Love's Long Shot

At Paris' Longchamp track, the horses run clockwise, the clotheshorses from the maisons de haute couture run the gauntlet of admiring eyes, and bettors can be heard exchanging tips on both in Urdu, Sudanese, Hindustani or Cambodian. But from under the toppers and turbans in the grandstand comes only an occasional listless Allez! or Vite!; it is across the turf on the grassy reaches of Longchamp's infield that the passion of Parisian racing is concentrated.

There, for 25 francs (7-c-) admission, stand "the shoeless ones"--the great middle-class portion of the crowd which is popularly supposed to bet its shoes and go home barefoot. When a start is bad or a favorite jostled, the crowd has been known to set fire to the beer stands dotting the infield, pull the pari-mutuel booths up by the roots and send the swells across the track fleeing.

This week 100,000 jammed grandstands, pavilions and infield to watch Europe's richest horse race, the Prix de l'Arc-de-Triomphe. Despite devaluation, the mile-and-a-half event for three-year-olds and up paid the winners a whacking $122,857. At post time, a few infield sentimentalists dredged up their last sous to get aboard Rita Hayworth's filly Double Rose. Amour Drake and Val Drake, wearing the funereal black silks of Paris' most dramatic relict, the dashing young widow of Theatrical Magnate Leon Volterra, were the heavy favorites, but form players plumped for Textile Millionaire Marcel Boussac's triple entry of Djeddah, Coronation and Norval (Boussac horses had won the Prix five times).

Norval, assigned to set the pace for his stablemates, broke clear at once and led all the way to the final turn. By then, Djeddah had already faded but Coronation charged on to win by four lengths over Double Rose, paying 4-1 francs for 1. Said one dejected infielder as the numbers went up: "Encore une pour le trust [One more for the trust]." The sentimentalists did better: Love Goddess Hayworth's filly paid a handsome 12.8 for 1.

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