Page 174 - Speedhorse April 2019

A Remarkable Loss:
Town Policy is dead. It hardly seems possible. We all realize that the result of the horse racing game can be terminal for the horse, yet we try to harden our- selves to this stark reality.
The death of Town Policy melts this hard psychological veneer. This defense mechanism gives way to raw emotion when we are faced with the cold facts.
Brad McKinzie called me from California the day after Town Policy was put down. The news put me in shock. I had always pictured visiting Town when he was 20 years old in some pasture and telling my now young sons stories of this equine hero.
That won’t happen now. Instead, I think of Shirley and Blane Schvaneveldt, Ivan Ashment and Kenny Hart – how it must have devastated Blane, Kenny and Shirley to watch Town run around the clubhouse turn on three legs.
Town Policy’s career was more than past performances in the Daily Rac- ing Form. The well-documented life and travels of Town Policy had become drama in real life. This drama made Town Policy and the people connected with the gelding a family. Town was the number one son of the Schvaneveldt- Hart family.
Town Policy’s career has provided bench- marks that I readily recall in my career.
I remember when I first went to work at Los Alamitos. I had driven from Den- ver to Orange County in a car loaded with my personal belongings. Along the way, I stopped just a minimal amount of time for sleep and food.
I arrived at Los Alamitos in the early afternoon and was excited about my new employment. I was tired, but was running on adrenalin. I thought I would check in with my new boss – Bruce Rimbo – and tell him that I was alive and ready to work.
The first thing that he told me was that Town Policy had just been stolen. It was under those circumstances that I met Blane, Kenny and Ivan. It was then that I learned that Town was a member of the family.
The abduction of Town Policy was news. As a new member of the Los Alamitos publicity department, it was now my job to assist the media in the coverage of the Town Policy story.
Little Reb’s biggest moment came in the Malibu Stakes when he became one of only two horses to defeat Horse of the Year Affirmed in his final year of competition.
Reb’s Policy crosses well with Camptown Girl and it appears that the stallion also has a special nick with the Thoroughbred mare Westward Wind as well.
A daughter of Restless Wind, Westward Wind has produced multiple stakes winner Westward Sal and Terlingua Stakes winner West- ward Gal from the cover of Reb’s Policy. This means that two of Reb’s Policy’s five Thorough- bred stakes winners are out of Westward Wind.
Reb’s Policy is sired by the Gainsborough line stallion New Policy. This line of the Gainsborough clan traces through the leading Gainsborough son Hyperion since New Policy is by the Hyperion son *Khaled.
The *Khaled branch of the Gainsborough line has also produced Swaps and Hillary. The Gainsborough line has also accounted for *Alibhai, Nodouble, *Noholme II, Shecky Greene, *Forli, *Vaguely Noble, and Pass ‘Em Up.
New Policy has been an important Califor- nia stallion after being a multiple stakes winner and earning over $273,000.
Out of the Fair Trial mare *Feu Follet, New Policy is also the sire of $172,000 stakes winner and sire Kfar Tov.
Reb’s Policy gets another infusion of speed through his female line, as his dam Yenoh Reb is by the 1955 Champion Sprinter Berseem.
A son of Berborough, Berseem won eight added money events and set or equaled four track records, including equaling the 6-furlong Santa Anita track standard twice.
Berseem is the sire of 10 stakes winners, including $203,000 earner Curious Clover and $124,000 earner Sand Canyon.
Yenoh Reb, the dam of Reb’s Policy, is also the dam of Breeders’ Sale Stakes winner Binkie’s Honey, who is a full sister to Reb’s Policy and the dam of stakes-placed Duxie.
Yenoh Reb has shown the ability to throw soundness in her foals, as she is the dam of six performers who have made over 28 starts.
Yenoh Reb is a full sister to Yenoh Ber, the dam of Marian Stakes runner-up Leal’s Jewel.
This is the same female family as track record holder Roman Rice, who held the 4 1/2-furlong mark at Las Vegas, and Cinema Handicap runner-up Friar Roach.
Town Policy is probably in the twilight of his career. He didn’t receive an invitation to the HQHRA Championship this year for the first time since he was stolen, and six of his last eight starts as of this writing have been against allow- ance company.
But, he is still the competitor and shows flashes of brilliance like last August’s second place finish behind Denim N Diamonds in the Los Alamitos Championship.
In that race, he burst to the lead and forced the 1981 Champion Aged Horse to show her stuff. Sure Denim N Diamonds is younger and faster, a superb race mare at the peak of her career, but the point is that Town Policy made her earn it.
The record will show that Town Policy was defeated, but the people know that Town Policy never beat himself. He never has and never will.
Legendary characters may lose, but they never quit.
172 SPEEDHORSE, April 2019
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM FEBRUARY 1984 ISSUE