As Mellon continues, you realize foxhunting is to Mellon

As Mellon continues, you realize foxhunting is to Mellon what ’chasing is to Dick Francis; an endless source of pleasure and thrill. Though he gave up hunting 10 years ago, Mellon’s close friends are still those with whom he hunted, but now they go to races or check out art.

Billy Wilbur is a case in point. Wilbur hunted with Mellon on a regular basis, and he tells about one Piedmont jaunt.

“We were over on land that belongs to John Warner now. Mr. Mellon jumped over a little fence in a bit of woodland and his horse’s hind legs got hung up in a fox grapevine.

“It was really tricky. It looked like he was going to have a fall. Now I happened, quite improperly, to have wire cutters, (so I cut him loose).”

The friendship continued throughout the 100-mile rides Mellon did throughout the’70s.

“Mr. Mellon had been riding them before me. So one year, he asked me to ride it with him,” said Wilbur. The Rokeby hunters Silver Goose and Christmas Goose carried both men to several championships and reserves.

Mellon stopped riding altogether about two years ago. He stays on top, however, of the racing scene; just last week he was in England watching his racehorses run with his English trainer, Ian Balding.

“I’ve been sending horses that we bred (to England) ever since after World War II, ’46 or ’47, and we’ve always sent them to the same yard, as they call them. It’s always been the same family,” says Mellon.

Mack Miller has been Mellon’s American trainer for the past 14 years. “I first met Paul Mellon many years ago, casually, in the paddock,” Miller is quoted as saying in a Bloodhorse article by Edward Bowen (Oct. 7,1989).

“I was always impressed that people like Mr. Mellon, and Mr. (George D.) Widener and Mr. (John Hay) Whitney always made a point to speak to young country boys like me. It made a great impression. He was always one of the people I admired,” he said.

Mellon’s eyes light up when he speaks about horses. Horses are more than a passion to him; they are an obsession. He’s bred more than 75 stakes winners, and he has to his credit a couple of Belmont wins (Quadrangle, Arts and Letters); five Travers (Quadrangle, Arts and Letters, Key to the Mint, Java Gold), four Internationals (Fort Marcy, twice, Run the Gantlet), a Whitney (Java Gold), and a Hopeful (Crusader Sword.)

“It’s hard to say about favorite horses because there have been a lot of horses that I’ve liked. Fort Marcy was certainly a favorite of mine. He was so consistent and very tough. Very competitive,” says Mellon.

Fort Marcy, the son of Amerigo-Key Bridge, earned more than $1 million under Mellon’s gray and yellow silks. The horse won five stakes races as a sixyear-old in 1970; he shared Horse-of-the-Year honors with Personality in that same year.

And then there is Mill Reef, the Rokeby colt of 1968 who won 12 out of 14 starts and more than $750,000 in his four-year career. Tragedy struck when the horse broke his leg in 1972.

“That was a case of having all the best in the world and a big tragedy, too,” said Mellon in Bowen’s article (Sept. 23, 1989). The horse did, however, enjoy a rewarding career at stud.

The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness are two trophies that remain unconquered. “I think (Arts and Letters) was the closest I’ll ever come to winning the Derby because he was just beaten by half a length. And he was only beaten by a nose in the Preakness. He was a very able horse,” says Mellon.

According to Wilbur, Mellon’s unflagging er^rgy is not of the hysteric kind. He’s cool and calm, whether a horse sets the turf on fire or peters out the back.

Mellon explains it best himself in a 1975 poem.

“The day my final race is run

And, win or lose, the sinking sun

Tells me it’s time to quit the track

And gracefully hang up my tack

I’ll thank the Lord the life I’ve led

Was always near a thoroughbred.

—Address at the 1975testimonial dinner

for the ThoroughbredClub of America.