: Health Hinge

Nicholas Philip “Nick” Zito (born February 6, 1948 in New York City, New York) is an American Thoroughbred horse trainer.

Zito began his career as a hot walker and worked his way way up to a groom, to an assistant trainer, and to a trainer. His first top level horse was Thirty Six Red with which he won the 1990 Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes and earned a second place finish in that year’s Belmont Stakes. Nick Zito went on to win the Preakness once, and the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes twice.

He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2005, a year that his stable won more than $8 million in purses. Zito has also trained the 1996 U.S. Champion2-Year-Old Filly Storm Song as well as Bird Town who was voted the 2003 U.S. Champion 3-Year-Old Filly.

Nick Zito is a National Spokesperson and Honorary Director of the National Horse Protection Coalition. [1]. Zito and his wife, Kim, work tirelessly for the just treatment of horses and contribute much time and money to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

Other Graded stakes race wins (partial list):
Blue Grass Stakes : 1991, 1998, 2004
Brooklyn Handicap (2001, 2006)
Champagne Stakes : 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003
Florida Derby : 2005
Jockey Club Gold Cup : 2000
Kentucky Oaks : 2003
Pimlico Special Handicap : 1992, 1996
Wood Memorial Stakes : 1990, 1999, 2005

Upon CV’s death in 1992, Marylou inherited Whitney Industries, a largely gravel and lumber business with 51,000 acres (210 km²) of critical Adirondack real estate. With John taking the lead in negotiations, some 14,700 acres (59 km²) were sold to New York State for $17.1 million, only after initially seeking rights to develop 40 exclusive shoreline estates on the western stretch of the Whitney estate. That public request set off environmentalists to push New York State into a deal.

The acquired lands are called the William C. Whitney Park.

On July 16, 2007 Marylou Whitney and her husband John Hendrickson donated $250,000 to the Long Lake Library, a gift of five times the library’s operating budget. In celebration of the gift, the library will be renamed The Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Long Lake Library. Whitney has ties to the Long Lake area which is in the Adirondacks. She already has given donations to the Long Lake Medical Center and the Long Lake United Methodist Church.

Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson donated $2.5 million for the Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson Cancer Facility for Women at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. The building was dedicated in Lexington, Kentucky in December, 2001 by officials from the University of Kentucky and the McDowell Cancer Foundation.[1]

The Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson Cancer Facility for Women is 45,465 square feet (4,223.8 m2) and opened in 2002. It provides multidisciplinary ambulatory care for women suffering from breast cancer, gynecologic cancers, and lung, hematologic, gastrointestinal and urologic cancers.[2]

Philanthropist and thoroughbred owner and breeder Marylou Whitney co-chaired the annual luncheon to raise funds to battle breast cancer for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. About $100,000 was raised for the Foundation.[3

Marylou Whitney (b. Marie Louise Schroeder, December 24, 1925, Kansas City, Missouri) is a prominent socialite. Whitney has many seasonal residences, first and foremost her “Cady Hill” estate in Saratoga Springs New York, a massive camp in the Adirondacks, a farm near Lexington, Kentucky, a winter home in Florida and a residence in Alaska where her current husband is from. She is also a noted philanthropist.

Miss Schroeder married Frank Hosford in 1948 and they had four children: Marion Louise, Frank “Hobbs”, Henry “Hank”, and Heather. After her divorce she married Cornelius Vanderbilt “Sonny” Whitney in 1958 and they had one child, Cornelia. CV “Sonny” Whitney died in 1992, leaving Marylou with an estate estimated at the time of $100 million. In October 1997 Marylou married John Hendrickson, a (then) 32-year-old tennis champ and former aide to Governor Walter Joseph Hickel of Alaska. John had proposed to Marylou in Buckingham Palace. She is an avid ice skater.

Her late husband’s family were a major force in thoroughbred horse racing and in 2003, she made a $100,000 donation to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, an organization that stables approximately seven hundred thoroughbred horses at twenty-five farms throughout the United States with a mission of finding new homes through adoption by private citizens.

“Marylou Whitney Stables” owns Birdstone, the 2004 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes winner.

Marylou suffered a stroke in early 2006, which seriously curtailed her activities in Saratoga during the 2006 meet (late July through early September) when traditionally she is a crucial social figure. She has been called “The Queen of Saratoga” for her constant support for the Upstate NY community. While recovering she did manage to still take a figuratively large role in the leadership of horse racing for New York. Marylou is the honorary chairwoman of Empire Racing Associates, one of the firms vying to replace the New York Racing Association, whose franchise to run Saratoga, Belmont Park and Aqueduct expires on Dec. 31, 2007.

As of early 2007 Marylou was still having physical therapy for recovery from the stroke but down to just six hours week. She has declared that she will be back in full force for the Saratoga race season in 2007.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was married four times. His first marriage was to Marie Norton from 1923-1929; they had two children, Harry Payne Whitney II and Nancy Marie Whitney. His second marriage was to Gwladys Crosby Hopkins from 1931 to 1940; they had one daughter, Gayle. His third marriage was to Eleanor Searle, from 1941 to 1957; they had one son, Searle. His last marriage was in 1958 to Marie Louise Schroeder(Marylou Whitney); they had one daughter, Cornelia. He died in 1992 in Saratoga Springs, New York and is buried there in the Greenridge Cemetery.

He is a first cousin of Gloria Vanderbilt, and first cousin once removed from CNN News Anchor, Anderson Cooper.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney wrote five books:
Lone and Level Sands (1951) - a personal narrative of Allied aerial operations during World War II ;
High Peaks (1977) – autobiography;
Live a Year with a Millionaire (1981).
Owl Hoots Again (1988) - a collection of short stories for children;
First flight : the diary of a cadet in the Signal Corps in World War I (1989).

C.V. Whitney was raised in an artistic environment. His mother, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, was an accomplished sculptor who studied in Paris under Auguste Rodin. She was also the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. As an adult, C.V. Whitney played a role in establishing the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, was a supporter of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and was a founder of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art in Cody, Wyoming. The Mr. And Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame collection was provided in 1987 to the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga, New York. It is the only museum in the United States dedicated to American professional dance.

C.V. Whitney donated important artworks to various museums. Notable donations include the gift of a 1634 Anthony van Dyck painting of Henri II de Lorraine, 5e Duc de Guise, which had been in the Whitney family for three generations, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 1953 Whitney donated the 1872 Thomas Eakins painting, The Biglin Brothers Racing, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

C.V. Whitney’s interest in the natural history of marine animals resulted in the 1938 founding of the world’s first oceanarium. Marineland, near St. Augustine, Florida, included a small research laboratory that drew academic biologists. Eventually, Whitney provided the University of Florida with an adjacent parcel of land plus half of the construction capital required to build a full-scale academic center, the C.V. Whitney Laboratory for Experimental Marine Biology and Medicine (now called the Whitney Marine Lab). In addition, he donated Whitney Hall to the university, a building that serves as a conference center and contains dormitories and apartments.

In 1963, his estate at Old Westbury, New York was subdivided and offered to the New York Institute of Technology for use as its Long Island campus.

Having spent considerable time in France, C.V. Whitney’s mother, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, became involved supporting the Allied forces during World War I. She dedicated a great deal of her time and money to various relief efforts, establishing and maintaining a hospital in France for wounded soldiers. Eighteen-year-old C.V. Whitney joined the United States Army, serving as a cadet in the Signal Corps, rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant.

With the onset of American involvement in World War II, Whitney volunteered again for service, rising to the rank of colonel with the United States Army Air Forces. At the end of the war, C.V. Whitney served under U.S. President Harry S. Truman as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (1947-49) and Undersecretary of Commerce (1949-50). He was also appointed President Truman’s special envoy to England, Luxembourg, Spain and Italy.

His father, Harry Payne Whitney, had been an avid polo player and thoroughbred racehorse owner and C.V. Whitney followed in his footsteps, winning the U.S. Open polo title three times. Since 1979, the Greenwich Polo Club at Conyers Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut has awarded the C.V. Whitney Cup to the winner of an annual polo tournament

He was the third generation of Whitneys to be heavily involved in thoroughbred horse racing. The Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course was inaugurated in his family’s honor in 1928. C.V. Whitney acquired his father’s stable in 1930 and on May 17th, his two-year-old colt Equipoise gave him his first stakes race victory when he won the Keene Memorial Stakes at Belmont Park. Equipose would go on to become a success on the racetrack and as a leading sire and would be inducted in racing’s Hall of Fame in 1957.

Although he had fifteen horses compete in the Kentucky Derby, Whitney never won the prestigious race. Silver Spoon was the only filly entered in the Derby between the years 1945 and 1980, coming in a credible fifth in 1959. Ridden by jockey Eddie Arcaro and trained by Sylvester Veitch, Whitney’s horse Phalanx finished in a dead heat for first in the 1947 Wood Memorial Stakes, finished second in the 1947 Kentucky Derby, took third in the ensuing Preakness Stakes, then won the Belmont Stakes. In the 1951 Kentucky Derby, Whitney’s Veitch-trained colt Counterpoint was still developing after an injury as a yearling that almost ended his career and tired badly, finishing 11th. However, Counterpoint came back to take second place in the Preakness Stakes and subsequently gave Whitney his second win in the Belmont Stakes and then went on to earn 1951 Horse of the Year honors. Among other successful horses from his stables, Career Boy won the United Nations Handicap and was voted the Eclipse Award champion Grass Horse for 1956. And First Flight was one of his best fillies, winning the Matron Stakes and beating males in Belmont’s Futurity Stakes in 1946.

One of Whitney’s homes was the “Cady Hill” estate at Saratoga Springs, New York, not far from the Saratoga Race Course. It was there in 1950 that he founded the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and served as its first president. A former director of Churchill Downs, he was given a special Eclipse Award in 1985 in recognition of his lifetime contribution to thoroughbred horse racing in the United States. The C. V. Whitney Farm in Lexington, Kentucky bred more than 175 stakes winners until age forced him to sell off a large part of the property in the 1980s to Gainesway Farm. After his death in 1992, his widow, Marylou Whitney, continued breeding and racing operations on a smaller scale. A much respected figure in racing, her “Marylou Whitney Stables” owned Birdstone, the 2004 Belmont Stakes winner.

Upon his death CV owned over 51,000 acres (210 km²) in the Adirondacks along with a great camp called Deerlands. Located within the Oswegatchie Great Forest, the Whitney estate is home to more than 40 lakes and ponds as well as the headwaters of the Beaver, Raquette and Bog rivers. In 1997 New York State bought 14,700 acres (59 km²) of the 51,000 acre (210 km²) Whitney tract from Marylou’s “Whitney Industries” for $17.1 million.

Most often referred to as C.V. Whitney, he was also known widely by the nickname “Sonny.” After graduating from Yale University in 1922, he went to work at a Nevada mine owned by his father. His grandfather William C. Whitney was a co-founder and director of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York and in 1926 C.V. Whitney was appointed a director, serving on the bank’s board until 1940. In 1927, he joined with William A. Rockefeller and other investors to back Juan Trippe in establishing the Aviation Corporation of America which a year later would become Pan American World Airways.

In 1931, Whitney founded the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Limited in Canada. The company became a major zinc mining operation and Whitney served as chairman of the board until 1964.

C.V. Whitney became involved in the motion picture industry, notably with his cousin Jock Whitney as a major shareholder backing the Technicolor Corporation. The two were also financiers for the 1939 film classic Gone with the Wind. Seventeen years later, C.V. Whitney served as a producer through his own “C.V. Whitney Pictures.” His company made three films, including the acclaimed 1956 production, The Searchers, directed by John Ford.