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OReilly on Racing Arcaro Says Noise of Crowd Beat Native Dancer in Derby DerbyBy By TOM OREILLY j jJAMAICA JAMAICA L I N Y May 2 The importance of a jockey scheduled to ride in Saturdays Kentucky Derby can best be illustrated by one of the big laughs in an ancient Broadway comedy named Lightning that starred the late beloved Frank Bacon back when this country had just won what it thought was The war to end wars Lightning was the nickname of a lovable old slightly alcoholic character who was the porter and general handyman in a country hotel He made a pretense of working for a living but the really big moments m his life came when that monthly Spanish American war pension check showed up He would hold the check to the light and fondly read aloud all the big signatures on it Woodrow Wilson Secretary of War Newton D Baker Secretary of the Treasury Carter Glass Then he would knock his audience in the aisles by saying importantly Them names dont mean a damned thing till I sign it So it is with a horse in the Kentucky Derby A big sporting outfit like Mrs Gene Markeys Calumet Farm or Mrs Henry Car neerie PhiDos Wheatlev Stable can sbend millions of dollars tryin to breed the finest Derby winner in the land Years of time and toil go into bringing those slim spindlylegged and greathearted thoroughbred speedsters like Gen T nke Iron Liefee and Bold Ruler up to this moment but it all doesnt mean a thine unless the boys riding them out there to the post while the band plays My Old Kentucky Home are surehanded quick thinking men of great skill That is why at this time young fellows like Eddie Ar ¬ caro Willie Hartack Dave Erb and com ¬ pany who have had success in this most distinctive of all American horse races are worth their weight in gold goldDerby Derby in Class by Itself ItselfThere There is no other race in the world quite like the Kentucky Derby And nobody knows exactly how a horse will react to it First of all it should be remembered that this is the noisiest horse race in the world Nowhere else on earth not in England or Ireland or Argentina does a racing crowd let go and air its lungs like those wild Americans at Churchill Downs From the moment that stall gate opens for the one and only crack a horse ever gets at the Roses through every step of that mile and a quarter the noise is deafening It boils over the track from both the stands and the infield In all truth a horse would not be blamed if he thought his crazy rider was racing him under a waterfall waterfallNo No less an authority than Eddie Arcaro says Im sure it was the noise and nothing else that beat Native Dancer DancerThis This is a version of that great upset never before printed You remember how back in 1953 Alfred G Vanderbilts great gray flyer ridden by Eric Guerin went to the post an oddson favorite with a win ¬ ning price of only 70 cents to the dollar He was beaten a short head by the 2490 to 100 Cain Hoy Stables Dark Star Hank Moreno up The chart said saidDark Dark Star alertly ridden took command soon after the start set the pace to the stretch under steady rating then responded readily when set down in the drive and lasted to withstand Native Dancer but won with little left Native Dancer roughed on the first turn by Money Broker was eased back to secure racing room raced wide during the run to the upper turn then saved ground entering the stretch and fin ¬ ished strongly but could not overtake the winner although probably best bestWhat What the chart could not tell was what Arcaro saw as Native Dancer turned into the stretch Eddie was riding Mrs G Guibersons Correspondent which finished fifth although Eddie had the horse in a contending position all the way Arcaro had Correspondent running second right behind Dark Star for one full mile of the race As he turned his horse around that final corner to show him that last heart ¬ breaking quarter mile to the finish Native Dancer drew up on the inside and passed him himNative Native Dancer was flying recalls Eddie and Im sure he would have caught Dark Star but suddenly I noticed that he acted very strangely He sort of checked himself as though he didnt know what he was get ¬ ting into Right there when he hesitated and didnt keep going for a moment I think he lost the race And nothing else did it but the noise noiseWhen When you turn into that Derby stretch in Kentucky the noise that greets you cant be imagined The crowd is hysterical It has been yelling for nearly two minutes And now it all reaches a crescendo It hits a horse from both sides the infield and the stands Threeyearolds arent accus ¬ tomed to that And you cant blame a horse if he wonders what the heck is going on onAnd And Ill tell you another thing that Derby stretch puzzles a jockey the first time he hits it too This may sound crazy but you actually feel as though youre rvui ning into a tunnel You see down at the finish line there are about 30 or 40 photog ¬ raphers right out on the race track Youve got to go between them and the inner rail From a distance they all look so peculiar that you wonder if your horse can squeeze through No you never can tell how a horse is going to react to all that uproar in the Derby DerbyProbably Probably the saddest reaction to a crowds roar ever recorded occurred when Queen Elizabeths game steeplechaser Devon Loch should have won the Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree a few fewContinued Continued on Page Eleven OReilly on Racing Continued from Page Three Threeyears years ago English crowds are seldom de ¬ monstrative In fact they put Yankee fans to sleep Their cheers seldom go beyond a polite handclapping with discreetly modu ¬ lated well dones murmured all over the place Thus a British horse hardly can be blamed if he expects to do his work in the atmosphere of a quiet cathedral cathedralOn On this occasion however Her Majesty was in the stands and her horse had the race won He had completed all but 50 smooth yards of a four and onehalf mile course over tremendous jumps Never in the more than a century old history of the race had this happened before So the loyal British subjects all of whom had a senti ¬ mental bet on the horse let out a sudden unEnglish yell that must have curdled all the clotted cream iri Yorkshire It certainly had a profound effect on the horse He jumped up in the air where there was no fence at all and came down spreadeagled on his belly Dick Francis the jockey has just written his memoirs and says It was the noise did it itMaybe Maybe Saturdays Derby horses should wear earmuffs Eh
