[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         TRIBUTE TO W.T. YOUNG

 Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and 
congratulate William T. Young, an outstanding Kentuckian whose horse, 
Tabasco Cat, most recently won the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. 
Mr. Young's recent victories represent the climax of his many 
achievements.
  Throughout his life, W.T. Young has succeeded in both his business 
and in his service to the Lexington community. Born February 15, 1918, 
Young received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from 
the University of Kentucky. After serving in World War II, Mr. Young 
returned home and founded W.T. Young Foods Inc. where he processed 
peanut butter. In 1955 the peanut butter was marketed under the Jif 
brand, and Mr. Young sold his company to Proctor & Gamble.
  Three years later, Mr. Young founded W.T. Young Storage Inc. which 
provides general warehousing, shipping, and trucking services. He also 
founded a frozen food distribution operation while serving as chairman 
of the Royal Crown Cola Co.
  Along with his business success, W.T. Young has also devoted 
considerable time and money to educational and civic concerns 
throughout Kentucky. He has endowed a scholarship program and served as 
a major benefactor and chairman of the board of Transylvania University 
in Lexington. Mr. Young is also the current chairman of Shaker Village 
located in Pleasant Hill, KY. He actively encourages Kentucky tourism, 
and strongly supports the idea that Kentucky's heritage be preserved. 
W.T. Young has also been very active in Kentucky politics, for he 
served as a one-dollar-a-year vice chairman of the State cabinet during 
the administration of former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.

  Young's interest in breeding thoroughbreds began in the 1970's and he 
has gradually found successes in the top levels of racing and breeding. 
Tabasco Cat, Young's most famous horse, has captured the hearts of many 
horseracing fans, especially after his victories in two of the coveted 
Triple Crown races. Overlooking farms in Lexington, I suspect that even 
at 76, W.T. Young still has many winning racehorses ahead of him.
  Young's recent winning of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes is a great 
accomplishment for a man of so many achievements, but Mr. Young's 
dedication and service to the Lexington business and civic community 
must not go unrecognized.
   Mr. President, I congratulate W.T. Young for his many efforts, both 
personal and professional, to further enhance the quality of Lexington 
and the State of Kentucky. Please insert the following article from the 
Blood Horse into the Record.
  The article follows:

                  [From the Blood Horse, May 28, 1994]

                 The Joy of Being Young (and Reynolds)

                        (By David L. Heckerman)

       William T. Young and David P. Reynolds, gin rummy-playing 
     buddies and co-owners and co-breeders of Preakness Stakes 
     (gr.I) winner Tabasco Cat, are racing's 1994 version of the 
     Sunshine Boys. The 76-year-old Young and 78-year-old Reynolds 
     have long traveled in the industry's best circles and long 
     operated important racing and breeding programs. Their first 
     classic victory, after years of pleasurable aspiration, 
     represents the achievement of a lifetime goal. As such, it 
     was especially rewarding.
       ``This has to be the greatest thrill I've ever had,'' said 
     the reserved and disciplined Young, whose string of business 
     successes and philanthropic achievements have made him into 
     one of Kentucky's wealthiest and most influential citizens. 
     ``You grope for words to explain what it is like. The elation 
     is simply marvelous.''
       ``This horse has been a joy to me since last fall,'' said 
     the openly delighted Reynolds, a former prep-school 
     quarterback who lost his right eye in a college polo match, 
     then went on to head his family's aluminum and metals 
     processing firm. ``I've been telling people since he won his 
     first race that he could be a Triple Crown winner. He sure 
     showed us today what he's got.''
       Young and Reynolds have been friends for decades, since the 
     days when Reynolds was ascending the ladder at the Reynolds 
     Metals office in Louisville. The two men attended the 1985 
     Breeders' Cup together at Aqueduct, when Young's two-year-old 
     colt Storm Cat was overtaken by Tasso at the wire of the 
     Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr.I).
       ``Storm Cat couldn't have been beaten by more than an 
     eighth of an inch, and I can still hear Bill saying, `Well, 
     we lost, but we've still got a good colt here,''' said 
     Reynolds. ``When Storm Cat went to stud, he told me I should 
     send the best mare I had to him, and we would do a foal-
     sharing. We tried it two or three times, and it didn't 
     produce a lot to brag about. Then we got Tabasco Cat.''
       As co-owners of a classic contender, Young and Reynolds 
     tossed a coin to see whose colors Tabasco Cat would carry in 
     the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). Young won the toss, and the colt 
     carried his Overbrook Farm colors to a sixth-place finish at 
     Churchill Downs. By terms of the agreement, Tabasco Cat raced 
     in the Preakness under Reynolds' purple and white silks.
       ``I told Bill, `Look whose colors they're painting up there 
     on that weathervane now,''' Reynolds said, with an impish 
     laugh, minutes after Tabasco Cat's victory. ``Those colors 
     look so good, I can see them with my glass eye.''
       ``The greatest thing about this win to me is that I won it 
     with one of my dearest friends,'' said Young. ``It's been a 
     real pleasure to own this horse and race him with David 
     Reynolds. He's a marvelous individual and a dear, dear 
     friend.''
       ``Bill's got a silver tongue to go with his silver hair,'' 
     smiled Reynolds, ``but I like to hear the things that he 
     says.''


                           multi-faceted man

       Owing to one of his early successful enterprises, W.T. 
     Young has been described in some racing stories as a former 
     peanut butter manufacturer. That is like describing Thomas 
     Edison as a former electrician. Both descriptions are 
     accurate, but neither captures the full breadth of the man.
       Born Feb. 15, 1918, Young received his undergraduate degree 
     in mechanical engineering from the University of Kentucky in 
     1939. After World War II, he founded W.T. Young Foods Inc. in 
     Lexington to process peanut butter. Later, the peanut butter 
     was marketed under the Jif brand. Young sold his company to 
     Proctor & Gamble in 1955.
       Three years later, Young founded W.T. Young Storage Inc., 
     which still provides general warehousing, shipping, and 
     trucking services. He also served for 20 years as chairman of 
     Royal Crown Cola Co. Among other current businesses are 
     frozen food distribution.
       On another front, Young was an early investor in the Humana 
     profit-making health-care enterprises, based in Louisville. 
     He benefited substantially when the value of Humana stock 
     spiraled upward in the 1980s.
       In more recent years, Young has devoted considerable 
     portions of his time and money to educational and civic 
     concerns. He has endowed a scholarship program and served as 
     a major benefactor and chairman of the board of Transylvania 
     University in Lexington. He is the current chairman of Shaker 
     Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky., a restored historic community 
     and tourist attraction that seeks to maintain a portion of 
     Kentucky heritage.
       Young served as a $1-a-year-vice chairman of the state 
     cabinet in the administration of former Kentucky Gov. John Y. 
     Brown Jr., who was a guest in the Tabasco Cat party at this 
     year's Preakness. At his classic-winning partner's 
     invitation, Young also served from 1985-91 on the board of 
     Reynolds Metals.
       Young owned his first Thoroughbreds in the 1970s and began 
     a steady move toward the top levels of racing and breeding in 
     the 1980s. Overbrook Farm currently spreads over 1,600 acres 
     of pastures and wooded hillsides southeast of Lexington. Its 
     immediate neighbors include Wimbledon and Juddmonte Farms to 
     the east and Lexington's exclusive Harland Estates 
     subdivision to the west.
       Storm Cat was Young's first major stakes competitor. He has 
     been followed by such other grade I winners as Grand Canyon, 
     Corporate Report, Deposit Ticket, Salt Lake, Patches, 
     Cuddles, and Seaside Attraction. The last named captured the 
     Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) in 1990, giving Young the first half of 
     a double coveted by every Bluegrass Thoroughbred breeder. 
     Union City, who started at odds of 5.90-1 in the 1993 
     Kentucky Derby, and Tabasco Cat, who started at 6.10-1 this 
     year, have given Young his best chances thus far at 
     completing the double.
       While Union City sustained a fatal injury in the 1993 
     Preakness, Tabasco Cat's victory gave Young his first classic 
     success. ``We left here last year as sad as we could be, and 
     this year we're leaving on cloud 10 or 15,'' Young said after 
     the Preakness.
       One year ago, Young stood firmly behind trainer D. Wayne 
     Lukas in the aftermath of Union City's injury. ``Lukas has 
     been Overbrook's trainer for five years, during which time 
     the care and condition of our horses has been superb by any 
     standard. We have never had any reason to question his 
     judgment and integrity in all matters, including the care of 
     our horses. He has our continued confidence,'' Young said in 
     a prepared statement at the time.
       This year, Lukas acknowledged his clients' support after 
     the Preakness. ``David Reynolds and Bill Young stayed with me 
     and supported our program in a difficult time, and I'm just 
     tickled for them,'' Lukas said.


                       sportsman and businessman

       David Reynolds was born in Bristol, Tenn., on June 16, 
     1915, and currently resides in Richmond, Va., near the 
     headquarters of Reynolds Metals, where he is listed as 
     chairman emeritus. He was a classmate and all-around 
     carousing buddy of the late Kentucky breeder Warner L. Jones 
     Jr. at Lawrenceville Prep.
       At Princeton University, Reynolds ruptured a ligament in 
     football practice, lost an eye in a polo match, and received 
     a bachelor's degree in business administration. The 
     combination of those events soon launched him into lifetime 
     pursuits as an avid golfer and an executive of the family 
     business, which was founded by his father, the late Richard 
     S. Reynolds.
       When Reynolds was based in Louisville, Jones ushered him 
     into the ranks of Thoroughbred ownership. Reynolds' wife of 
     48 years was a native Kentuckian, Margaret Harrison, whose 
     father, William Harrison, once served as mayor of Louisville. 
     With that connection, Mrs. Harrison ``cried every year when 
     they played `My Old Kentucky Home' at the Derby,'' Reynolds 
     remembered after the Preakness. She died in 1992.
       Prior to Tabasco Cat, Reynolds' best runners were the 
     fillies Small Raja and Lady Dean. Small Raja captured 
     Pimlico's Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (gr. II) on the day before 
     the 1977 Preakness and later won the Monmouth Oaks (gr. I) 
     for her owner's first grade I victory. Lady Dean won eight 
     stakes, three of them graded, at Mid-Atlantic and 
     Northeastern tracks in 1981-82.
       Reynolds currently owns about 25 broodmares. Most are 
     boarded at either Hermitage Farm near Goshen, Ky., which is 
     operated by Warner Jones' widow Harriett, or Worthington 
     Farms near Glyndon, Md. The latter farm is owned by J.W.Y. 
     Martin Jr., whose wife Glennie is Reynolds' niece.
       Several members of Reynolds' family follow racing closely 
     and accompanied him to both the Derby and Preakness. His 
     daughters, Margaret Mackell and Dorothy Brotherton of 
     Richmond, Va., attended both races, Another daughter, Julie 
     Swords of Boulder, Colo., was on hand in Louisville, but 
     watched the Preakness on television in Colorado.
       An hour after the Preakness, Reynolds was seated in the 
     Chrysler Triple Crown tent in the Pimlico infield, happily 
     autographing Preakness Day programs for family members, 
     friends, and wellwishers.
       ``I'd have to say this is about as good as it gets,'' 
     Reynolds said. ``We might as well just do this again 
     sometime.''

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