1963-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1963 March Voice | Page 13
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse
' *
CELEBRATION RUSHES ANNIVERSARY PLANS
Two hundred and 86 additional
Northside 6-seat boxes are being con
structed at the Tennessee Walking
Horse National Celebration Grounds
as this wondrous show (Sept. 1-7)
makes ready tor observance ol its 25th
(Silver) Anniversary. Each box seats
includes 6 chairs, the 286 boxes
adding 1,716 to the seating capacity-
making it 19,280.
Other additions and refinements
are taking place at this world's
greatest facility ever erected exclu
sively for horse show use. As usual,
the Celebration Executive Committee
is meeting regularly to make policy
decisions and to allot duties in the
various departments.
The committee includes: President
William C. (Bill) Tune, Jr., Vice-
President William L. Parker; Secre
tary-Treasurer Phil J. Scudder, chair
man of grounds; Henry C. Tilford,
Jr., assistant chairman of grounds;
Director Evan Lloyd Adamson, Horse
Show chairman; Director Robert M.
Thomas, chairman of Information
and Publicity with Morgan Lorance
his assistant; Director Henry J.
Thompson, chairman of entertain
ment and decorations.
Other Celebration officials are
veterans of years including: Sam
Gibbons, Show Manager; Emmet Guy,
Master of Ceremonies; Jimmie
Richardson, Organist, Organist; Les
Nelson, Photographer; Farrier,
Millard Wilson; Dr. Abner Hawkins,
Dr. J. M. Jones, Dr. Nathan J.
Thomas, veterinarians; Scope Carney
and Ike Bull, Barn Managers. The
judges are yet to be announced.
Mrs. J. Ivan Potts, Jr., is office
manager as usual. All Celebration
offices have been moved to the Cele
bration Grounds.
An elaborate Celebration folder
will be completed within a short
time with present orders for a 40,000
press run at the Times-Gazette; this
artistic creation being the responsi
bility of Robert M. Thomas and
Morgan Lorance. It’s a four-color job
that marks a new high in Celebration
promotion. This will be mailed to
the Blue Ribbon Magazine list of
more than 8,000; and distributed
widely through motels, airports,
Chambers of Commerce and other
wise. The annual Blue Ribbon, edited
by Show Manager Sam Gibbons, will
appear early in August as usual.
Improvements on the grounds in
clude installation of four fire plugs
at strategic points, construction of
additional rest rooms, normal repairs
to the 1,005 permanent stalls, work on
the beautifully conditioned track 300
feet long with a width of 150 feet in
cluding the infield.
Special features in commemoration
of the anniversary are expected to be
held—and attendance from all parts
of the nation and several foregin
countries is expected to smash the
1962 record 60,324 to smithereens.
It appears that the Tennessee
Walking Horse industry is surging
into its greatest season of all time-
in fact mounting a peak of interest
and performance never before im
agined by the most optimistic pro
moters.
Front-runner now for highest Cele
bration World Championship honors
is the super-rugged Triple Threat of
J. Glenn Turner’s Circle T. Ranch.
This horse, who finished 4th in the
big Celebration stake last year after a
long ride from Texas a week pre
viously, swept the Championship
Stake at Miami’s Charity Horse Show
recently, repeated at Orlando and
picked up similar honors elsewhere
on the Florida Circuit.
Trainer Harold Kennedy was in
the saddle on Triple Threat and also
won the Miami Mare class on
Shadow’s Sensation.
Owner J. Glenn Turner of Circle
T took the blue ribbon in the
amateur class at Miami on Shadow’s
Luminaire (a Shelbyville bred horse
at the Winston Wiser Stables).
Turner showed no effects of the rib
injury that knocked him out of active
competition at the 1962 Celebration
—although his Circle T brigade led
every competing stable in total point
count for the big show—riders in
cluding young collegian Fred Turner
for reserve honors of his favorite
Shadow’s Red Ace.
Some wise followers say the Turner
troops have not only the world’s best
stake horse in Triple Threat but also
1-2 in the amateur ranks with
Luminaire and Red Ace in a father-
son championship team that may well
set new marks for Walking Horse
performance this season.
From the great crop of four-year-
old the Celebration favorities as of
this moment must be the 1-2 hones
in the three-year-old class of last year
i.e. (1) Cotton Queen’s Go Boy with
Doug Wolaver up; and (2) Sun’s
Delight, ridden this year by Sam
Paschal for new owner Darrell Eskew,
Palatine, 111. contractor. Eskew re
portedly bought the stallion from
A. S. Dean of Christiana in Ruther
ford County for S20.000.