Ahead of the Field

He got to the top when the game was really rough--when thoroughbred horse racing was a contest between swift mounts and mean jocks, when it was standard practice to slash at another rider with a whip, to grab the bridle of an opposing horse, to lock legs with a boy who was bringing his mount past in close quarters.

But even as sharp stewards and sharper-eyed film patrol cameras taught racing to mind its manners, Jockey Edward George Arcaro learned to mind his manners, too. Either way--playing it rough or smooth--Eddie had more than enough skill to stay in front. Last week, when he finally decided to retire at 46, Eddie Arcaro was still a long length ahead of the field. In 31 years hunched over the shoulders of America's finest thoroughbreds, he had brought home $30,039,543 in prize money -- more cash than has ever been won by any jockey in history.

Aboard Whirlaway and Citation, Arcaro became the only jockey to win rac ing's famed Triple Crown* twice. He was a record five-time winner of the Derby. He posted six victories in the Preakness and six in the Belmont Stakes, for an other pair of records. Last year Arcaro rode Kelso, one of the greatest racers ever, to a Horse of the Year title, winning seven victories in nine starts to collect $425,565

A Coiled Mind. On a horse, Jockey Arcaro was all coiled mind and muscle. Yet somehow he managed to look ill at ease. His long Cyrano nose protruded beyond his cap and goggles, as he rode in "ace-deuce" fashion with his right stirrup two inches higher than the left. He carried on a running conversation with all his mounts, his voice and spurs and whip speaking urgently but never harshly. He had a theory that it was almost always better to dangle a whip menacingly in front of a horse's nose than to slash heavily at the animal's flank.

He collected his first Derby victory in 1938 on Lawrin, a 9-1 shot that Trainer Ben Jones thought almost too unsound to train. His second Derby victory was on Whirlaway in 1941, a chestnut colt that, for all its speed, had trouble taking a turn. Arcaro solved the problem by giving Whirlaway a long rein. And Trainer Jones helped out on Derby Day by cutting away the left cup of the colt's blinkers. The plan was to give Whirlaway full vision in his left eye so that he would naturally tend to follow the rail on turns. Recalls Eddie: "I thought to myself that this was a hell of a time to be experimenting. But it worked. We won by eight lengths, and Whirlaway still holds the track and Derby record."

The Big Money.Minor races and purses never excited Arcaro much ("Cheap horses don't need management--they just run"). As a strategist, he was at his incomparable best when going for the big money in big-stakes races and high-priced handicaps.

As a fierce competitor, Arcaro was never willing to concede a foot of space on the rail; the rider who made it tough for Eddie in a tight race learned quickly how tough racing could really be. At Aqueduct one afternoon in 1942, as the field scrambled for position, Arcaro was almost knocked out of his saddle by rough-riding Jockey Vince Nodarse. Enraged, Arcaro forgot about winning, took off after Nodarse, almost bounced him over a fence into the infield. "I'd have killed the son-of-a-bitch if I could.'' Eddie told the stewards later, and the stunt cost him a one-year suspension. "Even now," Arcaro says, "if it wasn't for the film patrol that takes movies of every foot of every race, and for the jobs the stewards and patrol judges do, you could start out with 20 jocks and at the end of three months of racing there'd be only one left."

On the track, Arcaro collected as many bumps as he handed out. He was seriously injured in 1933. almost broke his neck three years ago in a bad spill at Belmont. But he always returned to the saddle. Looking back, Eddie is inclined to agree that his greatest race was when he rode Nashua to triumph over Swaps in a $100,000 grudge match in 1955. Arcaro insists that he will not miss the job of jockeying. "Riding," he says, "had gotten to be a chore." But he is frank to say he will miss the boos of the railbirds. That raucous sound was a special compliment. It meant that the two-buck bettors always expected Eddie to win--even if he was riding a mule. It was abundantly clear that they put their money on him, not hi mount, and sometimes, it seemed, they were disappointed if he did not dismount and carry his horse home first.

* The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.

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