Wonder Boy Jockey

Last week Jockey Jack Flinchum lost his "bug." Ordinarily, there is no national to-do when an apprentice jockey loses his bug (the five-pound weight advantage allowed first-year riders, dubbed "bug" because of the asterisk that precedes the weights of bug-ridden horses on race programs). But Jockey Jack Flinchum, a baby-faced 17-year-old who looks like an angel and rides like the devil, has in the past three months become the darling of U. S. racing fans.

At Miami's Hialeah Park and Tropical Park, winter visitors, converging from all over the country, took to the cute little Puss-in-boots as movie fans took to Shirley Temple a few years ago. Oldtimers as well as race-going recruits ignored form charts, played Flinchum regardless of his mount. Booting home winner after winner, against top-notchers like Eddie Arcaro and Don Meade. he was the sensation of the Florida racing season.

Last week, on the first anniversary of his first winning ride at a U. S. race track, little Jack Flinchum could look back on an imposing record: in 1,167 races--at Hot Springs, Keeneland, Louisville, Cleveland and other lesser tracks before going to Miami--he had booted home 190 winners, 162 to place, 132 to show. With 63 winners since the first of the year, he was last week leading the race for No. 1 jockey of 1940.

What little Jack Flinchum saw ahead of him was even more exciting: two days before he was presented with five pounds of lead weights (tied with a festive blue ribbon) to symbolize his metamorphosis from a bug rider to a full-fledged jockey, he was signed up by rich Sportsman Herbert Woolf (at a reputed salary of $20,000 a year plus 10% of winning purses). In the Kentucky Derby, Peewee Flinchum will probably ride Woolf's Prompt Pay, by the same sire as Lawrin (1938 Derby winner). His following hoped he would have better luck in the Derby than he did during his first bugless day. He rode four horses, but nary a winner.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.