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Horse Racing Returns to Hawaii CAROLINE WRIGHT E “They’re off!” The old familiar race-track shout was a real treat to war-time Honolulu as the bangtails returned to the Kailua Race Track on July 1st at the Oahu Jockey Club Summer Meet. Several thousand G.I.s saw for the first time Oahu’s top thoroughbreds running it off on the fast five-furlong track . . . exclaimed at the beautiful setting of mountains and palm trees . . . beefed about the two-dollar admission charge. The Oahu Jockey Club promptly lowered the charge for service men to one dollar and, along with Hawaii’s other race fans, they’ve been coming back every Sunday to enjoy the ten-week meet. Yank magazine characteristically dubbed it the Pineapple Derby. Many of the G.I. Joes and Janes probably were not aware that horse racing in the Hawaiian Islands has a rich tradition dating back to nearly forty years ago. At that time the Parker Ranch, one of the world’s largest . . . located on the Island of Hawaii, began importing horses from the finest mainland and English racing lines to develop the thoroughbred breed in Hawaii.As a result, the thoroughbreds racing today in Hawaii are of the same top bloodlines as the prize horses in the United States and England. Vying for honors at the Kailua Track are many sons and daughters of Ormesby (by Sir Galahad III), Overall (by Peter Pan), Onomea (by Rogers by Sweep), Skymore (by Moonraker by Broomstick), and countless other descendants of racing aristocracy. For the past twenty years Hawaii’s thoroughbreds have been racing on Island tracks. Racing was brought officially to Oahu in 1939, when the Oahu Jockey Club incorporated and built the Kailua Race Track. The opening meet and all pre-war meets saw horses from the other islands competing with Oahu’s best. Due to war-time conditions, 275 First published September 1945. it was impossible to have inter-island competition for the opening Summer Meet this year . . . but the Spring Meet, scheduled to start next February, should see many outside Island favorites competing with Oahu’s top thoroughbreds. Two strings of Island race horses have already been taken to the mainland for racing, and some of the best performers of the present meet are more than entitled to make a bid for mainland fame. Manuel Freitas’ prize six-year-old sorrel stud, Hapa Haole, has yet to be beaten in his racing career. As a two-year-old, Hapa Haole won four races at Kailua and has so far remained unbeaten in racing at the Windward-Oahu track. Hapa Haole’s sire is the fine stud Onomea (by Rogers by Sweep). His dam is Francis D. who, as a two-year-old, won more than seven thousand dollars on mainland tracks before being brought to Hawaii. Dr. A. G. Schnack’s beautiful bay stud, Infinour (by Infinite out of Dark Hour), is definitely a horse to watch . . . along with Manuel Ventura ’s fast grey Herodiones gelding, Lepo, and Manuel Freitas’ bay gelding, Akia. Both Akia and Lepo have chalked up new track records in the present meet . . . Akia running the six furlongs in 1:15 1/5 and Lepo racing the five furlongs in 1:02 1/5. Among the newcomers to be watched in coming race meets are Race Chairman Marshall Wright’s Lakana, a fast six-year-old by gelding by Overall out of Ookala. Lakana is a full brother to Nimu, recently taken to the mainland for racing by T. D. Collins, with Johnnie Carroll as trainer. Awala, a fast Ormesby gelding owned by George Moniz, was entered late in the race meet, but should be a real threat in the coming Spring Meet. These are only two of almost twenty thoroughbreds who ran for the first time this season and have shown real promise. One thing, however, will be missing from the Spring Race Meet . . . watermelons! The entire inside area of the track this year was a huge field of watermelons that race fans hungrily watched ripen as the meet progressed. Temptation was great as each Sunday the melons grew larger and juicier. The Jockey Club officials were considerably relieved when they (the melons) finally ripened and were whisked away to Honolulu markets. No Hawaiian race story would be complete without mentioning Tommy Kaneshiro, the 34-year-old jockey from the Big Island who was named the Star of the Week after his ten straight wins in the...

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