The Eighty-Dollar Champion - Elizabeth Letts [126]
But Snowman was not the only horse in the headlines at the start of this year’s competition. Windsor Castle, fresh from the open jumper victory at Harrisburg, was commanding headlines, too.
While the price of racehorses and their prize money totals had been skyrocketing, show jumpers, winners of much smaller purses, had not been as valuable. That all changed on November 6, 1959, when Windsor Castle beat back Snowman to win the first class of the National. That night, Bob Ballard of the Canadian Equestrian Team purchased Windsor Castle for the then astronomical sum of $50,000. This was the second time in less than six months that the horse had changed hands. The next morning, the New York Times trumpeted news of the deal: it was an unprecedented sum of money for a jumper.
His current owners, a couple of horse traders from Chicago, had no scruples about selling their horse in the middle of a show. “We have no sentimental attachment toward the horse,” one of them said. “It’s business.”
Windsor Castle was a horse to be reckoned with. He had dominated the competition at Harrisburg that year, and despite the fact that Snowman was the sentimental favorite, most horsemen thought he had little chance to beat out the younger horse this year. People were already starting to say that Windsor Castle was the most talented horse on the jumping circuit.
The show, as it did every year, involved a series of classes spun out over the course of eight days, but the public’s growing fascination with the sport of show jumping was newly apparent in the suddenly larger purses. This year the championship stakes was a sponsored class, the Chemical Corn Bank Trophy, and the sponsor had put up a $5,000 prize—an unheard-of sum that would not only cover a rider’s show expenses but leave a nice dividend to bring back home.
Throughout the eight days, Snowman and Windsor Castle traded places, the horses staying close in points. The last class of the show, the $5,000 championship stakes, was the biggest prize Harry had ever competed for—in 1959, $5,000 was the average American annual salary. Harry pushed the thought of the big check out of his mind as he and Snowman waited for their turn; he concentrated only on his horse and on the task at hand.
The beloved champion’s entry into the arena was greeted with a roar of approval from his legions of fans. Harry waved to the crowd, grinning broadly, then headed for the first fence. In a brilliant whirl, Snowman and Harry put in a seemingly effortless clear round, cinching the big purse and the tricolor. That final victory clinched Snowman’s place: the big gray was the first horse in history to win the PHA and AHSA Horse of the Year honors two years in a row. None of the other horses—not Diamant, not First Chance, not even Windsor Castle, the $50,000 horse—had matched Snowman’s cumulative points performance in 1959.
And the de Leyer family made one thing clear: their horse might be beating the high-priced competition in show jumping’s competitive stratosphere—but this was not business. On the final night of the show, once again Harry led Snowman into the grand arena, and once again Johanna, clad in an evening dress, and the children came along to share in the glory. The boys had on blue jackets and Harriet looked fancy in a party dress. Pictures snapped, flashbulbs popped, and the crowd—especially the families up in the cheap seats—went wild. For a second year running, Snowy had stolen the show.
Next up for Harry was another television program. Harry was invited to appear on the new game show To Tell the Truth. In the show, the host posed questions and the panelists had to guess the person’s identity. In 1959, at the close of the National Horse Show, one panelist remembered the Life magazine article, one had seen the story in the paper, and the third had seen the National Horse Show broadcast on TV. All three stars guessed the occupation of horse trainer Harry de Leyer.
Only nine years after landing in Hoboken with his wooden crate and his young bride, the Dutch immigrant