Plenty of Horse

The rhythmic clip-clop of hoofs tapping down Roosevelt Raceway's brown half-mile oval was smothered by a swelling roar from the stands as the six-horse field came into the final turn. With less than a quarter-mile to go, a fast-stepping brown mare named Proximity, unbeaten in her five starts this year, had not made a move out of her third-place rut along the rail.

But big, savvy Canadian Clint Hodgins, one of the top drivers in the U.S. last year, knew he had plenty of horse left as he hit the top of the stretch. He gave the mare her head. That was all Proximity needed. She swung the 36-pound sulky out for a clear shot at the brilliantly lighted finish, breezed effortlessly past the leaders and went on to win by 2 1/2 lengths. Said one of Proximity's admirers afterwards: "It was just as if Hodgins had stepped on an accelerator."

At the peak of her career last week, eight-year-old Proximity was rapidly becoming the Man o' War of trotting. Just shipped east from Santa Anita, where she cracked three world records (and won $28,000), Proximity's 1950 Eastern debut kept her winning stride unbroken. Her mile last week was clocked in 2:01 1/5, a new world record (by 1/10th of a second) for a half-mile track.

Owners Ralph and Gordon Verhurst were just as impressed by Proximity's total earnings to date: $190,579.67, a close trotting distance from the record of $206,462.50 set by Goldsmith Maid* before the turn of the century.

* But a long gallop from Citation's alltime high of $938,630.

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