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Letter to the Editor: Terence Collier Regarding the Passing of Dr. Billy Marrs

It seems that every tick of the clock marks the demise of another friend and colleague in my life. Word came in today of the passing on January 15th of Dr. Billy (Merritt William) Marrs, who died in Indio, California, close to his winter home in Palm Springs. Such news usually travels fast in our circles, but this veterinarian has spent more of the last few years on out-of-town golf courses than on the backside or at a horse sale. Nevertheless, there will be a few tears and many fond tales told among Thoroughbred people of this colorful and loveable character.

Billy Marrs was a Lexington native, born in 1946, a graduate of the University of Kentucky who went on to a degree in Veterinary Medicine from Ohio State in 1973. His early mentors have already left for that great clinic in the sky, but anybody around Thoroughbreds in central Kentucky from the 1980s on will remember 'Doc' Marrs pulling up in his Cadillac, enveloped in a cloud of cigar smoke. One short car ride as his passenger and you got out smelling like Winston Churchill! He eschewed the Suburbans, the Tahoes and the SUVs and worked from either the trunk or the back seat of his gray DeVille. There was much competition for space in the car and it took forever to get the ancient X-ray camera from under the sets of golf clubs. Because he was an independent veterinarian and not connected to the two or three large veterinary groups in town, I frequently put Billy on veterinary arbitration disputes at Fasig-Tipton sales. He would always be very late or very early and invariably had to ask if he could borrow a scope from one of the other panel members.

Billy and I had close mutual friends in Jack G. Jones, Jr. of Mineola Farm in Lexington and California bloodstock guru Rollin Baugh. Jack was his lawyer, golfing companion and client. In the late 1970s Billy and Jack scouted the sales together for Buckram Oak Farm's owner Mahmoud Fustok. Jack remembers with certainty that at the Saratoga Yearling Sales, both Danzig and De La Rose were passed by Billy and made Fustok's short list, only to be underbidders on both in successive years. For a few years, Rollin was accompanied by Billy at Royal Ascot. He would call me the week before the famous English racing festival and the conversation would always jokingly open, “Well, Lord Collier, where should I be dining this year in London?” or “Can I wear brown suede shoes in the Royal Enclosure?”

Without delving too deeply into Dr. Marrs's private life, in Lexington, there seem to be no close family members surviving him in his hometown. He was married twice–once, for 13 years, to the very popular and bubbly Eloise, a leading light in local banking circles. Since October last year, he was engaged to the equally attractive Karen Nielsen, to whom I extend my sincere condolences.

Dr. Marrs got out of the veterinary world before it left him behind. He was old school. And he never let an equine appointment stand in the way of a round of golf. His many friends, of which I was honored to be one, will miss a man who did it his way.

Terence Collier

PS: There will be a celebration of life in Lexington in April and details will follow.

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Pioneering Sportswoman Virginia Kraft Payson Dies at 92

Virginia Kraft Payson, a pioneer with a buoyant spirit who often referred to her life as “a magic carpet ride” woven from a whirlwind of adventure travel, a passion for outdoors journalism, and a mid-life immersion into the world of Thoroughbred racing and breeding, died Jan. 9 at age 92 at her Payson Stud farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease, as confirmed by Christian Erickson, a decades-long family friend and the trustee of the Payson estate.

Payson's entry into Thoroughbred ownership was the product of a whim, when her second husband, the late Charles Shipman Payson, bid on impulse on at an auction in the late 1970s. That first horse wasn't an on-track success, but the couple's breeding operation later yielded such noteworthy runners as St. Jovite, the 1992 European Horse of the Year, and the 1984 GI Travers S. winner Carr de Naskra.

Payson Park Training Center in Florida still carries the family's name and a reputation as an idyllic place for developing racehorses. Although Payson sold that property in 2019, for years beforehand she had been a highly enthusiastic participant in its operation. She often visited her horses stabled there by driving a Corvette painted in her family's blue and white racing colors.

A native of New York City, a graduate of Barnard College, and a self-described “outdoor adventuress,” Payson was among the first dozen writers (and the only woman) hired by the fledgling Sports Illustrated when that landmark magazine first launched in 1954.

Competition was fierce and staff turnover was high, but Payson (writing under her maiden name, Virginia Kraft) helped the publication flourish for 26 years as it grew into the era's pre-eminent weekly sports publication.

“Every guy who was hired looked around and figured, 'I can knock her off first,'” Payson once recalled in an interview. “I just did my job and created the opportunities.”

“Opportunities” was an understatement. Payson hunted big game on six continents, including tracking wild boar with General Francisco Franco of Spain, going on the prowl for tigers with the Queen of Nepal, and shooting birds from horseback with King Hussein of Jordan.

She also piloted hot-air balloons and competed in international sport fishing tournaments. Her prowess as a scuba diver led to her election into the Underwater Hall of Fame, and Payson even raced sled dogs through the Alaskan wilderness.

In addition to her work with Sports Illustrated, Payson was the author of five books on boating, training dogs, shotgun sports, and tennis. Siena College in New York State presented her with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters in recognition of her lifetime body of work.

St. Jovite winning the G1 King George and Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot in 1992 | racingfotos

In a 2013 podcast with the Blood-Horse, Payson detailed the humorous story of how she and Charles Payson acquired their first racehorse around the time they got married in 1977. The two both had experience riding horses, but not in owning Thoroughbreds.

They had taken a trip to Lexington to visit Secretariat as tourists. They then attended a Fasig-Tipton auction and sat down front. Caught up in the excitement, Charles bid on a horse sired by Arts and Letters, whose name Virginia had recognized. Charles even mistakenly bid against himself at one point, but eventually won the bid.

When it came time to sign the sales slip, Charles wasn't aware that a buyer was expected to have first established credit. He said someone he knew at the well-respected Greentree Stable would be able to pay on his behalf.

“We went back to the hotel and ordered a bottle of champagne and stayed up until two o'clock in the morning congratulating ourselves on owning a racehorse,” Kraft reminisced nearly four decades later.

“At about five o'clock in the morning the phone rang and it was the then-manager at Greentree, who, after quite a string of expletives, [wanted to know why] we were buying a horse for Greentree,” Payson recalled with a laugh.

The purchase got okayed, but Kraft said the horse, later named Romanair, turned out to be “absolutely insane” and extremely difficult to train.

“He was a beautiful horse, but he was just absolutely crazy in the head,” Kraft said.

Romanair raced three times in Kentucky before he was ruled off. They first time, Kraft said, he unseated the jockey. The second time he bolted in the wrong direction. The third time he tried to savage the horse next to him soon after breaking from the gate.

The Paysons gave away Romanair, but Kraft was always proud that, after four years off, a patient steeplechase trainer had managed to calm down the horse enough that he competed over jumps, and eventually won a steeplechase race at age nine. After a second retirement, Romanair became a successful sport horse for a number of years, which also delighted Payson.

After Charles's death in 1985, Virginia kept the Payson racing and breeding operations going. Other prominent horses she bred and campaigned included L'Carriere, Salem Drive, Lac Ouimet, Strawberry Reason, Uptown Swell, and Milesius. Her mare, Northern Sunset, was honored as 1995 Broodmare of the Year. In 1997, Payson was honored as Breeder of the Year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

Payson raced most of the horses she bred until 1999, keeping the number of foals each year relatively small, at about 12. In 2000, she decided to make Payson Stud more commercial, selling half her yearlings. The following year, she sold all of them. From those two early crops came a pair of 2002 divisional champions, the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Vindication, and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Farda Amiga.

According to a biography provided by the family via Erickson, Payson's first marriage, to Robert Dean Grimm, ended in divorce.

After being widowed from Charles Payson, in 1994 she married a third time, to the Thoroughbred owner Jesse M. Henley, Jr. After his death, Payson in 2008 married David Libby Cole, a real estate broker from Colorado.

Cole, now of Lexington, survives Payson, as do three daughters from her marriage to Grimm, plus three grandchildren.

Arrangements for services are pending.

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Champion NH Sire And Classic Winner Milan Passes At 24

Classic hero Milan (GB) (Sadler's Wells–Kithanga {Ire}, by Darshaan {GB}), died at Grange Stud on Wednesday, Dec. 21, Coolmore announced on Thursday. The 2019/20 Champion National Hunt Sire was 24.

“Milan was a very good-natured horse and will be sadly missed by everyone here,” said Catherine Magnier. “He was a wonderful servant providing top class horses year in year out.”

Bred by Fittocks Stud, Milan was bought by Demi O'Byrne for 650,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls in 1999, and joined Aidan O'Brien's yard. Racing for Michael Tabor, he won his only start at the Curragh at two in 2000, and was third in the 2001 G1 Prix Lupin in his second appearance at three. Back on top in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York three starts later, the son of G3 St. Simon S. heroine Kithanga was a five-length winner of Doncaster's G1 St. Leger next out. Unplaced in Sakhee (Bahri)'s G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the half-brother to fellow St. Simon S. heroine Koora (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was second to Fantastic Light (Rahy) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Belmont in October. Injured in his lone start at four, he was retired with a mark of 10-3-2-1 and $991,814 in earnings.

Covering mares at Grange Stud beginning in 2004, Milan left Champion Hurdle hero Jezki (Ire), and Christmas Hurdle winner Darlan (GB). His top chasers are legion and include Santini (GB), Monalee (Ire), Apache Stronghold (Ire), and 2017 G3 Grand National scorer One For Arthur (Ire) among others. Milan's daughter Marie's Rock (Ire) starred in March's G1 Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham and backed that effort up with another top-level score in the Coolmore Kew Gardens Irish EBF Mares Champion Hurdle at Punchestown this April. Of his 105 black-type performers, he sired 38 graded winners in the National Hunt sphere.

From the extended family of dual Derby hero Kahyasi (Ire) (Ile De Bourbon), several of Milan's daughters are black-type producers, with Coney Island (Ire) (Flemensfirth) and Skyace (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) both Grade 1 winners, the former over fences and the latter over hurdles.

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Retired New York Post Racing Writer Ray Kerrison Passes

Ray Kerrison, a former racing columnist for the New York Post known as a fearless reporter who was never afraid to tackle the most sensitive subjects, passed away Sunday. He was 92.

His death was first reported by the Post, for whom he covered 32 Kentucky Derbies. A native of Australia, Kerrision came to the Post in 1977 and was a regular on the racing beat through the 1985 season. He then moved over to the news side and worked as a columnist up until 2013. The news department would lend Kerrision to sports after his career change and he continued to cover the major races like the Triple Crown events and the Breeders' Cup up until his retirement.

Kerrison was a product of a different time, when the New York tabloids kept close tabs on racing and were unapologetic when it came to shining a light on the good, the bad and, when it was called for, the ugly. Kerrison's reporting skills helped land him the exclusive on one of the biggest scandals ever at the New York tracks. Kerrison uncovered the 1977 betting coup that involved the switching of the identities of the horses Lebon and Cinzano. Cinzano, a champion in Uruguay, raced under the name of Lebon, a non-descript horse who also came out of South America. Running under the name of Lebon, Cinzano won a race at Belmont at odds of 57-1. For his work Kerrison was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

With his reporting, Kerrison also played a key role in uncovering the scandal that led to charges being brought against Con Errico, Anthony Ciulla and more than 20 others.
According to the Post, Kerrison also covered the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the 1969 moon landing and the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack before moving to the U.S.
“Horse racing needs more journalists like Ray Kerrison,” former NYRA announcer Dave Johnson said. “He was fearless and he took on all subjects, no matter if it might cost his paper advertising dollars. He was an invaluable asset to the game. It's a shame we don't have people like that in racing anymore.”

Kerrison was born in in Cobdogla, Australia. He came to New York in 1963 to work for News Limited. In 1970, he went to work for fellow Australian Rupert Murdoch at the National Star and then joined the Post, also owned by Murdoch.

“It was never about him,” said his son, Patrick. “He was extraordinarily humble. He was very protective of the $2 bettor. When he came on the racing season, Jan. 1, 1977, the other turf writers did not like him and neither did racing personnel, trainers, jockeys. That's because it was very insular and the turf writers acted more like publicity agents as opposed to investigative journalists. What my dad did upset a lot of people. He didn't care. He just wanted to protect the bettors and he wanted everything to be on a level playing field. That's how he was with everything in his life.”

“All I can tell you is Ray Kerrison was just a wonderful human being,” Greg Gallo, a former Post sports editor, told the Post.”He was a terrific journalist, columnist, a tenacious reporter who went after stories full tilt. But he was so gracious in the way he did his business. I used to refer to him as the Fred Astaire of Thoroughbred racing because he was the best. He was the classiest guy who ever worked that beat. No one was better as a journalist. … We really have lost a special person here.”

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