Sport: St. Edward of Lexington

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Manager of Idle Hour Farm is Barry Shannon, brother of Bradley's old bookmaking partner. His trainer is H. J. ("Dick") Thompson, who has won for his employer more than $2,350,000 in stakes, practically every big U. S. racing event and four Derbies with Behave Yourself (1921), Bubbling Over (1926), Burgoo King (1932), Broker's Tip (1933). But the Colonel can, and has when Thompson was sick, trained his own horses himself. His brother John, after a career of big-game hunting and backing Explorer Frederick A. ("Doc") Cook, retired from their joint affairs to a Western ranch. Brother Garvey, onetime big-league ballplayer, was never associated with the Colonel.

Besides owning horses, Colonel Bradley has owned tracks. He spent more than $1,000,000 improving the Fair Grounds at New Orleans, sold out in 1932 and bought heavily into Joseph E. Widener's Hialeah Park at Miami. His feelings about horses themselves are a strange mixture of sentimentality and practicality. "I love horses," he says, "and I'll always breed them. They're like children, needing the same care and treatment, subject to all sons of ailments. . . ." He thinks he was fondest of a filly named Bit of White, whose only claim to fame was a track record at Louisville. "She was like a bit of Dresden china, a friendly, intelligent, perfectly mannered little lady."

And yet, having made a big book against Morvich in the 1922 Derby, he started his Busy American against his veterinarian's and trainer's advice. The horse had developed an injured tendon. "He might just as well break down now as later in the season," said the Colonel. Busy American led the field for a quarter-mile, then broke down, ruined for life.

As widely famed a gambler as a horse owner, Colonel Bradley lives up to his reputation. He will bet you it will or will not rain tomorrow. All bets are recorded by his personal commissioner, Mose Cossman, 30 years in his service, for whom he once named a horse Bet Mose. At Saratoga, when the yearlings are displayed, Colonel Bradley habitually offers even money that any horse you name will not win a purse the following year. In 1932 some one picked The Triumvir, for which Mrs. Payne Whitney had paid the highest price of the year, but Colonel Bradley won just the same.

Occasionally he offers wholesale wagers in the wrong company. At his Beach Club in 1923 he offered anyone 5-to-1 that a sure starter in the Derby, three months away, could not be named. Up spoke Harry Sinclair and Joshua S. Cosden, asking for $5,000 worth apiece. Both had Derby eligibles, and although their horses had run last in the Preakness week before the Derby, both delightedly posted the $500 entry fee to send them to the barrier. Mr. Sinclair's Zev came in No. 1, Mr. Cosden's Martingale was No. 2.

Another hard bet for Colonel Bradley to lose was his wager that the War would end Nov. 15, 1918.

The Colonel's one ruling obsession is that all things, good or bad, happen in threes. Once at Latonia three accidents occurred. The Colonel offered 4-to-1 that not another mishap would occur during the meeting. He was right. If he has a bad year, he is sure two more are coming. He feels the same way about good years.