

Asked to describe Jerkens, the 88-year-old Dreyfus was glad to oblige.

"For starters, we're both nuts," he said. "I think I'm the only owner who has had to cool out the trainer after losing a race, rather than the other way around."

There wasn't much to grouse about in 1973, when the Dreyfus runners spoiled every proper party. First Onion beat Secretariat in the Whitney. Then Prove Out beat Secretariat in the Woodward. Then Prove Out beat Riva Ridge in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

"That was a great day," Jerkens says now about the Whitney. "It was the only time they saddled on the turf course. Onion looked as good as Secretariat that day."

Dreyfus acknowledges the Jerkens heroics of 1973. But he cherishes most their first good horse together, Beau Purple, who came along in their first year as a team.

"I didn't know enough back then to see that Allen was different," Dreyfus said. "Of course, I didn't know I was different, either." …

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=85567&subs=0&arc=1
Anderson's only horse takes him far
By MIKE WELSCH 6/6/2007

…

Anderson has been barnstorming the country with Delightful Kiss, who flies the colors of 93-year-old Jack Dreyfus's Hobeau Farm. Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens asked Dreyfus if he would send his old friend a horse to train last season, and under Anderson, Delightful Kiss has earned more than $325,000.

Delightful Kiss, a son of Kissin Kris, registered his lone victory at 2 on the turf at Calder Race Course in Miami. He spent the winter in south Florida knocking heads with some of the top members of the division, beating Chelokee and Sightseeing in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park and finishing third behind Street Sense in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby.

But his performance in the Ohio Derby was easily the biggest of his career, and while it shocked most of the experts and the racing public, who made Delightful Kiss 24-1, it did not surprise his 75-year-old trainer in the least. …

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2008/08/04/The-Unbeatable-Horse.aspx
The Unbeatable Horse
By Steve haskin 04 Aug 2008

… To continue our celebration of Secretariat’s 35th anniversary, I am going to relay the story (long again, sorry) of one of those horses, and perhaps it will explain why even Big Red couldn’t beat him.

… History shows that Secretariat defeated Riva Ridge by 3 1/2 lengths, and his time of 1:45 2/5 established a new world record. He now looked invincible again.

… But it didn’t come up fast and Secretariat didn’t scratch. The day of the race, Jerkens and Dreyfus were hanging out in the picnic area behind the grandstand when they showed a replay of Secretariat’s Marlboro Cup on the closed circuit TV monitors. After watching Big Red draw off from the field, Jerkens turned to Dreyfus and said, “What the hell are we doing in this race?” …

Haskin is at his best in this story about Jerkens and Prove Out.

Looking up these articles about Dreyfus has been the most enjoyable time I’ve spent on the internet in some time. He certainly was an activist horseman AND a horseplayer who bet for entertainment. I wonder if he ever experienced the thrill of a winning bet to the extent some of us have since his income and wealth must have so dwarfed the payoff of any ticket(s) he cashed.

Learning that he was such an advocate of lower direct takeout, I’d love to know what he thought about rebates and whether or not they were good for the game when the rebated rate for an individual varies according to his volume.

[sonnyp]

Originally Posted by PaceAdvantage

It's funny, you mention Dutrow, you mention IEAH, you invoke images of cheating and whatnot.

Yet, you also invoke the image of Dreyfus and Jerkens. An interesting pair.

Riddle me this sonnyp:

If the following upsets happened during the 21st century instead of the 20th, would we still have kind things to say about Jerkens, or would he be made out to be even worse than Dutrow?

The man defeated some very heady company on many an occasion, often with much inferior stock. These days, when you do that, you're called "The Juice Man."[/size][/font]

What say you sonnyp?

i was tied up all day, sory i didn't respond sooner.

i've spent time around both jerkins and dutrow. dutrow is certainly not lacking in horsemanship and neither is jerkins.

the backstretch is a fickle, jealous place full of gossip and inuendo.

certainly, the easiest attack on an individual displaying extraordinary success is to label him a "juice guy".

the difference between a guy like dutrow and jerkins to me is obvious. dutrow improves , dramatically, most of the horses he acquires, usually from another reasonably competant trainer, almost overnite. sprinters, routers, stake horses claimers.. he jumps em all up. i'll give him 1 or 2 but there is only so much you can do to help a horse over the short run and experience the repeated success he has if youre playin legit.

jerkins on the other hand really developed the horses with whom he pulled his phenominal upsets over a significantly longer period of time. in most, the improvement was subtle..gradual but building along with a plan. also, there was a common thread...speed stretching out. he is one of a very few willing to work a horse 1 mile to build staying power.

there are no sacred cows on the back stretch, ask pletcher and lukas. i have never, once, ever heared, not even from the most jealous, vicious individuals the words jerkins and juice used in the same sentence.

please, lets not start using jerkins and dutrow in the same sentence either.

thanks

[PaceAdvantage]

I by no means was trying to imply that Jerkens was/is a "juice man," but I suspect you know that, despite your closing sentences.

I was simply providing food for thought to those quick to jump up and accuse a trainer of juicing every time he achieves the IMPROBABLE.

I believe that if Jerkens pulled off today what he did 10, 30 or 40 years ago, there would be whispers. This is the age we are living in...even though performance enhancing steroids have been around since at least the late 50s in professional sports.

[sonnyp]

i've stated before in another post, helping horses improve performance "artificially" is not rocket science, one simmply needs tools not available to others and not detectable by current testing.

allow me:

a horse needs to have ability... you cant make a silk purse...
horses get sore...take away their pain
most horses bleed on different levels.....stop the bleeding
most horses have scarred lung tissue....help them breath
fatigue stops performance......retard the build up of lactic acid
the system depends on oxygen as fuel.....enhance blood levels to carry more
the heart is the pump.... stimulate the pump to pump more

any one or a combination of the above will dramatically improve performance. if a trainer stumbles onto, and is willing to use somthing which fits the above
that others dont have its his ball game.

bye the way, imho, the steroid thing is a smoke screen. the "juice" has nothing to do with steroids.