Poet

Helen Hay was a poet and an author of books for children. A number of her poems were published in Harper's Magazine.^[5] One of her poems, Love of the Rose, was used in Leon Ardin's opera, Antony and Cleopatra (Act 2, no. 15).^[6] Herbs And Apples (1910)^[7] is a collection of poems that she published using what she had given for The Metropolitan Magazine and Collier's Weekly. "Songs and Sonnets," "Gypsy Verses" are also some of her works produced in such a manner. Several of her works have been republished in the 21st century.^[3]

Helen Hay Whitney and her six-year-old son, John Hay Whitney (October 12, 1910)

Horse racing

After her husband's death in 1927, she continued to manage Greentree, and Greentree Stable, and it continued to be a major force in Thoroughbred flat and steeplechase horse racing.^[8][9] Her horses won the American Grand National steeplechase in 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1937. In flat racing, her horses Twenty Grand and Shut Out won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in 1931 and 1942, respectively.^[3]

Twenty Grand, named American Horse of the Year in 1931, inspired a cigarette brand put out by Axton-Fisher Tobacco Co., which led to a 1936 trademark infringement case it won. The trademark battled over by was the name "Twenty Grand"/"20 Grand" and a depiction of a horse's head.^[10]

Shut Out was bested for the American Horse of the Year in 1942 by 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway, when Whirlaway repeated after winning the title in 1941.

In 2019, Helen Hay Whitney was posthumously given the industry's highest honor with induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame as one of its Pillars of the Turf.

Philanthropy

The beneficiary of a large fortune on the death of her husband, Helen Whitney provided substantial funding to various causes and institutions including the Payne Whitney Gymnasium at Yale University.^[11] In 1943, an ailing Helen Whitney and her daughter Joan created the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation which supports early postdoctoral research training in all basic biomedical sciences.^[12]

Sources

• Gale, Robert L. (1978). John Hay. Twayne's American Authors. Boston: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7199-9.
• Kushner, Howard I.; Sherrill, Anne Hummel (1977). John Milton Hay: The Union of Poetry and Politics. Twayne's World Leaders. Boston: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7719-9.
• Taliaferro, John (2013). All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt (Kindle ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-9741-4.