"Got You!"

Because his own-bred yearling crop was long on fillies, George D. Widener went looking for a colt at the 1949 Saratoga summer sales. The one that took his eye was a blaze-faced chestnut in the Jonabell consignment. Although the colt looked like a good buy at the modest $4,500 which Widener bid him in for, he failed to show top stakes quality in early training. So Widener packed him off to Florida, to let him find his own level at Hialeah's winter meeting.

There, the colt--named Battlefield (by War Relic-Dark Display)--pricked his ears and began to run. By last weekend, when 14 of the finest two-year-olds in the U.S. went to the post for the 61st running of Belmont's Futurity, Battlefield had won so many stakes he was the odds-on (19-20) favorite. In twelve starts, he had won nine times, never been out of the money, earned $116,962.

Battlefield was clearly Jockey Eddie Arcaro's favorite, too. He had ridden Battlefield in most of his starts, and before the Futurity, richest and most prestigious of two-year-old tests, he was unmistakably confident. (His agent, Bones La Boyne, explained: "When the money's there, Eddie's there.")

Eddie needed his confidence all the way to the wire. He made no effort to grab an early lead: "When I saw everyone else trying to get to the front, I took back. I must have been seven or eight lengths behind the leaders at one time." A quarter-mile from home he hustled Battlefield out of the pack and set out to collar the leader, Greentree Stable's 13-to-1 Big Stretch, hard ridden by Ted Atkinson. With a sixteenth to go, it was still Big Stretch. Then Arcaro gave his colt a touch of the whip. As Battlefield slowly closed the gap, Eddie yelled to Atkinson. "Got you!" said Eddie, and he was right--by a nose.

Battlefield's $81,715 first money brought his winnings to $198,677--an all-time record for a two-year-old colt.* It was the third Futurity win for both Arcaro and Owner Widener, who is president of Belmont Park and chairman of the Jockey Club as well as a good picker of sales yearlings.

*Suprisingly, three fillies have done even better as two-year-olds: Top Flight with $219,000 in 1931; Bewitch, $213,675 in 1947; Bed o' Roses, $199,200 last year.

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