HORSE RACING

Haskell 2017: History, family intersect as Monmouth Park's big race turns 50

Stephen Edelson
Asbury Park Press
Family memorabilia belonging to Hope Haskell Jones is displayed at her home in Little Silver. She is the daughter of Amory L. Haskell, one of Monmouth Park's founders, with the 50th Haskell Invitational to be run on Sunday.

LITTLE SILVER - The photos and memorabilia, including a perfectly preserved program from Monmouth Park’s inaugural season in 1946, were laid out on a table in Hope Haskell Jones’ home, tracing a time line back to the post-World War II rise of thoroughbred racing in New Jersey.

And her remembrances filled in the blanks on a path leading straight back to this weekend’s historic events in Oceanport.

Late Sunday afternoon they’ll contest the 50th running of the Betfair.com Haskell Invitational, the $1-million, Grade 1 fixture named in memory of her father, Amory L. Haskell, one of Monmouth Park’s founders.

Isabelle de Tomaso (L) and her sister, Hope Haskell Jones, the daughters of Monmouth Park founder Amory Haskell, at the 2015 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

And three nights earlier her older sister, Isabelle de Tomaso, will arrive from Italy, just as she does every summer at this time. Except this year Irish War Cry, her Jersey-bred 3-year-old foaled at Overbrook Farm in Colts Neck, will be among the favorites, as the past and present make an unexpected intersection along Oceanport Avenue

It’s an incredible storyline that’s actually 71 years in the making, since Haskell Jones, now 82, was a young girl watching races from the clockers' stands along the backstretch during Monmouth Park’s early days because you had to be 16-years-old to attend the races back then.

Now she’s hoping to stand in the winner’s circle and hand the wood and silver trophy to her sister, as their father’s race, one of the premier events in the sport’s most important division, hits the half-century mark.

"I think he would be thrilled about it," Haskell Jones said.

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"It’s been a long time since we’ve had a really good horse … I’m sure my father would be pleased as punch."

History and horsepower

It was Aug. 11, 1956, and Haskell Jones recalls the events of the day quite well, her memory backed up by newspaper accounts of the $100,000 Atlantic City Handicap at Atlantic City Racecourse.

That’s how far back you have to go to find a family-owned horse as good as Irish War Cry, as Amory Haskell’s Blue Sparkler, trained by Harry Wells, was set to take on the great Nashua, who had defeated Swaps a year earlier in one of the great match races.

Hope Haskell Jones, 82, at her home in Little Silver. She is the daughter of Amory L. Haskell, one of Monmouth Park's founders, with the 50th renewal of the Betfai.com Haskell Invitational set for Sunday.

"That was really exciting," Haskell Jones said. "My sister-in-law Helen was like eight months pregnant and the doctor said, `you can’t go out of state. You’re about to have this baby." So she went down to Atlantic City because she said, `he said don’t leave the state, not that you can’t leave Middletown and go to Atlantic City.'

"It was a big deal for all of us. But while Blue Sparkler was a very good filly, she was probably not going to beat Nashua."

But Nashua developed a mild case of colic and was scratched just prior to the race, with Blue Sparkler winning and going on to be named the top older female of 1956.

It seems history will play a prominent role in what transpires on Sunday.

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Haskell Jones’ Mello Groove, nominated to run in the $60,000 John J. Reilly Handicap on Haskell Day, is a descendant of Blue Sparkler.

Isabelle de Tomaso shown as a race car driver in Italy in the 1950s, is the daughter of Monmouth Park founding father Amory L. Haskell. De Tomaso, now 86, owns Irish War Cry, a contender in the 50th Betfair.com Haskell Invitational, named for her father.

While Isabelle de Tomaso loved horses, as did all the Haskell children growing up at Woodland Farm in Middletown, she loved horsepower even more, and in 1955 went to Europe to race cars because there were more opportunities for women there. She ended up in Italy, marrying Argentinian Alejandro de Tomaso, a driver for Maserati, and in 1959 they formed De Tomaso Automobili, producing Formula race cars and high-end sports cars.

But she began racing horses in Europe in the 1960s, and in 1971 sent a mare named Irish Trip to Monmouth County, beginning her breeding operation in this country. Irish War Cry, sired by Curlin, is out of the mare Irish Sovereign, whose second dam is Irish Trip.

Three runners produced by Irish Sovereign, all owned by de Tomaso, are expected to take the track in stakes races on Haskell Day.

Carrying on

Things happened quickly after Irish War Cry's victory in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 8 at Aqueduct. And on May 4, the Haskell sisters arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Kentucky Derby, with Irish War Cry going postward as the second choice in the wagering on the sport's grandest stage.

Irish War Cry, with Rajiv Maragh aboard, wins the $750,000 Wood Memorial on Saturday, April 8, 2017, in New York.

"I don’t think it occurred to her, and I know it didn’t occur to me that he would end up in the Derby," Haskell Jones said. "Nobody’s ever come close to that. Actually, my sister had the favorite in the Italian Derby and she got all dressed up and went and he ended up 15th. So she refused to get overly excited when we went to the Kentucky Derby."

At the top of the stretch, it appeared Irish War Cry was going to win it. Trainer Graham Motion thought so. Jockey Rajiv Maragh thought so, and so did the Haskell sisters. Then Irish War Cry stopped, eventually finishing 10th.

"They don’t talk,  so you can’t find out what happened," Haskell Jones said. "So I was trying to make my sister laugh and said, 'at least Irish War Cry was 10th, so he did better than your other horse.'"

The pomp and ceremony at Churchill Downs was a far cry from the events of June 19, 1946, when the first official day of racing at Monmouth Park was conducted as workers hurried to finish the grandstand.

Amory L. Haskell, a founding father of Monmouth Park, whose daughter, Isabelle de Tomaso, owns Betfair.com Haskell Invitational contender Irish War Cry, addresses the crowd at Monmouth Park in the mid-1950s.

But it was the moment Amory Haskell had worked so hard to make happen, playing a prominent role in amending the state constitution to legalize parimutual wagering on thoroughbred and standardbred racing, before organizing a group to build the track.

Haskell's wife, Annette, was actually the one who was passionate about thoroughbreds, but she died in an auto accident in Florida just months before the track opened.

"She's the one who really got him going on it," Haskell Jones said, "And after the accident, he took it as his mantle to carry on, and he went whole hog into the thing."

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Haskell, a former General Motors executive who went on to found Triplex Safety Glass, served as the president and chairman of the Monmouth Park Jockey Club until his death in 1966.

Lasting legacy

Some family memorabilia belonging to Hope Haskell Jones, including a program from Monmouth Park's opening season in 1946, at her home in Little Silver. She is the daughter of Amory L. Haskell, one of Monmouth Park's founders, with the 50th Haskell Invitational, named after her father, to be run on Sunday.

Irish War Cry would return to the track five weeks after his disappointing Run for the Roses to finish a game second in the Belmont Stakes, but the goal all along was to have him ready for Sunday.

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Because from the moment he flashed the promised he possessed in winning the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream on Feb. 4, the Haskell has been the No. 1 target.

More than 30 family and friends will crowd into three parterre boxes at Monmouth Park on Sunday, hoping for the best on what will be an emotional day no matter what happens on the track.

The Haskell sisters will stand in the shade provided by the now massive trees their mother planted in the paddock so many years ago, while reminders of their father’s legacy will be everywhere.

"As soon as my sister found out this horse was above average, she has been thinking about the Haskell," Hope Haskell Jones said. "And nothing would make both of us happier than for me to give the trophy to her. We usually present it together but this way,  I give it to her, we'll be speechless, I think."

There might just be a few tears as well should the most fitting, poignant storyline in Haskell history play out on its golden anniversary in front of a national television audience on Sunday.

Stephen Edelson is an Asbury Park Press columnist: sedelson@gannettnj.com