In lieu of new material for the summer, we have traipsed into our archives. Increased interest online in the below-mentioned material is cause for our selection.
NEW YORK (Trumbull Monkey Racing Newswire) — Call it the sport of kings of the jungle. In front of a packed-in house Thursday at the Dog Aqueducts in Queens, 2-to-3 favorite Fueled by Postum delivered on her promise as a dog which could be raced extremely fast by a trained monkey, taking the first Dog Triple Crown win in the history of Thoroughbred Monkey on a Dog Racing (TMDR). She won in easy fashion, glistening to the finish by bit more than two-and-a-thirds of a daschund’s length.
“She raced extremely well for a dog ridden by a monkey,” owner Abe Metro, of the fledgling movie house Metro, Goldwyn and Mayer, remarked from the dog winner’s circle. “This was a race for our president, Herbert Hoover.”
It was also the third win in as many races for Postum, which won the Preakness Monkey Stakes by two lengths and the Kansas Derby by five. Her owner stands to receive a healthy $82.50 sum for successful stewardship resulting in the Dog Triple Crown.
Monkey jockey Cynthia the Monkey, at the helm for all three Triple Crown races, rode Postum hard from the start and gained good distance from the first turn with stern usury of the reins. Postum, ever anxious to please her monkey boss, dug into the bit and began a violent, timed series of dog kicks, pushing dog rival and 3-to-1 shot Hotdogcracy into a dog hole its monkey jockey Stella the Monkey could not dig out of.
Despite a crippling economic depression that has rendered a good part of the country dusty and out-of-work, TMDR chair-woman and commissioner Loretta David said the capacity crowd at the Aqueducts was a sign of the one-year-old sport’s resonance with “orphans and the working man alike.”
“It’s certainly a testament to the good people of Queens, that they were able to leave their mills and rag carts to watch quality dog racing, with monkey jockeys, on a Thursday afternoon.”
David, who established the circuit with her husband Charles in 1930, says the TMDR has come a long way since its first race, outside their Flatbush home a year hence, in 1931, of but two monkeys and dogs. In that race, one of their monkey jockeys caught flu and had to be replaced by a bunch of bugs taped together. The other monkey became distracted by a nearby discarded banana, and left the race early, against wishes of both dog and commissioner.
“The quality of racing has certainly improved,” said David.
Indeed, while the clear favorite Postum won out in easy fashion, a ripping battle for place remained until the last length, no doubt aiding the mangy Irish bettors comprising the bulwark of the adult crowd to remain awake. Having immediately eaten Postum’s cruel race-track dust, Hotdogcracy gathered itself and champed on the bit early to make distance with the peloton, taking a clear daschund-length lead behind Postum into the final straight.
A late surge from 15-to-1 underdog Don’t Telegram Me Unless You Mean It prompted neck-and-neck monkeys-on-dog racing, and a late cheer from the now-tumescent crowd. Shoddy riding by Telegram’s monkey jockey, Ellen the Monkey, a late injury replacement for decorated monkey jockey Shoshana the Monkey, let Hotdogcracy, the popular neighborhood dog from nearby Rockaway, take the inside line on the final turn, and place.
“It was certainly quite a finish,” said Pete O’Neill, flush with winnings from a successful Hotdogcracy parlay, outside the Aqueduct. “I came here to get out of my eleven-person, one-room house, but I stayed for the sport of it.”
Metro confirmed that a talking movie about Postum, which kennels and trains at the lush Roxbury-based Pynchon Doggery in Massachusetts, is in the works at his Los Angeles studio.
“Whether the jockey will be played by a monkey, or by Mary Pickford, is as-to-date uncertain,” said Metro. “Today I’m just happy for my dog and monkey.”
For more on the short-lived Thoroughbred Monkey on a Dog Racing Society, click here.
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