The Press: Thoroughbred Entry

Horse lovers in Argentina read Jockey Club, Italians have Derby and the French can get Courses et Élevage. "There had to be a place over here for something like that," reasons E. Barry Ryan, Kentucky-based proprietor of Normandy Farm. Hence Classic, a well-groomed new bimonthly about "Horses & Sport" produced by Ryan and some track-wise alumni of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Like the five-year-old racer on the magazine's first cover, Woodward Stakes Winner Forego, Classic has the look of a thoroughbred.

The new magazine carries a $3 newsstand price and an elegant look that is closer to Town and Country than the Racing Form. Besides the piece on Forego, the magazine's 1975 "Horse of the World," the first Classic carries stories about breeders of Arabian and quarter horses, a recap of the Open Cup polo competition, and a richly illustrated piece by Art Collector Paul Mellon on the turf paintings that hang in the Jockey Club at Newmarket, England. The ads are equally tony, ranging from a pitch for a $ 15,000 BMW sedan to a message from M.J. Pritchard, Inc., of Minneapolis, purveyors of Jockey Oats.

Old Hand. Classic President Ryan, whose financier grandfather Thomas Fortune Ryan helped found the Royal Typewriter Co., went to some equally well-heeled and horsy friends and lined up 35 investors in the magazine, including Mrs. Ogden Phipps and John Hay ("Jock") Whitney. The group's total investment, about $3 million, should be enough to see Classic through its first three years. The magazine has 75,000 charter subscribers (at $12 a year), and ample potential for growth: fully 2.5 million Americans actually own horses, and millions more follow them at race tracks and shows.

Editor and publisher is Andre Laguerre, 60, who races a stable of thoroughbreds in his native France. Laguerre was managing editor of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED from 1960 to 1974, and he has several old SI colleagues on his Classic staff, including Executive Editor Andrew Crichton and Writer Whitney Tower. Laguerre says he is "too old a hand not to do the things I've already learned and tried to apply." For Classic's readers, that means a magazine with bright writing, surrounded by equally bright illustrations, about lively personalities. Says Laguerre: "We'll follow the No. 1 rule in journalism and write more about people than horses."