Little Change for Threewitt in 70 Years of Training
January 8th, 2003by Beth Harris | The Associated Press
Trainer Noble Threewitt at 92
Associated Press Photo
Noble Threewitt arises at 2 a.m., shaves, showers and gulps coffee. By 4 a.m., he’s at a local shop buying doughnuts for his stable help and heading to Barn 14 on the Santa Anita backstretch.
By 5:30 a.m., he’s read three newspapers in his cozy office and is overseeing the care and training of the five horses that comprise his once powerful stable. At 92 (his birthday is Feb. 24), Threewitt could be kicking back at home with Beryl, his wife of 70 years, having outlived most of the owners who employed him. Instead, he keeps working to saddle another winner in a career that began in 1932. Back then, the 21-year-old was the nation’s youngest trainer and had his first winner at the now-defunct Caliente racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico.
“Everybody thinks I’m crazy,” he said, smiling. “You get into something like this and you finally get to the place you don’t know anything else, and you just have to keep going.”
Black-and-white photos hanging in Threewitt’s office tell the story of a successful career.
One of them shows Correlation, who won the 1954 Florida Derby and Wood Memorial. The Florida purse was $100,000, considered big at the time, but now worth $1 million. Correlation was favored to win the Kentucky Derby, but finished fifth to Determine, and then ran second in the Preakness Stakes.
A large frame contains separate photos commemorating the week in April 1956 that Threewitt won nine consecutive starts at the old Tanforan track in Northern California.
In a corner of the office stands a life-size cardboard cutout of actress Mae West, whom Threewitt met when he had a cameo as a jockey in the 1935 musical Goin’ to Town. She tried her famous line “Come up some time and see me” on Threewitt, who reacted with laughter.
But Threewitt admits racing isn’t as enjoyable anymore because his stable is so small. By comparison, Bob Baffert, one of the leading trainers, has as many as 100 horses in his care.
“I used to do pretty good winning races. What hurt me was I had about five owners that each year, they had four or five horses for me and I outlived them all,” Threewitt said, laughing.
He has one win, a second and a third in seven starts at the current Santa Anita meeting. His most recent starter was a 4-year-old filly named Bitingly Cold, who finished fourth Thursday, beaten by nine lengths.
“If you’re not winning any races, nobody wants you, and a lot of people think I’m too old. Now everybody wants Baffert. If I was a new owner coming into the business, I suppose I’d want to go to him, too,” Threewitt said.
Threewitt grew up in the southern Illinois town of Benton, where he attended the weeklong county fair to watch the races. Sometimes the horses would stay over in the town’s stables until heading to Chicago for springtime racing.
I got interested in the horses hanging around the barns, and I learned to gallop horses and went from there,” he recalled.
Threewitt briefly was a jockey in Kansas City, but quit because he wasn’t doing very well. In those days, horses shipped by train, so Threewitt hopped aboard a car with the animals that were headed for Tijuana.
“I got out there and I thought I’ll stay a couple of months and go back to Benton, and I’m still here,” he said, having moved to California when pari-mutuel wagering was legalized in the mid-1930s.
Threewitt’s days at the track continue after morning training hours end.
By 10 a.m., he’s driven his beige Cadillac with the license plate reading 3WITT to the nearby California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation, where he’s president of the non-profit charitable group that provides health care, free clothing and financial aid to backstretch workers.
“His name matches him because he’s very noble,” office worker Angela Valverde said. “He’s real generous. He keeps our candy bowls filled.”
Threewitt’s kindness extends to the four men in his barn, whom he continues to employ even though there isn’t always enough work to keep them all busy.
“I wish I would’ve met him 10 years ago. I’ve learned more here in the last six months than I have on my own the last 10 years,” assistant Steve Trevino said. “He’s a vital person in the industry.”
Threewitt admits there are days when he doesn’t feel like going to the track, but he always does.
“I feel like I’ve got too many people depending on me, so I better get to going,” he said.
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