Timely Discovery

Last year Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt's Discovery was known to most racegoers as the horse that usually came in just after Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane's Cavalcade. Actually, this was less a slur upon Discovery than upon the proverbial inattention of racegoers. Although it was true that Discovery was defeated by Cavalcade every time they met, he won consistently on other occasions, piled up $49,555 in prizes which made him the fifth biggest winner of 1934. This year, while Cavalcade has been in his stall, harassed by lameness, coughs and everything except a nervous breakdown, Discovery, a long-striding chestnut colt, has been making himself the outstanding handicap racehorse on the U. S. turf.

In the Brooklyn Handicap, he set a world's record for a mile and a furlong (1:48.2), beat both King Saxon, fastest sprinter of the year, and Omaha, winner of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Week later, in the Detroit Chal lenge Cup, he beat Azucar, winner of last winter's $100,000 Santa Anita Handicap. Last week Discovery's job was the inaugural running of the Butler Handicap, at the Empire City track in Yonkers, N. Y., oldtime project of the late Grocery Tycoon James Butler. Many racegoers thought it would prove Discovery's hardest test so far, because this time he was giving weight not only to King Saxon (8 Ib.) but also to Top Row (16 Ib.), holder of the world's record for 1-1/16 mile, and because the Butler racetrack has sharp turns that King Saxon likes. For nearly a mile, as the crowd expected, King Saxon made the pace. Discovery, running under 132 Ib., caught him as he tired in the stretch, went on to pass Top Row and Only One, won by a comfortable length and a half, at odds of 9-to-10. The prize, $11,675, brought his total winnings up to $103,177.

No less impressive than the change in the fortunes of Discovery this year has been that of the 22-year-old owner who bought him for $25,000 in 1932, just after the Vanderbilt silks (cerise, white diamonds and white cap; had been registered with The Jockey Club. Properly speaking, the Vanderbilt Stables came into existence in 1934. The autumn before. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt celebrated his coming of age with a party at Cedar Knoll. Sands Point, L. I. From the estate of his father, who went down with the Lusitania, he got the first installment (about $1,000,000) of a fortune which he will continue to inherit by quarters every four years. From his mother, daughter of the late Captain Isaac Emerson (Bromo Seltzer) of Baltimore, twice married since his father's death, he received the string of horses which she had raced under the name of the Sagamore Stable. An enthusiastic turfman, which the senior Vanderbilt was not, young "Al" promptly set out to enjoy his birthday presents. Because Cavalcade and High Quest made 1934 Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane's year, the efforts of his horses that year were not spectacularly gratifying, but the $1,000,000 came in handy. Young Turfman Vanderbilt enlarged his racing string to 56. mostly with a parcel of yearlings bought from Walter J. Salmon. This year, Vanderbilt horses have won 57 races, $15,.000 in prizes. It is most unlikely that, in his second season as a racehorse owner. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt will fail to be the most successful one in the U. S. Last week, on the day Discovery was winning at Empire City, Vanderbilt horses ran second and third in the Lassie Stakes (richest race for fillies in the U. S.). at Arlington Park, Chicago, first and second in the Massasoit Handicap at Boston's brand new Suffolk Downs. The day's winnings: $23,375.

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