By J.N. Campbell
There was a well-known Thoroughbred trainer who was accused of a medication violation by the governing anti-doping agency at the time.
This conditioner had a history of putting the horse first, so the case was shocking and the evidence stacked against him did not quite add up.
The owner of the animal in question did everything possible to help him mount a defense by calling in experts to give testimony, but in the end he was found negligent and given a year suspension.
The trainer was none other than Tom Smith of Seabiscuit fame, while the owner was Elizabeth Arden. It was 1945.
Arden, the matron of beauty from the first half of the 20th century who built a layered empire, was one heck of a horsewoman.
Becoming Elizabeth Arden cover | Penguin
In a new biography by Iowa State University historian Dr. Stacey A. Cordery entitled Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire which is due out in early September, we find out how ahead of her time she was with her spa-like approach to racing and breeding Thoroughbreds.
The progressively-minded Florence Nightingale Graham–who re-christened herself Elizabeth Arden–was born in Canada and was as self-made as could be.
Cordery does an expert job piecing together Arden's rise as a 'beauty culturalist' in New York City. As we discover, her subject steadily built newfangled salons in both America and Europe into the 1930s, expanded into the burgeoning field of cosmetics and in the process her 'red door' turned her into an icon.
What you might not know about Mrs. Graham, who had a lifelong love affair with horses, is she was willing, able and quite successful at 'taking on the boys' of the turf world.
As Cordery reminds us, she spent copious amounts of cash in the sales rings at Keeneland and Saratoga, plus in Europe after the war, and built a powerful stable in Kentucky called Maine Chance Farm–named after her destination spa for the rich and powerful. The farm is now utilized for teaching and research by the University of Kentucky.
In her salons, Arden became accustomed to meeting the beauty needs of her well-heeled clients, but she also was keen to see her “beauties,” as she called her equine athletes, win at tracks from Saratoga to Hialeah and from Churchill to Santa Anita.
She ran her stable as shrewdly as her beauty empire, and she was adamant that a holistic approach to both humans and horses was the only acceptable treatment. Refusing to hire trainers who used harsh methods, Arden believed her horses deserved the most thorough massages and she developed creams for sore muscles that could be applied just like they would at her spas.
One of her closest advisors was Spendthrift Farm's Leslie Combs II, who assisted her with bloodstock decisions, but as Cordery points out, it was Mrs. Graham who had the final say about everything from picking yearlings to which of her horses would be entered to race.
Elizabeth Arden with Knockdown at Santa Anita | Getty Images
Arden's relationship with Tom Smith came about because of the sudden death of Elizabeth Cromwell Bosley, who was a rising star among conditioners in the late 1930s. Women trainers were scarce then, but Arden wanted her at the helm because she had the right touch. Sadly, Bosley died in a car accident and never had the chance to see her career flourish.
The matron of Maine Chance weathered all sorts of storms as an owner, which included not only Smith's suspension at the hands of The Jockey Club of America and the New York State Racing Authority for doping a horse, but several stable fires.
One destructive blaze in particular at Arlington Park in Chicago just two days before the 1946 Kentucky Derby claimed the lives of 23 Thoroughbreds whose value topped $500,000. Arden had an insurance policy which she took out on all of her runners, but when the ensuing police investigation tried to finger African American backstretch workers, she ordered her own detective to get to the bottom of it.
Arden's expansive stable included the likes of Beaugay, Knockdown, They Say and the 1947 Derby winner Jet Pilot, who was trained by the reinstated Smith and ridden by a 23-year-old jockey named Eric Guerin who the beauty empress selected herself.
In 1945, Maine Chance earned over $10 million in today's currency, which was when you think about mid-century purse structures the figure was extraordinary.
And that is Cordery's chief biographical point here, and what makes this such a seminal work. In an era of conspicuous consumption which gave way to the world wars, Elizabeth Arden dreamed big, eclipsed gender norms, redefined beauty, and as horsewoman defied the power of the turfmen and redefined equine care.
To put it another way, she knew how to 'beat the boys' at their own game.
Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Viking, 512 pages, Sept. 3, 2024
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