Jock Whitney Went to See a Filly Saddled

In the summer of 1949, Jock Whitney took such an interest in the filly regarded as the one to beat in the Spinaway Stakes that he went to watch her being saddled before the race. It is the kind of detail that tells you how the great owners of that era carried themselves: close to the horse, close to the trainer, attentive to the small rituals of the paddock rather than content to view the result from a distance. For those who follow the two-year-old fillies at Saratoga each August, the Spinaway remains the race that first sorts out the serious prospects, and the image of Whitney at the saddling is a reminder of what that race has long meant to the sport's leading families. Thoroughbred Daily News raised the moment in a breeding column that looks back on how horses and horsemen of that generation were made.

With reporting from Thoroughbred Daily News.