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In the list of U. S. socialites whose names figure constantly on the sports pages, Mrs. Sloane's began to appear two years ago after she had hired Trainer Bob Smith to run her racing stable for her. Since then, the stable has grown to contain 86 horses worth $1,200.000. This year it has won almost every important race on the U. S. turf. Sloane victories this year began when Time Clock won the Florida Derby ($10,075). High Quest won the Wood Memorial and the Preakness ($29,165) before he wrenched his foot and was retired for the season. Okapi won the Toboggan Handicap ($3,250). Time Clock cost $700, High Quest $3,500, Okapi $6,500.
Fond of golf, tennis, salmon fishing, grouse shooting, Mrs. Sloane has homes in Locust Valley and on Park Avenue, a stud farm at Upperville, Va. If her ambitions are social, she conceals them from reporters. In Detroit, a newshawk called to ask what she would wear to the races next day. Said her hostess' butler: ''Mrs. Sloane wishes me to say to the person calling 'who the hell cares'." Last week, recovered from pneumonia which she caught returning from Chicago where she had watched Cavalcade win the Arlington Classic, she went to Saratoga in a private car, opened her 30-room "cottage" on North Broadway.
Trainer. When Mrs. Sloane selected Robert Augustus Smith to train her horses, he refused to accept a contract. His counter proposal: "If you get tired of me, give me ten minute's notice. If I want to leave, I'll give you 90 days."
Florid, portly, 65, Trainer Smith exercised horses for August Belmont when he was 11, tried being a jockey until he was badly hurt, became a bookmaker, owned a stable of his own which he sold in 1923 for $50,000. He is responsible for the way Cavalcade was schooled. For No. 1 Sloane jockey this year he chose aging Mack Garner, whose feeling for a horse's speed is so acute that he can time a workout to within ½ of a second. He admires his employer because she gives him a free hand.
Trainer Smith does not like expensive horses, but he may soon acquire some. When he picked Time Clock, High Quest and Cavalcade off the Saratoga auction block, because he liked their "action, speed and disposition," no one paid much attention to his bids. Last week, whenever Bob Smith glanced at a horse in the long double row of stalls behind the auction block, its price began to gallop.