Double Disappointment

On the shore of the Atlantic and the shore of the Pacific one afternoon last week lusty boos arose from the throats of 116,000 racetrack fans. At Suffolk Downs, on Boston Harbor, 66,000 New Englanders, the second largest crowd ever to witness a horse race in the U. S. gathered to watch a loudly ballyhooed meeting of War Admiral and Seabiscuit, two of the seven entries in the $50,000 added Massachusetts Handicap. Three thousand miles away, in brand-new Hollywood Park at Inglewood, 50,000 Californians gathered to watch a highly touted race, for a $50,000 purse, between Herbert M. Woolf's Lawrin (Kentucky Derby winner) and William du Font's Dauber (Preakness winner) to settle the "American three-year-old championship" of 1938.

By a strange coincidence that happens perhaps once in a generation. Seabiscuit, whose scratching canceled the famed Memorial Day $100,000 match race with War Admiral, was withdrawn a half hour before post time because of a swollen tendon, and Dauber, who had been so excited the day he arrived in Hollywood that he jumped out of his van while riding from the rail-road station, bruised a leg and broke a tooth, was also scratched a half hour before post time because of a bowed tendon.

Whether the Boston boos were louder than the Hollywood boos, no one could determine. But the disgruntled racing fans of New England, after finally settling down to comparative calm, saw one of the greatest races of the year. War Admiral, for whom Owner Samuel Riddle refused on offer of $250,000* last month, was made a 2-to-5 favorite (in spite of a muddy track and top weight of 130 lb.) after Seabiscuit was scratched. Leaving the post, the four-year-old Riddle colt was not in front as is his custom. Menow*, a three-year-old rated as merely a sprinter, splashed mud in War Admiral's face all the way round, won by eight lengths. The great War Admiral, in his first defeat in twelve starts, finished out of the money for the first time in his career.

Three thousand miles away, the California racing fans saw a less exciting race but made some profit. Lawrin, so overwhelming a favorite in the field of three that there was a minus pool in the parimutuels for the first time in the history of California racing**, won as he pleased.

Talk turned to a meeting between the two three-year-olds, Lawrin and Menow. But U. S. racing fans, apparently unable or unwilling to understand the fragility of thoroughbreds, were openly disgusted with match races.

*Highest price ever paid lor a thoroughbred is $300,000. Last week Martin Benson, London bookmaker, paid that amount for undefeated Xearco, an Italian horse who won the Grand Prix at Paris last fortnight, his 14th victory in a row. Only other $300,000 purchase price was for Call Boy, 1927 Epsom Derby winner.

Pronounced mee-now and so named by Owner Hal Price Headley after his little daughter, whose impatience at his kissing his wife first on entering the house caused her to habitually stamp and squeal ''Me, now; me, now!"

**Of the $140,000 wagered on the race, $130,000 was on Lawrin. The return was $2.20 for $2, the legal minimum of 10-c- on the dollar.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.