Forbra and Phar Lap

At Aintree. The biggest steeplechaser in the year's biggest steeplechase--the 93rd Grand National last week at Aintree, England -- was a Chestnut owned by C. P. Brocklehurst named Pelorus Jack. Waiting for the start, while the heavier jockeys stood beside their mounts to avoid tiring them, Pelorus Jack was well-behaved. He balked at one of the early jumps and unseated his rider. At the Canal Turn, a 6-ft. ditch and 5-ft. hedge of fir in front of a right-angle turn, Pelorus Jack was responsible for one of those moments of wild confusion which occur in every Grand National and make it the most dangerous, most uncertain horse race in the world.

Pelorus Jack cleared the jump. Then, riderless, he swung wildly across the track instead of turning the sharp corner. He crowded Heartbreak Hill, the favorite. He tripped Gregalach who won in 1929 and Grakle who won last year. He blundered into six others, knocking them down. He kicked Sea Soldier (a son of Man o'War), the only U. S.-bred horse in the race. When the field gathered itself from the confusion, a scattered line instead of a close cavalcade, the favorites were out of the running. A horse called Forbra, owned by a West-of-England bookmaker named Parsonage, running at odds of 50-to-1 was ahead. Egremont, Shaun Goilin and Sea Soldier were well up. Only nine of the 36 starters finished the first circuit of the course.

Egremont and Forbra fought for the lead the second time around. Coming to the last fence but one, Egremont was a stride ahead but Forbra passed him at the last jump, stood off a challenge on the flat and was three lengths in front at the wire, with Shaun Goilin a slow third and five others--Near East, Aspirant, Heartbreak Hill, Annandale, Sea Soldier--plunging after them to the finish.

Though twelve of the 36 starters were U. S.-owned, there were fewer Americans than usual among the 500,000 who saw the Grand National last week. The Marshall Fields, the S. Bryce Wings and Cinemactor Gary Cooper were there. But no liners docked specially at Liverpool as they did last year. The Prince of Wales and his brother George arrived by plane, landed on a ploughed field. Richard K. Mellon (nephew) had crossed just in time for the race. He saw his two horses, Alike and Glangesia, fail at the third fence, with John Hay ("Jock") Whitney's Dusty Foot and M. D. Blair's Aruntius.

Like the Epsom Derby, the Manchester November Handicap, the Grand National is the subject of world-wide lotteries. This year U. S. newssheets were warned by the postal authorities that they would be prosecuted for advertising lotteries if they published the names of lottery winners in mail editions. Many a paper published the names of winners last week in their city editions but did not brave the law.

Aqua Caliente. Phar Lap is Javanese for lightning. Five years aso an Australian named Telford and a San Franciscan named Davis bought a yearling for $800 and named him Phar Lap. A huge red gelding, Phar Lap arrived in the U. S. two months ago, in a specially built cabin, accompanied by five attendants. Near his training quarters was dumped a sand pile so that he could roll in it every morning as he likes to do. Last week in the Agua Caliente Handicap, his first race in the U. S., Phar Lap was the favorite. He got away last after a delay at the post, took the lead at the head of the backstretch, drew away easily when Reveille Boy challenged at the finish. First prize--$50,000--brought the total of Phar Lap's winnings to $332,250, only $23,794 less than Sun Beau's all-time record.

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