JERSEY GIRL, 86, BUILT FOR SPEED
Derby horse gal has her own pedigree and (car) racing record
FOR the last five or so years, Graham Motion has been training horses belonging to octogenarian sisters Isabelle de Tomaso and Hope Haskell Jones at his Maryland-based Herringswell Stables.
The siblings have a rich horseracing lineage: They are the daughters of Amory Haskell — a legendary figure in New Jersey racing who built Monmouth Park and was the president of its Jockey Club until his death in 1966. His namesake race, the Haskell Invitational, which boasts a million-dollar purse, is the premiere race on the New Jersey thoroughbred calendar.
But it wasn’t until the sisters’ Garden State-bred colt, Irish War Cry, began to emerge as a possible Kentucky Derby contender — eventually clinching a spot in Saturday’s 143rd Run for the Roses after winning the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct last month — that Motion came to know of Isabelle de Tomaso’s incredible feats of derring-do as a horse-racing-heiress-turned-enterprising speed queen.
De Tomaso — now 86 — was a trail-blazing race-car driver in the 1950s, even completing the 12-hour race at Sebring in Florida. Frustrated by being forced to race against other women, she moved to Europe, where she went toe to toe with the best drivers in the world. Alongside her husband, the late Alejandro de Tomaso, she established the De Tomaso Automobili S.p.A., which manufactured Formula One cars and exotic sports cars, including the Pantera (Elvis Presley owned one) and, eventually, the Maserati.
“I was pretty naive [about de Tomaso’s early life] until this horse came along and there was a lot of attention paid to it,” said Motion, who also trained 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. “As people started talking about this horse, there has been more interest in Isabelle’s story, which is a fascinating one.”
DE Tomaso was the second youngest of five children born to Annette and Amory Haskell, and was raised on a Middletown, NJ, farm. Her father was a driving force in the fight to legalize parimutuel betting for horses in the Garden State. Her equine-enthusiast mother — who was killed in a car accident in 1946 — is often credited with bringing the passion for thoroughbreds into the Haskell home.
De Tomaso’s father was an executive at General Motors, but it was another man who fueled her obsession with cars: Dean Bedford, the brother of her best friend, Daphne.
Bedford had a keen interest in cars, and de Tomaso had a keen interest in Bedford. Thus, his hobby ignited the engine that would power her fascinating life behind the wheel.
“I think it was just a crush from afar,” said de Tomaso’s niece, Isobel Ellis, who added that she doesn’t believe they ever dated.
Although the infatuation with Bedford faded, de Tomaso’s passion for wheels was just revving up. When she was 21, her father — assuming she would go to a relative’s GM dealership in downtown Red Bank, NJ — gave her $2,000 to buy her first car. Instead she snuck off to Philadelphia and put the money down on an MG-TD, a British sports car.
While her younger sister, Haskell Jones, attended Bryn Mawr College, married and had three children, de Tomaso wanted the education that only a driver’s license and passport could provide.
At 23, she went to work at an atomic-battery company in Palm Beach, Fla., where the owners were also car enthusiasts. They talked her into getting her sports driving license at Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base, and she competed in her first race that very day in October 1953.
“My father wasn’t thrilled when I started racing, and that is understandable, since my mother had been killed in an automobile accident,” de Tomaso told The Post through her niece. “He was worried for me but he said, ‘I know you are good and successful, and I am happy. But I still don’t like it.’ ”
Rather than being relegated to the women’s division, de Tomaso moved to Europe in 1955. There, she bought a Maserati, applied for a professional license through the Royal Automobile Club, and regularly faced off against the world’s top male drivers.
Even though the Indianapolis 500 didn’t give women a shot until 1977 — more than 20 years after she got behind the wheel competitively — the adventurous de Tomaso doesn’t see what the fuss is about.
“No, I am certainly not a pioneer. I was someone who simply wanted to race,” de Tomaso said.
Ellis says her aunt often downplays any mention of her daredevil days. This, despite the family collection of photos depicting de Tomaso as a latter-
day Amelia Earhart: her closely cropped blond hair and toothy grin obscured by a helmet, goggles and the steering wheel of her Maserati.
In 1956, while at the Maserati factory, she met her soon-to-be partner in life, driving and business. Alejandro de Tomaso was a handsome Argentinian driver on the international circuit. The pair married in a Palm Beach ceremony in 1957. They began driving together and, in 1958, won the Index of Performance at Sebring in Florida. The next year, the couple formed their automobile company. Keeping with the Haskell family business, de Tomaso’s husband named their sedans — the Deauville and Longchamp — after French racehorses.
“If you could have seen her and her husband — they would fight about who drove better and faster,” Ellis said. “She is just competitive. She loved a good competition, and she didn’t think the women’s division was particularly difficult. She never saw her sex as being a big deal. In the end, all she cared about was racing.”
She also began breeding horses. In 1969, she bought the horse whose DNA, nearly five decades later, would produce Irish War Cry.
De Tomaso’s husband — who had three sons from a previous marriage — died of heart failure in 2003. The family sold the auto company in 2004, and she eventually returned to the States from Italy, living part time with her 82year-old sister in Palm Beach.
AFTER having a knee and hip replacement, de Tomaso now relies on a more sensible car. She drives a “souped-up” Ford Escape, though, according to her niece, she’d prefer a Porsche.
Luckily, she can fulfill her need for speed through Irish War Cry, who is the first horse the sisters are sending to the Kentucky Derby. It’s been an exercise in persistence for the women, who have bred horses both together and separately for more than 50 years.
“We’re just happy it’s happening at all, no matter what our age,” said de Tomaso.
When she learned Irish War Cry qualified for the Derby, de Tomaso, true to form, didn’t pop any champagne.
“My sister, Hope, tells me I giggled for two days. No celebration. I just went back to doing my taxes,” she said.
Her niece, Ellis, is more reflective.
“In my opinion, this is quite shocking and extraordinary. When you’ve been in the business for 50 years and you see the once-in-a-lifetime moment, you realize this is it,” she said.
On Derby day, nine of Amory Haskell’s 17 grandchildren and two great grandchildren will be at Churchill Downs, where Irish War Cry is one of the favorites. Not only is the beautiful horse a historical link to the first family of New Jersey racing, he could restore some shine to the sport in the Garden State if he wins the first leg of the Triple Crown on Saturday.
The last time a New Jerseybred colt won the Kentucky Derby was Cavalcade in 1934.
Not that de Tomaso will be feeling the heat at post time on Saturday.
“I don’t get nervous when Irish War Cry runs,” said de Tomaso, who will watch with her sister from the trackside apron.
To most owners, having a horse in the Derby is the Holy Grail. But Motion has more sentimental marching orders: to get Irish War Cry into the Haskell Invitational on July 30. This year will be the race’s 50th annual run.
“I feel more pressure to get into the Haskell,” Motion admitted. “I think everyone who has a horse that can be competitive in the Derby wants to win the Derby. There is nothing like it. Though Isabelle might be one of the few people that might question that.”
Since the inaugural race, Amory Haskell’s daughters have presented the trophy to the winner. Wouldn’t it be poetic if this time, they didn’t have to hand the trophy over to anyone?
“I certainly hope Irish War Cry is able to run in the race named after our father. If he does get invited, it would be very special to me and Hope,” said de Tomaso, adding, “My horse-racing success happened after my father had died, but I believe my parents would have been thrilled.”