Marylou Whitney, Whose Style and Generosity Defined Saratoga, Dies At
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SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2019 SPEED TO SPARE AT THE SHORE MARYLOU WHITNEY, Maximum Security (New Year=s Day) faces a speed-laden field WHOSE STYLE AND of six foes as he looks to bounce back in Saturday=s GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational S. at Monmouth Park, which carries a AWin GENEROSITY DEFINED and You=re In@ berth to this year=s GI Breeders= Cup Classic. The saga the Gary and Mary West homebred has been embroiled in SARATOGA, DIES AT 93 is well documented--a controversial DQ from first to 17th in the GI Kentucky Derby led to plenty of debate, and litigation, and the GI Xpressbet Florida Derby winner skipped the next two legs of the Triple Crown. When he did resurface in the local TVG.com Pegasus S. June 16, he stumbled at the start and couldn=t hold off King for a Day (Uncle Mo) late, settling for second at five cents on the dollar. AThis race is really important in the campaign for the 3-year-old champion. The Haskell could be critical,@ Maximum Security=s trainer Jason Servis said. Cont. p7 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY REACHING FOR THE STARS IN IRISH OAKS Marylou Whitney (1925-2019) | Tony Leonard Collection Star Catcher (GB) tries to use a Royal Ascot score as a launching pad to a first Classic victory in Saturday’s Kerrygold by T. D. Thornton Irish Oaks . Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. The Grand Dame of Saratoga has died. Marylou Whitney, the 93-year-old socialite, philanthropist and racehorse owner whose vivacious personality, boundless generosity, and lavish sense of style helped to define the classy Saratoga experience that has evolved over several generations, passed away on Friday at her Cady Hill estate in Saratoga Springs, New York, after an extended illness. The exact cause of death was not immediately announced. But Whitney=s passing was confirmed by both the New York Racing Association and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. At Saratoga Race Course, where Whitney joyfully cheered on her horses for some 60 years from her front-row clubhouse box with the distinctive blue seats that matched her racing silks, the action paused after the fourth race as her passing was announced to racegoers with a brief tribute and a moment of silence. Whitney=s death comes just two weeks shy of her scheduled Aug. 2 induction in the sport=s Hall of Fame in the APillars of the Turf@ class. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Saturday, July 20, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Marylou Whitney and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney at Saratoga in 1969. | Getty Images Vicki Forbes [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Marketing Manager EST Race Click for TV Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen 10:00a Hackwood S.-G3, NEW -------------- TVG Director of Information Technology 11:00a Jebel Ali Racecourse & Stables Anglesey S.-G3, CUR -------------- TVG Ray Villa 11:35a Paddy Power Minstrel S.-G2, CUR -------------- TVG [email protected] 12:10p Kerrygold Irish Oaks-G1, CUR -------------- TVG Bookkeeper 1:51p Oceanport S.-GIII, MTH TJCIS PPs TVG Terry May 3:27p Molly Pitcher S.-GIII, MTH TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] 4:29p Monmouth Cup S.-GIII, MTH TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 4:50p Ontario Colleen S.-GIII, WO TJCIS PPs TVG International Editor 5:06p WinStar Matchmaker S.-GIII, MTH TJCIS PPs TVG Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 5:47p TVG.com Haskell Invitational-GI, MTH TJCIS PPs NBC [email protected] 6:30p San Diego H.-GII, DMR TJCIS PPs TVG European Editor Emma Berry 8:30p San Clemente S.-GII, DMR TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JULY 20, 2019 Marylou Whitney Passes Away cont. from p1 As a Thoroughbred owner and breeder, Whitney enthusiastically carried on the traditions established by her late second husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt ASonny@ Whitney. Marylou Whitney Stables bred and raced Birdstone, the 2004 GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. winner and she became the first woman to own and breed a GI Kentucky Oaks winner when Bird Town (Cape Town) won in 2003. But Whitney=s personal stamp on the sport and her unbridled love for her adopted hometown of Saratoga extended far beyond the winner=s circle. Marylou Whitney congratulates Steve Asmussen following Gun Runner=s victory in the 2017 Whitney | Sarah K Andrew As a busy society host and tireless patron of the arts, Whitney helped with the founding of two Saratoga institutions, the National Museum of Dance and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. For decades she hosted the elaborately themed Whitney Gala at Canfield Casino in Saratoga=s Congress Park. Although it was a coveted invite-only affair, the party always attracted hordes of onlookers eager to snap photos of celebrities or to catch party-favor souvenirs tossed to the crowd by guests. But in 2012, Whitney ceased the Galas, instead opting for a small dinner party at her mansion to instead focus attention on the backstretch workers= appreciation program she helped to create to provide over 1,000 Saratoga stable workers with dinners and activities every night during the upstate race meet. And the horses themselves always had a special place in Whitney=s heart: She was a major contributor to the Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park and was active in various racehorse aftercare endeavors. Prior to the era of digital foal certificates, Whitney was known for attaching a personal note to the foal papers of her horses, just to let future owners know how to contact her if one of her horses ever needed a home. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JULY 20, 2019 Marylou Whitney cont. ARacing is not just about the betting. The beauty, pageantry and flair is what separates our sport from any other,@ Whitney said in a 2011 acceptance speech for the Eclipse Award of Merit. AHorses--and the people involved in racing--have always given me more than I could ever give them. Horse racing is where I feel the most alive, and at home. You are my family.@ A Bright Social Star on the Rise... Marie Louise Schroeder was born Dec. 24, 1925, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father was a go-getter accountant who attended law school at night with future U.S. President Harry Truman. After graduating from Southwest High School, Marylou attended the University of Iowa, but had to return home at age 19 to help the family when her dad died. She got a job as a perky wartime radio disc jockey, creating a hit show for servicemen called APrivate Smiles.@ After a year, the ambitious Marylou gambled on a trip to New York to launch a career as an actress, where she came off as Aunquestionably glamorous@ according to friends who would reminisce about her bold foray to the big city decades later. The acting career never panned out, but the fun-loving Midwesterner quickly established herself on the A-list social scene. (Photo right, Whitney in 2018 | Sarah K Andrew) TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JULY 20, 2019 Marylou Whitney cont. said to have encouraged her to Aliven up the town@ when the In 1948 Marylou married Frank Hosford, the heir to the John race meets were in session. Deere fortune, and they had four children. They would Marylou did just that, and then some. By the 1970s, her style eventually divorce, but it was and effusive personality were during their separation that synonymous with the toney Marylou met C.V. Whitney in Saratoga experience. 1958 at a supper club in By the 1980s though, C.V. Phoenix. She became the Whitney started dispersing his fourth wife of the scion of two racing stock, reportedly because of the wealthiest families in he did not want to burden his America, and they had one wife with the business. When he daughter. died in 1992, the heir to rail and The Whitneys had many oil fortunes reportedly left residences, but the one Marylou with an estate valued at Marylou took a shine to was $100 million. Cady Hill, an 1851 manor with But it turned out that Marylou 21 rooms on 135 acres in did indeed want to continue on Saratoga Springs. Over time, with racing and breeding. After she adorned it with tennis her second husband=s death, she courts, Victorian gardens that With husband John Hendrickson in 2016 | Horsephotos put a lot of effort and money into were heated in winter, and even a private chapel. trying to buy back the AWhitney mares@ that had been the Saratoga in the early 1960s was not the fashionable racing backbone of the family=s breeding stock. destination it is today.