Arcaro Up

Like several million other doubters, sad-faced Jockey Eddie Arcaro didn't believe that Assault was as good a horse as his record said he was. Like the other doubters, Arcaro had never ridden him. The horse that began the season by winning the Big Three--the Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes--had been so-so ever since. It took less than two minutes last week to change Arcaro's mind, and almost everybody else's. In the $25,000 (winner-take-all) Pimlico Special, with Arcaro up for the first time, Assault came out of his slump with the help of a rider who did the right thing at the right time.

Trainer Max Hirsch had it all figured out: the horse to beat was slow-starting Stymie (TIME, Nov. 4); the way to do it was to hold back as long as Stymie did, then beat him in the stretch run. Sometimes riders see the wisdom of their instructions at the time, but change their minds later. Daring little Eddie Arcaro is the best rider in the business because he attunes himself to each horse's temperament and capacity, knows just when to ask its best. At the first turn, Stymie and Assault were 15 lengths behind the leaders. When Stymie finally let go, Arcaro clucked to Assault. They whizzed by the pacemakers entering the stretch, Stymie on the outside and Assault on the rail. Said Arcaro: "I rapped him three times with the whip, but I guess I didn't have to." At the finish, Assault and Arcaro were six lengths in front.

Baltimore fans cheered; next day the fans cheered again when Arcaro rode Cosmic Missile to win the $15,000-added Marguerite Stakes. Then Arcaro returned to the irreverent New York tracks, where he is booed whether he wins or loses. Booing Arcaro is part of the fun of attending horse races in New York. Fans holler out cracks about his oversized ears and long nose ("Banana Nose!" they shout). Says he: "The damn fools don't know what they're booing about ... of course I don't like it--I'm human."

Unloved Arcaro, who is expected to win and damned if he doesn't, has earned a million dollars at 30. Unlike most jockeys, he has hung on to a lot of it. In his 14 years of racing, he has once been ruled off all tracks for a year for rough riding. This summer he decided to take life easier. He quit as contract rider for the famed Greentree Stable, now sleeps until 9 a.m. instead of rolling out at dawn to gallop horses. His only flaw as a jockey: he sometimes tries to ride cheap horses as if they were stakes horses, confidently holding them back for a spurt that isn't in them. His chief talent, according to one horseman: "He thinks twice before other jockeys begin to think."

Bernborough, Australia's great horse, ran his last race last week. He broke a bone in his foreleg during the McKinnon Stakes at Flemington, will be retired to stud.

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