Swaps in Romping Will Rogers Win: Leads Stablemate, Bequeath, by Twelve Lengths, Running Mile in 1:35 at Hollywood, Daily Racing Form, 1955-06-01

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. Swaps in Romping Will Rogers Win Leads Stablemate, Bequeath, By Twelve Lengths, Running Mile in 1 :35 at Hollywood HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., May 31. — Rex C. Ellsworths Swaps, who conquered the Easts best three-year-olds in the Kentucky Derby, demonstrated his superiority over Western sophomores when he won the 7,150 Will Rogers Handicap at one mile on the Memorial Day card. Nashua finished within hailing distance of the Ellsworth colt in the Churchill Downs classic, but Swaps took the Will Rogers by a whopping 12 lengths and all1 the while he was widening on his rivals he was under double wraps by Willie Shoemaker. The performance set veteran horsemen wondering whether they had ever seen a horse travel so fast and so easily. After getting a good early position, Swaps was never out of a pull and in running the eight furlongs in 1:35 under 126 pounds he was only one -fifth second off the track record which the four-year-old Alidon set last Saturday under 113 pounds in the Argonaut Handicap. Closest to Swaps at the finish of the Will Rogers, which marked his first start since his Kentucky Derby triumph, was his own stablemate Bequeath who set the early pace for him. A nose behind Bequeath came Phil A. Klips teins Mr. Sullivan while completing the field of six were the Sunny Side Stables Beau Busher, A. J. Creveolins Golden Land and the W L Ranchs Jack Magic. The Ellsworth stables stragegy was for Bequeath to make the early pace and for Swaps to pik him up when he was ready. As it turned out the Derby winner could have tal.en the lead much earlier, but on the second turn he did assume command and it was while he was under stout restraint. Once on top Swaps continued to draw out with Shoemaker standing up in the stirrups for certainly one of the most decisive victories in stakes history. Some might say that there wasnt a great deal behind Swaps in the Will Rogers, but the fact remains that all five of his opponents were stakes winners and he was spotting them from 4 to 12 pounds. Mr. Sullivan raced in third position from soon after the start and he was much the best of the others. He led Beau Busher under the wire by three lengths. Jack Magic, who was a stakes winner in England, broke in the air and dwelt at the start to only slightly mar an otherwise truly run race. The crowd of 62,752 made Swaps and his running companion favorite at ods of 15 cents to the dollar and they may have been long odds at that considering the ease with which he won. His share of the purse was 4,850 and .that brought his 1955 earnings up to 30,550. Swaps next opportunity in his own division comes in the Cinema Handicap on June 28, but his connections now may be tempted to start him in the 00,000 Cali-fornian against older horses on June 11.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1955060101/drf1955060101_3_5
Local Identifier: drf1955060101_3_5
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800