Rich Race

Just as well-bred children are entered in exclusive boys' & girls' schools before they are born, so colts and fillies are entered in the Futurity at Belmont Park, N. Y. before they are foaled. The entries are renewed if the horse shows promise, thus piling up the world's richest purse--last week $108,450. Out of 2,026 original entries for this year, only eleven horses finally started. Climax of Long Island's smart racing season, this year's Futurity was run on a soft track before 20,000 people. Odds on favorite was William R. Coe's Ladysman, leading 2-year-old money winner ($101,135). Because he is known as a good mudder, odds on Ladysman increased rather than declined when it rained all the day before the race.

A brisk wind was at their heads as the 2-year-olds thundered out of Joseph E. Widener's famed chute onto the 6 3/4-furlong straightaway. Though Mr. Widener built his straightaway so that there would be no crowding at the first turn, all horses learn to make for the rail on the left in their normal racing.* Last week's Futurity was no exception. There was considerable crowding to the left for the first half of the distance. And in the last stretch it was not Ladysman but a 30-1 shot, Kerry Patch, a rank outsider with No. 13 on his saddle cloth, that nosed ahead three-fourths of a length to win the first prize of $88,690. Owned by Lee Rosenberg, a Manhattan cotton broker little known to turfmen, Kerry Patch is not particularly well-bred, had been conspicuously unsuccessful this year.

Some North Shore socialites ran a $100,000 sweepstakes on the race for the benefit of a children's hospital, with $50,000 in prizes.

*In England races are run clockwise, horses make for the rail to the right.

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