Magic Lotion

The hottest young trainer at the race tracks this winter is Allen Jerkens, a tall, diffident man of 26 who feeds his horses olive oil and has an enviable habit of turning second-rate platers into stake-race winners. When Florida's Hialeah opened last week, the two-buck bettors made Jerkens' "Big Horse," Admiral Vee, a 3-to-5 favorite. It was a little too early in the season to be sure the chestnut was ready, but the horseplayers knew that a Jerkens horse would always give them a run for their money.

Admiral Vee ran an honest race, finished second and earned $1,500, to add to the nearly $300,000 purse income brought home by Jerkens-trained horses in the last year. Jerkens had no complaints. "I've always had hard-knocking horses that brought home a check most every time they ran," he said. "It's those kind of horses that keep the wolf away. Besides, it's better to have Admiral coming on than to have him run his top race this time. It's going to be a long winter!"

Son of an expatriate Hungarian cavalryman who ran a Long Island livery stable, Jerkens has spent most of his life around horses, was only 15 when he bought his first mount, an unfashionable, sore-legged colt named Crack Time. He spent long, cold months patching up his purchase and galloping the horse through the snow. By the time racing started at Aqueduct, Crack Time was ready. The cheap colt won $12,615 before it was lost in a $10,000 claiming race.

As soon as Jerkens turned 21, he got his trainer's license. He managed to ride out bad years by practicing what his father had preached: he worked over each horse as carefully as if it were the only one in his string. He went on claiming second-rate nags and turning them into winners with such consistent success that other trainers joked that he must be using some magical "Jerkens Lotion."

But Jerkens insists that he harbors no training secrets. Says he: "All you can do is do your best for a horse: mix olive oil in their mash, pick greens for them, and hope for the best. If they're sore, you tub them and ice them. Lots of good trainers just don't get the breaks, but some years you get lucky." Allen Jerkens has been getting so lucky so often that many horsemen now make him a factor in their handicapping--along with a horse's bloodlines, its past performances and its jockey.

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