Harold Washburn

The Equine Man of Kentucky

In the Beginning... About Harold Washburn

 

Harold Washburn as a young boy

 

Harold Washburn is a Kentucky horseman that worked for Tom Smith and Danada Farm. He started out as Tom’s assistant with the Ada L. Rice racing stable, then managed yearlings and injured horses at the Wheaton farm. Washburn began, "When the Ada L. Rice stable hired Tom Smith, he was in New York. He picked up the horses in New York. That was in the fall of 1947. We took (the yearlings) to California and of course they turned 2-year-olds at the first of the year and then we raced them out there."



Harold learning the ropes

Washburn told of how he was hired, "I came from Detroit and went to Washington Park. I was getting on the outside horses and was looking for a good job and someone told me to go over and see Jimmy Smith. I didn’t know Jimmy Smith and I went over to see him. He told me Tom Smith was his father and that Tom, his dad, had taken over the Ada L. Rice stable. He had some horses and was breaking some yearlings that were throwing some riders in the shedrow. So Jimmy hired me to get on those yearlings."

One of the unruly yearlings was Model Cadet. The colt had thrown a rider which resulted in a broken collarbone injury. Washburn recalled, "You don’t break yearlings at the racetrack. He hired me to get on them and it was duck soup to me. They set me on Model Cadet and him buck-jumping me a bit in the shedrow, that was like me sitting in a rocking chair. So Jim got all excited and decided to hire me and sent me to California to his dad."

Washburn arrived carrying 132 pounds on his five foot eight frame, causing Tom Smith to question his son’s latest hire. "So when I got there I was a little bit heavier than most exercise riders," he explained. "So Tom kind of looked at me when Jim first sent me there and said ‘I ain’t got no elephants here to ride’. But after two or three days Jim said ‘you’re gonna need him, believe me.’ So after about a week or two there Tom was getting to know and understand me and began to use me."

"After he hired me, Tom started playing games with me and started putting me on bad horses. That’s how he was. That goes on all the time. I was so used to that. Pretty soon he got to know I knew horses and I knew people. Then in 30 days he was asking me who should I put on this horse or who should I put on this horse, and that’s the way it went on from there".

"So I stayed with him and ended up being his assistant. I took some horses to Chicago. Ten of them for Rice. Ran them in there and did pretty well at Washington Park. I won five races at the whole meet and I only had twelve horses there."

The thrill of the race

Rice only raced at Santa Anita in the winter. In early March they shipped back to Chicago and New York. "So I stayed (employed) with Tom and went to the farm (in Wheaton). I broke a batch of yearlings at the farm and that’s when I became pretty good friends with Ada."

Model Cadet was at the Wheaton Farm before and after the 1949 Triple Crown races. " A kid named Halfday went down there with him," Washburn remembered. "Tom only took Model Cadet and maybe his pony to Churchill Downs. They sent him back to me because he had problems."

"(In 1949) Rice asked me to go to California with Tom but I didn’t want to do it. Tom had already got another assistant, another foreman, and I thought I would be interfering. So he (Rice) told me to go to Los Angeles and wait for him." Washburn went briefly to Washington then returned down the West Coast. He continued, "So I called Dan and he said to stick around, to take some horses to Mexico, but that never panned out." In the next few months Tom Smith was let go by Dan Rice. Washburn stayed on to assist the new trainer in getting acquainted with the horses, then moved on to work for Louis B. Mayer.

Harold in the Winner's Circle

Harold Washburn also provided his personal touch when managing the Rice’s string under Tom Smith. He explained, " I did most of the decorating and painting. I did her logos on the door. I designed her logos, the ARL in the diamond shape and hand painted them on her doors. I tell you what. That was a beautifully run stable. You should have seen it. A stable anyone would be proud of who was at the races."

Harold Washburn today

Harold Washburn