Eddie Concedes

In race after race, Jockey Eddie Arcaro had seen the big grey colt pound in ahead of his own mounts. A month ago, Arcaro's sour grapes--a rare item with him--ripened to wrath. Said he: "All Native Dancer has done is go around beating the same horses, and most of the time carrying equal weight . . . Would you call him a great horse?"

Then, last week, Native Dancer's regular jockey, Eric Guerin, drew a ten-day suspension for a foul committed when he was riding another horse in the Saratoga Special. A man with sound judgment and a sense of humor, Owner Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt picked Eddie to ride the Dancer in last week's $112,600 American Derby at Washington Park, near Chicago. Arcaro took the horse on a trial spin. Allowed Eddie: "He's a big, powerful animal."

At last the day came, and the greatest U.S. jockey and the greatest U.S. three-year-old raced together. With Native Dancer such a glaring favorite, the Washington Park management permitted no show betting, fearful that the heavy betting on the Dancer would force the track to cough up, for the minimum payoff, more money than was bet. This goaded the New York Herald Tribune's Red Smith into some sharp comment: "The sturdy old American virtues of avarice, stupidity and parsimony, qualities that have won for racetrack operators the warm affections which the public ordinarily reserves for pawnbrokers and dogcatchers, were gloriously exemplified . . ."

Naturally, Native Dancer, Arcaro up, romped off with his 18th victory in 19 starts, jetting to the fore in the stretch, as usual, to beat James C. Brady's Landlocked by two lengths. He carried 128 lbs., top weight of his career, against 120 lbs. for Landlocked and less for the rest of the field. His time for the mile-and-a-furlong: 1:48 2/8, only one-fifth second off the track mark. The winner's purse: $66,500. Although Citation was still the "alltime great" to Eddie Arcaro, he granted at last: "I guess the Dancer's about everything they say."

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