Page 173 - Speedhorse April 2019

Camptown Girl posted five wins, two sec- onds and three thirds from 23 starts while bank- ing over $10,000. She gained her stakes wins in the Gem State Futurity and Bonneville Futurity. Camptown Girl has produced eight winners from eight foals of racing age, and she really excelled when she was bred to Reb’s Policy. Each of her three stakes performers were sired by Reb’s Policy.
In addition to Town Policy, Camptown Girl is the dam of Boise Derby third place finisher Rebs Town Policy and Independence Day Handicap runner up Policy Girl. A winner of three races and an earner of over $11,000, Policy Girl sold in the PCQHRA Sale last December for $120,000 in foal to Timeto Thinkrich.
To say that Reb’s Policy and Camptown Girl have crossed well is an understatement. Reb’s Policy is the sire of the Quarter Horse earners
of nearly $2 million and 43% of those earnings were amassed by the produce of Camptown Girl.
Reb’s Policy has also sired 19 stakes winners or stakes placed performers and three of them are out of a single mare, Camptown Girl. This is from a total of 169 starters (139 winners).
One word described Reb’s Policy during his race career: speed. Reb’s Policy was blessed with extreme speed and he showed it on the major southern California tracks.
Reb’s Policy showed speed when he posted his first career stakes win at three in the 5
1/2- furlong Hollywood Express Handicap. He stepped off the distance in 1:02 2/5 to equal the Hollywood Park track record.
But the race that showed his blazing speed was the 1971 Meteor Handicap on the Hol- lywood Park turf course at 5-furlongs.
In that event, the four-year-old Reb’s Policy carried 114 pounds over the five panels in an amazing :56 to establish a new track and Ameri- can record.
Reb’s Policy raced for four years and banked over $83,000 with eight wins from 18 trips to the post. In his five-year-old season, he won a 6-furlong allowance in 1:08 1/5 to equal Santa Anita’s track record.
From his first six crops to race, Reb’s Policy has become a leading sire of Thorough- breds in California.
The New Policy son has sired 36 winners from 49 starters, with five stakes winners and four stakes-placed runners.
The four Reb’s Policy Thoroughbred stakes winners are headed by a pair of top class run- ners, Reb’s Golden Ale and Little Reb.
Reb’s Golden Ale is the leading Thorough- bred money earner sire by Reb’s Policy with over $282,000. He has a stakes win in the Bing Crosby Handicap and holds the 5-furlong Hol- lywood Park track record of :55 4/5.
Little Reb accounted for four stakes events: the Malibu Stakes, Palos Verdes Handicap, El Rio Rey Stakes and Golden Gate Juvenile.
Remembering Town Policy:
“Hey, did ya’ hear that Schvaneveldt had a non-starter work this morning in :18.1. It looks like he’s got another runner.”
Looking back, it seems that it was ages ago that I can remember those words being spoken around the backside at Los Alamitos. It wasn’t ages, but it was quite a while ago. Seven years ago to be exact.
The non-starter that had all of us talk- ing on that morning was, of course, Town Policy. It seemed obvious that Schvaneveldt did indeed have a runner, but none of us, and probably not even Schvaneveldt himself, knew just what an impact this unraced little gelding would have on an entire sport.
I was lucky, I got to watch Town Policy get started at close range. During a break from college, I was at my usual summer job working for trainer Barry Woodhouse. We were stabled directly across from the Sch- vaneveldt stable and when I wasn’t occupied in a stall, it was easy to wander over to Blane’s barn for some good-natured harassment and of course to steal some of the oranges he’d won the night before in the feature race.
Town Policy wasn’t the only runner Schvaneveldt had that summer so many years ago. There was also a big, good-looking two- year-old colt named Lantys Easy Jet.
When the time for the Kindergarten, which was the biggest summer futurity in those days, came around, jockey Kenny Hart had to decide between Town Policy and Lan- tys Easy Jet for his ride in the finals. Town Policy had won his first three races in daz- zling style, but Lantys Easy Jet was no slouch,
having been fourth in the Bay Meadows Futurity and having won the Jet Deck Stakes and Los Ninos already that summer.
Naturally, being like everyone else – an expert in what another man should do with his horses – I decided that being a good guy I should go over to the Schvaneveldt barn and let Hart know who he should ride in the Kindergarten.
“Ride Lantys Easy Jet,” was my unsolic- ited advice. “He can beat that little horse.”
“He’s nice, but he can’t beat Town,” was Hart’s reply. And then, just to let me know how far wrong I was, he added, “Ain’t none of them can beat Town.”
How right Kenny Hart was. Ain’t none of them could beat Town. In the Kindergarten, Easy Della Jet tried, but no way. In the Los Alamitos Derby, after Town had been off in who-knows- where for six months, they tried but nobody got close. In the Vessels Maturity it seemed that the whole field tried, but Town was the one who won. In the HQHRA Championship, Kenny Hart was so banged up from a recent spill he couldn’t walk, but he still rode Town to a win.
Town Policy was a pro. During a race, there was nothing but business about him. He wasn’t the kind of runner who struck fear into your hearts when you first looked at him, but get him in a race and he’d pin his ears and either beat you or make you know you had just won something.
Back at the barn when nothing was on the line, Town acted just like one of the boys. On the mornings before his biggest races, he didn’t need to be hand-walked and pampered; there he was on the walker with everybody else.
When you’re as lucky as I’ve been to be around Los Alamitos Race Course for a good part of your life, some of the great moments and great horses sometimes blend together. But some things stick with you in a special place.
Town Policy will stick.
I’ll remember Town winning and I’ll re- member the look on Blane Schvaneveldt’s face
when he knew there was no hope of saving w
him. I’ll remember the smile on Kenny Hart’s face whenever he and Town got there first, and I’ll remember him standing alone over the spot
where his old companion lay buried. w
But mostly I’ll remember the way the Los
Alamitos crowds would rise up and cheer A
whenever Town Policy would win. He was their w
favorite. He was more than just a horse; he was, as Kenny Hart and Blane Schvaneveldt would say, “a member of the family.”
– Brad McKinzie
SPEEDHORSE, April 2019 171
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM FEBRUARY 1984 ISSUE
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