WT Waggoner to Cary T. Grayson
Title
WT Waggoner to Cary T. Grayson
Creator
Waggoner, William Thomas (1852–1934)
Identifier
WWP16666
Date
1930 March 25
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
Admiral Cary T. Grayson
1331 G. Street NW
Washington, DC
Dear Admiral Grayson
This acknowledges receipt of yours of March 21st which was a great pleasure to me to read. I have just returned from my ranch where I have been for the past 4 or 5 days and I think the trip was a great benefit to me for I saw everything that I loved, cattle, horses and expecially Cow-ponies. We are breaking out about 50 head of 3 year olds this year and they certainly look good to me, none of them are very bad, occassionally one will pitch a hundred or two yards but I love him much better then for it. I like to see the pitching and roping and riding going on on the ranch as I have witnessed that all my life and its one of my hobbys. I like it much better than I do horse-racing for I get something out of it and horse-racing, up to this writing has been a loss in place of a gain, but maybe some day it will turn my way.
I was out to the track yesterday and saw all my colts. The 2 year olds all have a little coltd and are coughing a little but I don’t think it will amount to a great deal only I have to lay them off from training until they get practically over it. Mr. Vestal was telling me yesterday that he let Broadway step along a half mile in 50 over a muddy track and I thought that was pretty good. This colt is doing just as well as anyone could expect him to and if he keeps on training the way he is training, I feel that I will be in the money in the Kentucky Derby. Kilkerry is doing everything that we ask him to do, he certainly can run but I have my doubts that he can beat Broadway a mile and a quarter. Don’t let the boy that you have engaged for me to ride Broadway back out for I am depending on him to ride and so far don’t know who will ride Kilkerry but I think there will be lots of scratches on the day of the race and we will have a chance to pick up a good rider.
I am feeling a great deal better than the day I wrote you. I think by being careful of myself that I will get up on my pins alright. I note what you say about the hospital and think that would be a grand thing for our racing establishment to get a bill through if that hospital was located at or near Arlington. I think Arlington is the logical place for it will give the patients of the hospital something to look at besides the doctors and nurses and it might be that it would do them more good than all the medical aid they could get and besides Arlington, as you well know, has a great mineral well there. I think its one of the greatest I ever experienced, I keep a 5 gallon jug of it at my home and drink it very freely, if it wasn’t for that I don’t know how I would get along. I think its a life-saver for old people and sick people.
My ranch is very dry but I have succeeded in selling about 5000 steers at $90.00 per head to be delivered about the 20 or 24th or April, that will keep the boys quite busy for a while. My Phalaros colts, before they had this cough were training about as nicely as I could expect them and by reading the papers, my colts are running better here at home than any I can read of training in Kentucky or elsewhere. But they maybe of this type - in the morning they break your watch and in the evening they break your pocket. I suppose they all run better at home than they will abroad.
Thank you very kindly for your nice letter and whenever its convenient for you I would like to hear from you. I certainly enjoy reading your nice letters. Thanking you again for past favors, I am as ever
Your friend,
WT Waggoner
1331 G. Street NW
Washington, DC
Dear Admiral Grayson
This acknowledges receipt of yours of March 21st which was a great pleasure to me to read. I have just returned from my ranch where I have been for the past 4 or 5 days and I think the trip was a great benefit to me for I saw everything that I loved, cattle, horses and expecially Cow-ponies. We are breaking out about 50 head of 3 year olds this year and they certainly look good to me, none of them are very bad, occassionally one will pitch a hundred or two yards but I love him much better then for it. I like to see the pitching and roping and riding going on on the ranch as I have witnessed that all my life and its one of my hobbys. I like it much better than I do horse-racing for I get something out of it and horse-racing, up to this writing has been a loss in place of a gain, but maybe some day it will turn my way.
I was out to the track yesterday and saw all my colts. The 2 year olds all have a little coltd and are coughing a little but I don’t think it will amount to a great deal only I have to lay them off from training until they get practically over it. Mr. Vestal was telling me yesterday that he let Broadway step along a half mile in 50 over a muddy track and I thought that was pretty good. This colt is doing just as well as anyone could expect him to and if he keeps on training the way he is training, I feel that I will be in the money in the Kentucky Derby. Kilkerry is doing everything that we ask him to do, he certainly can run but I have my doubts that he can beat Broadway a mile and a quarter. Don’t let the boy that you have engaged for me to ride Broadway back out for I am depending on him to ride and so far don’t know who will ride Kilkerry but I think there will be lots of scratches on the day of the race and we will have a chance to pick up a good rider.
I am feeling a great deal better than the day I wrote you. I think by being careful of myself that I will get up on my pins alright. I note what you say about the hospital and think that would be a grand thing for our racing establishment to get a bill through if that hospital was located at or near Arlington. I think Arlington is the logical place for it will give the patients of the hospital something to look at besides the doctors and nurses and it might be that it would do them more good than all the medical aid they could get and besides Arlington, as you well know, has a great mineral well there. I think its one of the greatest I ever experienced, I keep a 5 gallon jug of it at my home and drink it very freely, if it wasn’t for that I don’t know how I would get along. I think its a life-saver for old people and sick people.
My ranch is very dry but I have succeeded in selling about 5000 steers at $90.00 per head to be delivered about the 20 or 24th or April, that will keep the boys quite busy for a while. My Phalaros colts, before they had this cough were training about as nicely as I could expect them and by reading the papers, my colts are running better here at home than any I can read of training in Kentucky or elsewhere. But they maybe of this type - in the morning they break your watch and in the evening they break your pocket. I suppose they all run better at home than they will abroad.
Thank you very kindly for your nice letter and whenever its convenient for you I would like to hear from you. I certainly enjoy reading your nice letters. Thanking you again for past favors, I am as ever
Your friend,
WT Waggoner
Original Format
Letter
To
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Files
Collection
Citation
Waggoner, William Thomas (1852–1934), “WT Waggoner to Cary T. Grayson,” 1930 March 25, WWP16666, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.