SPORTS

Laker Success

The West Bloomfield High
soccer program has enjoyed a
winning season

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Sports Writer

IN

ith a first-year coach
and some seemingly
large holes on de-
fense, the prospects
for West Bloomfield's
soccer team were not bright this
season. However, the Lakers have
held their own in the tough Metro
Suburban Athletic Association, which
includes state powers Rochester
Adams and Troy Athens.
Through 16 games West
Bloomfield was 6-5-5 overall, 3-4-5 in
the MSAA.
Sparking even greater hopes for
the future, the junior varsity squad
was 10-4 with six shutouts.
One of the reasons for West
Bloomfield's winning campaign is
their surprisingly strong defense.

They allowed as many as three goals
in a league game only once. Before
the season, coach Mike Sopko - "filled
those apparent defensive holes suc-
cessfully. One of the holes was filled
by sophomore Emily Fishkind.
Fishkind played forward on the junior
varsity last season, and prefers that
position. But the team has experienc-
ed forwards and, it seemed, a weaker
defense, so Sopko tried Fishkind in
the area which needed the most help.
"She's disapponted that she's not
playing offense this year. But she can
best help the team this year on
defense . . . The good ones can go
anywhere."
Sopko continues, "She likes to
play the forward position, but we have
a need for some good defenders and
she's really filled in well on defense.
A really good ballhandler. A gutsy
kid. She's only 5-2, yet she really plays

cD
a)

Forward-turned-fullback Emily Fishkind.

Walter Blum, The Jewish Jockey

HARLAN ABBEY

M

iami (JTA) — "I've won
every derby there is except
the one I wanted to win the
most, the Kentucky Derby," admits
Walter Blum, the most successful
Jewish jockey in recent years, who
was inducted into racing's Hall of
Fame in Saratoga last August.
Blum, who rode winners in the
Michigan, California, Santa Anita,
Louisiana and New Jersey derbies
during a 22-year career that totalled
4,047 wins, now is a racing official in
Florida.
His biggest win was the Belmont
Stakes, the one-and-a-half mile race
that completes the Triple Crown for
three-year-old horses. The Triple
Crown includes the Kentucky Derby
and the Preakness Stakes. Blum won
the Belmont aboard Pass Catcher in
1971.
Although the million-dollar
purses of the Breeders Cup races in
November may be the most sought-
after by horse owners, that is not the
way the fan sees it. "If I meet anyone,"
reports Blum, "as an ex-jockey the
first thing they ask is 'Did you ever
win the Kentucky Derby?' "

48 FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1988

Blum, champion jockey many
times at the Garden State Park and
Atlantic City race tracks in New
Jersey, rode in the Kentucky Derby
three times. His best finish was
fourth, aboard Reason to Hail in 1967.
Proud Clarion was the winner.
"But I really thought I had a good
chance in 1973, when I was riding
Royal and Regal, who won the Florida
Derby:' he recalls. "I was in a good
spot and then a horse I hadn't really
heard much about went by me like a
streak of lightning." The "streak" was
eventual Triple-Crown winner
Secretariat.
Blum, who rode from 1953 to
1975, piloted the top sprinter Mr. Pro-
spector, the great Kelso and also rode
Gun Bow in some memorable duels
against Kelso.
Surprisingly, the person most
responsible for the Brooklyn-born
Blum's career was his high school
principal.
"I'd ridden horses at riding
stables and I enjoyed that. I was small
and everyone was always telling me,
`You should be a jockey!
"A fellow student, Anthony Falco,
was exercising horses 4 the old
Jamaica track and took me with him.

I walked horses and groomed them for
three months before I was allowed up
on one — a race horse isn't like a
rented riding horse.
"I guess I had some natural abili-
ty because I took to it quickly. Then
I wanted to leave school at 16 to go
to the track full-time.
"I wasn't a very good student by
then because I wasn't interested in
school. My parents thought the race
track was a strange place populated
by gangsters. My principal said,
`Look, he won't be a doctor or lawyer.
If he's successful as a jockey he could
make a lot of money."
Reluctantly, Blum's parents
agreed.
Blum began working for a leading
trainer, Hirsch Jacobs, who was also
Jewish, "but truthfully, neither of us
was very religious — although
never ride on Yom Kippur. I think
Hirsch gave me a break because I
worked hard and was dedicated. He'd
do the same for anyone, no matter
what their religion or color or na-
tionality."
Blum says there are two kinds of
jockeys. 'There are those with a
natural rapport with the' horse
because of their touch on the reins

that makes the horse realize what the
jockey wants it to do. Horses run for
riders like Willie Shoemaker and
myself.
"Then there are jockeys like Ed-
die Arcaro and Lafitt Pincay, who
make horses run for them."
With weight a constant concern,
Blum admits to not eating "too many
bagels with cream cheese" or "Mom's
cooking" during his riding career.
"I weighed 105 to 106 pounds
with riding equipment when I
started;' he says. "Gradually I went
up to 110, then 112 and finally 114
when I retired. Now I weigh 128 but
my eating habits haven't changed:
very little breakfast, maybe a sand-
wich or cup of soup for lunch, and a
good dinner. I've never had much of
a sweet tooth."
In addition to his many racing
wins, Blum was highly regarded by
his fellow jockeys, being elected presi-
dent of the Jockeys Guild in 1969 and
holding that post for several years. He
also received the George Woolf
Memorial Award by California racing
journalists in 1965 for bringing uni-
que distinction to his profession. At
the time he retired, only Shoemaker,

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