view raw text
Proximity Starts In Aurora Derby Top Money-Winning Trotter In Harness Sport Engages Billy Carleton and Moses AURORA DOWNS, Aurora, 111., June 9. — The richest money-winning trotter in modern harness racing, the champion mare Proximity, has been installed as favorite for tomorrow nights running of the 1,-100 Aurora Downs Trotting Derby. Now seven years old, Proximitys total earnings are 05,229.67, and she can earn another ,000 for owners Ralph and Gordon Verhurst of Victor, N. Y., if she wins both divisions of the Derby tomorrow night. The stake will be raced at one mile in the fifth race and at a mile and a sixteenth in the eighth. Proximity was almost unbeatable over half-mile trades like Aurora during the latter part of the 1948 season, winning 11 of her last 16 starts. She has started twice this season and won both races " impressively. Two weeks ago she trotted to victory in a mile and a quarter handicap at Roosevelt Raceway in New York after conceding as much as 80 yards to her rivals at the starting line. Her 1948 victories included the 0,000 Invitational Trot at Roosevelt, in which she set a new world record of 4:17 for two miles, and a Roosevelt Mile which she trotted in 2:02%, fastest time of the year over a half-mile track. Trotted Two Fast Miles If Proximity is beaten, railbirds feel it will be the work of either Billy Carleton, Auroras fastest trotter this year, or Flo-rian, winner of the Trotting Derby a year ago. Billy Carlton has trotted miles in 2:06% and 2:06 in the last month, and has also won at a mile and a sixteenth. Florian has not started at Aurora this spring. Another world record-holder in the race besides Proximity is Moses, holder of the mark for nine-sixteenths of a mile. He has shown great improvement in recent Aurora starts. The other trotters named for the Derby are Patwin, March First, Pay Up, Porter Day, LaVitesse and Oh Johnny. Pay Up has been close to Billy Carleton in both of the fast miles turned in by that gelding, and Oh Johnny has one mile of 2:07 to his credit at Aurora this year. Proximity drew the pole position in the mile division of the stake and Florian received the choice No. 1 spot in the distance route. Patwin and March First drew second and third positions respectively in both divisions. Billy Carleton, who has early speed as well as stamina, will have to use it in both divisions, breaking from the No. 8 position in the mile division and from the No. 9 spot in the mile and a sixteenth.
