At Santa Anita

Constance Bennett bet $5. Jack Oakie was made up in a red beard. Ruby Keeler went on crutches. John Hay Whitney sat in the Donald Ogden Stewart box. Bing Crosby chased Mrs. William Sexton's hat when it blew off in a gust of wind. When the horses went to the post for the $127,000 Santa Anita Handicap, Equipoise was favorite at odds of 8-to-5.

A slow-witted policeman collared Columnist Sidney Skolsky, thinking he was a tout. Publisher William Randolph Hearst sat in a box with his four sons. Fred Astaire bet on Twenty Grand, Mae West played Ladysman and Equipoise. In the Turf Club, Al Jolson lunched with Irvin S. Cobb and Sam Rosoff. The 20 horses at the barrier finally got away and pounded past the grandstand in a bunch.

Mrs. Clark Gable had a suit made of leather. Marion Davies wore blue, Mrs. Robert Montgomery grey. In the crowd of 50,000 were Janet Gaynor, Irving Thaiberg, Samuel Goldwyn, M. H. Aylesworth, Norma Shearer. The field thundered past the grandstand for the second time and the race was over. Azucar, a chestnut steeplechaser owned by Frederick Moulton Alger of Detroit, was first, at odds of 12-to-1. Ladysman was second, Time Supply third. Far back were oldtime favorites--Mate sixth, Equipoise seventh, Twenty Grand tenth, Faireno last.

Richest horse race in U. S. turf history was the Belmont Futurity of 1929 ($130,260). When the proprietors of Southern California's new track last summer announced the Santa Anita Handicap, for a purse of $100,000, racehorse owners promptly pricked up their ears. Mrs. Dodge Sloane's Cavalcade, 3-year-old champion in 1934, was quickly entered. Mrs. Payne Whitney brought her Twenty Grand out of retirement where he had been since 1932. A. C. Bostwick brought Mate back from England. By winning, either Mate or C. V. Whitney's Equipoise could have beaten Sun Beau's record of earning $376,744 in the course of his career. At Santa Anita, confusion attended the preliminaries of the handicap. Cavalcade injured his hoof, had to be withdrawn. Twenty Grand trained poorly, was nearly withdrawn. For a time it looked as if Equipoise might be scratched. And after the race, it was announced that Equipoise would be shipped to Kentucky to be retired, aged seven. Troubled as often before by a bad leg, he had pulled up lame at the end of the Santa Anita. Winner of $338,660 during five years, Equipoise still held the world's mile record, 1 min. 34 4/5 sec.

When the race was over, Anita Baldwin, daughter of the late Elias Jackson ("Lucky") Baldwin, on whose onetime ranch the Santa Anita track was built, put a wreath of roses around Azucar's neck. Azucar shied, shook off the wreath, ran 150 yd. down the track.

That few Santa Anita sportsmen had the presence of mind to bet on Azucar ("Sugar," in Spanish) was not surprising. Seven-year-old son of Milesius-Clarice, he was one of the best steeplechasers in the U. S. Joseph E. Widener bought him in England as a yearling, raced him abroad for two years, shipped him to the U. S., had him trained for steeplechasing, sold him to Fred Alger for $8,000 last June. When Owner Alger's trainer observed that Azucar was outdistancing flat-racers in workouts, they decided to race him at Saratoga. He had won $12,000 in flat racing up to last week. His 27-year-old owner, grandson of President McKinley's Secretary of War Russell Alger, has stables at Grosse Pointe and at Metamora, Mich., plays polo at Grosse Pointe, seldom bets on races, plans to race Azucar in the East next summer, send him to England for the Grand National in 1936.

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