Charioteers on Snow

The morning was still young in Jackson, Wyo. (pop. 1,244), but the town was wide awake. The bars were open to crowds of hooraying cowpokes; long lines of cars some from 250 miles away, beeped down he streets; the sidewalks were jammed, and the high-school band was getting ready for a parade. Normally quiet Jackson was holding its biggest event of the winter: the finals of the All-America Cutter-Racing Championship.

Cutter racing is a mountain-horseman's answer to winter. For 15 years the ranchers in a 200-mile circle in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho have been holding rugged races over the snow, and they wouldn't trade them for all the flamingos at Miami's Hialeah. Their cutter is usually an old, lightweight sleigh stripped of its seats and fitted with polished steel runners. The ranchers hook their cutters to a pair of fast horses, climb aboard, and light out full tilt down a quarter-mile straightaway of hard-packed snow. Some drivers sit on old orange crates, others stand Ben Hur fashion. Speed, not style is what counts.

Each year, starting in January, five towns in the area hold elimination races. At the end of the season, the teams with the best records meet in the All-America finals. The winner gets his name on a gold trophy, a glittering belt buckle, about $500 in prize money, and the chance of a lifetime to set 'em up all around.

Last week Jackson was playing host in the finals. Usually, Jackson races are run smack down the main street of town. But this year the streets were clear, so the racers borrowed a snowy pasture two miles from town and laid out a quarter-mile course. When the first flag went down at 1:30 p.m., close to 1,500 were on hand to watch.

After nine races it was all over, and Jacksonites settled down to an evening of celebration. The owner of the winning pair was a Jacksonite and nearly the most popular man in town--none other than Proprietor John Wort, 53, of the Wort Hotel and its Silver Dollar Bar. His beautifully matched quarter horses, Peaches Howard and Nevada Nugget, had survived all elimination heats, then raced down the pasture in a two-team final in a cracking 25 sec. flat--just 3 sec. over the turf record for quarter-horse racing.

John Wort had not driven the race himself: he got Elaine Heap to do the job--the championship needed someone "younger and stronger-armed." But he was still the happiest man in Jackson. That night the Silver Dollar Bar was busy till 3 a.m., and free drinks went to all who could get up to the bar. Said grinning Owner Wort: "I've been working for this for ten years. It means as much to me as having the winning horse in the Santa Anita Derby--maybe more."

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