Helen Kleberg Groves has had an appreciation for a good horse since childhood, when her playground was her family’s famed King Ranch in south Texas. Her father, Bob Kleberg Jr., was the driving force behind such horses as Assault, who won the 1946 Triple Crown. But before there was Assault, who will be honored with a stakes race Saturday night during the Stars of Texas program at Lone Star Park, there was Mr. Bones. He had no ties to King Ranch, but he became a favorite of little Helen’s. “When I was 9, I asked daddy’s driver to take me downtown, and I went to the bank,” Groves, 88, said. “I knew I had a little bit of money saved, and I took out $10.” Groves then had the driver take her to the “bookie shop” and bet on Mr. Bones to place. She selected the horse because she had seen his sire in a painting and liked the looks of the stallion. “Mr. Bones came in second, and I was thrilled,” Groves said. “I told dad. He was really nice, and he said, ‘I really don’t want you to go to the bookie shop anymore.’ I didn’t know it was outside the law.” Good horses have remained a constant in the life of Groves, a resident of San Antonio, Texas, who keeps her broodmares in Kentucky with her daughter, Helen Alexander. Groves breeds, sells, and races and this season has a pair of promising 2-year-old colts in training with her son-in-law, Michael Matz. One of the colts is a son of Union Rags named Confederate. “He’s just starting,” Groves said. “As they say, he’s doing everything right, so that’s very good.” The other colt is by Arch. “He probably won’t be a 2-year-old,” Groves said. “He’s very big. He might take a little while to straighten out. We shall see. This colt might be okay.” Groves was a student at Vassar in New York when Assault launched his assault on the Triple Crown. She remembers attending the Kentucky Derby with a friend and briefly being separated from her mate by the large crowd at Churchill Downs. “I think there were 80,000 to 100,000 people there,” she said. “It was one of the biggest crowds they’d ever had. It was a big, big thrill to win the Kentucky Derby.” Groves recalls attending the Preakness ball with the son of family friends the night before Assault captured the classic in Maryland, and she also was on hand for the Belmont Stakes. “It was a great, great time,” she said. “It was 1946. The war was over in 1945, so all the guys were coming back from overseas. And Assault was just wonderful.” Groves said Assault’s dam, Igual, who was unraced, was in training for King Ranch, but she developed an abscess in her abdominal area that ultimately kept her from racing. She produced Assault on a mating to Bold Venture. Groves said other offspring produced by Igual included a pair of twins who were full siblings to Assault. “They were not registered,” said Groves. “They were extra small.” Groves noted that one of the twins participated in “Pony Club” racing and was a multiple “point-to-point winner on the flat.” Groves said Assault is buried at King Ranch. These days, Groves keeps busy with her breeding and racing interests, overseeing her own properties, and tending to her duties with King Ranch. “I’m head of our family foundation,” she said. Groves also is looking forward to the future with the 2-year-olds in the barn and is hoping for a reason to make the trip from Texas to Churchill Downs. “People always ask, ‘Aren’t you going to the Derby?’ and I say, ‘No, but if I had a horse in it, I’d go.’ Who knows?” ◗ Lone Star leading rider C.J. McMahon won five of the 10 races on the card last Sunday.