Fresh Honey

Whitey Abel peered out at the track through high-powered binoculars. The chestnut head of a horse focused in his glass. For a minute Whitey felt as if he were watching a race run long ago.

Honey Cloud was out front from the start last week, the way he had been when he won the big Dixie Handicap in 1940. Honey Cloud was a bargain horse that had cost Whitey $2,500 and had won $81,614 before his legs swelled up and he had to be put out to pasture, Christmas Day, six years ago.

Through the glasses Whitey watched. Now they were past the half-mile pole, and the old horse was leading by a neck. Breathing heavily, Honey Cloud lumbered across the finish line with one length to spare. Whitey Abel, as surprised as nearly everyone else at Long Island's Aqueduct track, dropped his binoculars in the excitement. But ancient Honey Cloud, winner of the first race he had run in nearly six years, took it calmly. At the great age of 13 (comparable to a human's 45 years), the old horse stepped into the winner's circle as if he did such things every day.

Just before England's Derby began last week, the stewards summoned all the jockeys and issued a warning: there must be no skullduggery. Nobody had ever before felt the need to issue such a warning at Epsom Downs' big race. But a rumor had gone around that the other jockeys were going to take it easy and let England's alltime champion rider, Gordon Richards, win (TIME, June 2). It was a chance to get Richards out of their hair: they had heard that wealthy little Jockey Richards would retire if he won the race on the odds-on favorite, Tudor Minstrel.

As if to prove that they had harbored no such intentions, all 15 jockeys left the post hustling. Gordon Richards' jinx, which has kept him from winning England's greatest race in 22 attempts, was with him again. Tudor Minstrel showed briefly in front at Tattenham Corner, flattened out badly, finished fourth, out of the prize money. The winner: French-owned Pearl Diver, a 40-to-1 shot.

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