Bell Often Acted on a Whim but Rang Up a Wealthy Career

Buying and selling horses for most of a life that lasted 96 years, Ray Bell Sr. might very well have invented some of the subtleties of the game.

“When you’re thinking about buying a horse,” he told his sons, “never go back and look at it a second time. You do that and somebody else might notice, and that might drive the price up.”

Bell had to look at Barberstown only once. He was a big, good-looking colt that Bell Bloodstock, the family store, bought at a Del Mar yearling auction for $100,000 in 1981. In June 1983, the clan brought Barberstown to New York, where Ray Bell’s grandson, who is called Young Ray, trained him for the Belmont Stakes off only three starts, one of which was on grass.

It smacked more of a whim than a mission, but the Bells showed how serious they were when Barberstown finished third, behind Caveat and Slew O’ Gold, in a 15-horse field. Not bad for a hard-luck colt who as a younger horse had mushy ankles and almost died during the fall of 1982 at Santa Anita, where a virus did claim the life of Landaluce, the country’s best 2-year-old filly.

Based almost entirely on that third in the Belmont, Bell Bloodstock sold Barberstown for $850,000 at Del Mar two months later. The colt probably would have sold for more than $1 million, but it was announced before the bidding began that he had suffered a tendon injury.

By 1985, in some byzantine post-sale maneuvering, the Bells still owned 20% of Barberstown, and if the horse ever won a Grade I race, the Texans who bought him at Del Mar, who included former Gov. John Connally, would have to pay Ray Bell Sr. and his family $600,000.

That never happened, but in October of that year there were some nervous people at Santa Anita, where Barberstown finished fourth in the Carleton F. Burke Handicap. The Burke had been a Grade II race before then, but had been upgraded for 1985, and no one was more aware of it than the Bells.

“You’ll find the Texans in the Turf Club,” Ray Bell said at his box near the finish line before the race. “They’re the guys with the six-shooters.”

Ray Bell, who died last Saturday, never won a Triple Crown race, but when he showed up with a horse, he was an owner to be reckoned with.

In 1980, Bell and his partners arrived at a late date at Churchill Downs, to run Rumbo in the Kentucky Derby. Rumbo, who had been bought for only $35,000, had never won a race of any consequence, but he had put in some good seconds behind Codex, the Santa Anita Derby winner who was ineligible for the Derby because of an oversight.

Rumbo, who had a habit of charging up to horses and then losing interest, was ahead of only two horses after three-quarters of a mile, but he wound up beating every colt in the race. Trouble was, he finished a length behind Genuine Risk, the first filly to win the Derby in 65 years.

Except for Rumbo, Ray Bell Sr.’s connection with the Kentucky Derby was largely peripheral. He thrived on bringing foreign horses to the United States and finding a market for them. That’s how Fred Turner Jr., another Texan, came by Tomy Lee, an English-bred who won the 1959 Derby. Turner paid all of $6,762 for the colt.

After Swaps won the Derby in 1955, Bell was the middleman in the deal that was eventually struck between Rex Ellsworth, the owner-breeder, and John Galbreath, the sportsman from Ohio. Galbreath was at Arlington Park a year after the Derby, willing to pay a princely $1 million for 50% of Swaps, when the horse ran seventh in the Arch Ward Memorial Handicap. It was the worst race of his life.

In the cab to the airport, Ray Bell said to his son, Tommy, “Well, that’s the end of Galbreath.” But at O’Hare, who did they bump into but the prospective buyer, on his way back to Columbus. Galbreath was still interested. “You guys don’t think Rex will back out now, do you?” he said.

Long before Swaps and Tomy Lee and Rumbo, Ray Bell Sr. was growing up in Wyoming, a champion bronco rider and steer roper who met Will Rogers in Cheyenne. Rogers invited Bell to Hollywood as a stuntman and extra at $7.50 a day. Some of the pictures were “Cupid the Cowpuncher” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”

Bell met Bing Crosby and Lin Howard, and bought and trained their horses. After their Ligaroti was beaten by Seabiscuit in the match race at Del Mar in 1938, Bell tried to sell him to Louis B. Mayer, the movie mogul, for $100,000. Ligaroti was on the way down, and the asking price was outrageous, but Bell knew that Mayer, new to the game, had tried to buy War Admiral for $250,000.

The sale never happened, and Ligaroti eventually ran for a $10,000 claiming price.

“A guy who tries to get $100,000 for a $10,000 horse might be useful,” Mayer said to one of his aides. “Find me that Bell fellow.”

With some of the horses that Bell found for him, including several that were bought from the Aga Khan, Mayer raced dozens of stakes winners, building up a stable worth $7 million at its peak.

Had he been asked, Ray Bell Sr. could have told Mayer a few things about movies too.

“Will Rogers played in ‘A Connecticut Yankee,’ ” Bell once said. “That was some strange casting. Can you imagine something like that?”

Horse Racing Notes

The Santa Anita stewards have delayed their decision until today in the case involving a wrongful whipping charge against jockey Corey Nakatani. . . . Serena’s Song, the Eclipse Award winner, and undefeated Exotic Wood will be joined by five others Saturday in the $150,000 Santa Monica Handicap at seven furlongs. Serena’s Song will carry 123 pounds, five more than Exotic Wood, who is next on the weights. Serena’s Song drew the inside post and Exotic Song will break from the No. 5 stall. Others entered are Morepheme, That’ll Be Fine, Ballerina Gal, Klassy Kim and Top Rung. Serena’s Song hasn’t run since her fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 28.