He Isn’t Working at Santa Anita Now, but Jimmy Kilroe’s Presence Still Felt

A few years ago, Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe was asked for his opinion on dosage, that arcane analysis of bloodlines that is supposed to be an indicator of how the Kentucky Derby will turn out.

“Figures lie and liars figure,” Kilroe said.

When Leon Rasmussen, then the bloodlines columnist for the Daily Racing Form and one of the foremost exponents of dosage, heard about Kilroe’s succinct appraisal, he was crestfallen.

“Did Jimmy really say that?” said Rasmussen, who appeared to be on the verge of tears.

Whether popular or not, Kilroe’s astute opinions always carried weight, as much weight as the considerable poundage he piled on the top horses for five decades, from New York to California, while working as the head of racing departments at most of America’s major race tracks. Racing is poorer now that Kilroe, who suffered a stroke in April 1989, has retired from Santa Anita and won’t be giving those incisive, decisive opinions on a daily basis anymore.

Kilroe, who recently celebrated his 78th birthday, went through the executive-suite titles during his 40 years at Santa Anita--assistant racing secretary, handicapper, racing secretary, director of racing, vice president, senior vice president. But he remained the same guy who walked through Webb Everett’s door in 1950 and quickly shocked the Eastern racing Establishment, which thought that a big race out West might still be the cowboys against the Indians.

“Jimmy dealt with grooms and hotwalkers the same way he dealt with the wealthiest of (horse) owners,” said Tommy Robbins, Kilroe’s successor at Santa Anita. “No matter who they were, he made everybody feel that they had a chance in this game.”

The son of a New York physician who became president of the old Jamaica track, Kilroe seemed bred and destined to spend the rest of his life at tracks back there. When Kilroe’s move to the West Coast became permanent toward the end of the 1950s, his colleagues, the late Francis Dunne in particular, asked repeatedly how he could forsake New York.

“In those days, New York was the national leader in both quality horses and purse money,” said Tommy Trotter, who was Kilroe’s successor in New York. “California was running a distant second. But Jimmy, as usual, was showing his tremendous foresight. He had the feeling that California was on the verge of some tremendous growth and he was very instrumental in that (racing) growth.”

Now, Santa Anita’s crowds double the average daily turnout at Belmont Park, and California’s three major tracks--Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar--have used a successful off-track betting system that far outdistances the New York tracks in mutuel handle.

Kilroe has worked them all in the Southland, but he’s most identified with Santa Anita. “Jimmy Kilroe is the linchpin of Santa Anita’s greatness,” said Lou Eilken, who worked alongside Kilroe in several racing offices.

The Kilroe touch in administration, as soft and effective as Bill Shoemaker’s was in the saddle, is best described by Eilken.

“He was the ultimate diplomat,” Eilken said. “He never took a position where he made himself vulnerable. He had the finesse of a secretary of state.”

Known for taking the long, pragmatic view of the game--12 years ago, long before virtually every track in the country was offering exactas and trifectas by the bushel, he warned the sport about the evils of the exotic wagers--Kilroe could act with compelling swiftness when he had to.

Once, during Dr. Charles Strub’s regime at Santa Anita, the track faced a crisis near the end of a racing day. In the next-to-last race, the starting gate collapsed into the inner rail as it was being taken off the track. It protruded onto the main track, presenting an immovable hazard for horses and jockeys that might be going in the last race.

Kilroe reached for the phone and suggested to Strub that the last race, which was to be run on dirt, be moved to the grass if the horsemen would approve. Strub thought that was a good idea, and Kilroe ran down to the paddock and persuaded most of the trainers to run their horses on grass. From a standing start, without a gate, the race was run.

In 1978, Kilroe told racing that while the proliferation of exactas and trifectas might be good for the bottom line, such big-payoff bets would imperil the integrity of the sport.

“The trifecta is the motivation for 90% of the scandals that have hit our sport,” Kilroe said. “It’s a lure for guys in search of sudden wealth. It’s an invitation to steal in a country where the pursuit of happiness has been translated into the pursuit of the tax-free buck. Gimmick betting could even result in the demise of the sport itself. A sport which has survived since the days of James I may find itself at the mercy of tinhorn gamblers.”

Racing has endured, but Kilroe was right about an exacta or a trifecta being at the bottom of nearly every attempted betting coup.

Robbins first met Kilroe in the late 1960s while working in the racing office at Del Mar during summer vacation from high school. “I was in awe of him because of his stature,” Robbins said.

A few years later, Kilroe hired him as an entry clerk at Santa Anita, and now Robbins is a a track vice president.

“One of the things we have to do is to keep Jimmy coming out to the track,” Robbins said. “We can still be learning from him.”

That may not be difficult. In the past year, despite his stroke, Kilroe has been a frequent visitor, usually grabbing a seat in a box near the finish line, where the late Connie Ring used to sit.

Horse Racing Notes

Arlington International Racecourse is desperate to fill the field for its Challenge Cup on Aug. 4. After Criminal Type, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, the list of probable entrants dips to Opening Verse, Mi Selecto and Santangelo, and it’s doubtful that the invitational race will come up with its desired eight-horse field. Santangelo, fourth in the Hollywood Gold Cup behind Criminal Type, Sunday Silence and Opening Verse, has yet to win a race in the United States after 10 starts.

Timeless Answer, high weight at 118 pounds in Saturday’s $200,000 Bel-Air Handicap at Hollywood Park, will be joined by seven others, including the Brian Mayberry-trained entry of Exemplary Leader and Prospectors Gamble. Others entered are Annual Date, Exploding Prospect, Hot Operator, Charlatan and Music Prospector, who as a 3-year-old gets in against older horses carrying 112 pounds.