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.