In the Third at Belmont

He was a jockey when today's veteran best--Eddie Arcaro and Ted Atkinson--were wearing diapers. He raced to victory on horses with such names as Man o' War, Zev, Flying Ebony, Gallant Fox. and he won the Kentucky Derby three times, the Belmont Stakes five times. In a time of purses far smaller than today's, he brought home more than $3,000,000 worth. In the age of sport known as golden, Jockey Earl Sande was the best in his business.

There was even a verse about him; it showed how the '20s felt about Earl Sande, even if it taught a lot of people to mispronounce the name (rhymes with grand). Wrote Columnist Damon Runyon with a Broadway mist in his eye:

Maybe there'll be another,

Heady and game and true--

Maybe we'll find his brother

At driving them horses through.

Maybe--but, say, I doubt it,

Never his like again--

Never a handy guy like Sande

Bootin' them babies in.

By 1928, when Sande was 29, he was finding it hard to keep trimmed down to racing weight, and he called it a career. He made comebacks in 1930 and 1932, then settled down as a horse trainer. Last week, his share of $3,000,000 worth of purses long gone, Earl Sande told his fellow trainers at Belmont Park that he was ready to try booting them in again. At 54, he had managed to diet down to 113 Ibs., about 25 less than he weighed last spring. Examined by a track doctor, Earl was pronounced fit.

In the third race at Belmont early this week, Earl had himself a mount. Trainer Hirsch Jacobs asked him to ride Honest Bread, an undistinguished three-year-old gelding who finished out of the money in his only start this year. The crowd gave the bald little jockey a roaring reception, and sentimentally made his horse the second favorite. Jockey Sande brought his mount in third. "I got a little tired and so did the horse," said Sande, "but at least we didn't dissolve our partnership."

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