At Belmont

Doubling around a wisp of fence, into the stretch at Belmont came a flying clot of horses. People in the Grand Stand scrambed up on the backs of the ramped benches; nonchalance deserted the idlers in front of the Turf Club; they shouted a name that shook itself out like a battle-banner in the grey autumnal air: "Crusader." He--Man O'War's bravest son, best three-year old of the year--was in front. At one flank humped a dark witch-rabbity horse named Mars; at the other a little brown three-year old, William Ziegler's Espino. The bookies had Crusader at 4 to 5; Mars, they thought, was out of the running, and any poor fool who had a dollar to put on Espino could get ten back if that unruly horse was first. Maiben, up on Crusader, let an inch of rein slip through his hands; the huge horse lunged forward; Mars, his courage broken, slipped behind; only Espino hung on. Inch by inch, his jockey scissoring like a swimming frog, Espino crept up, passed Crusader, won the $26,100 Lawrence Realization.