Last Ride

Few 19-year-olds have been in the headlines as often as Jockey Earl Dew. Crowned U. S. riding champion of 1940, after nosing out another obscure 19-year-old named Walter Taylor on the very last day of the year, baby-faced Earl Dew was hailed as one of the most promising jockeys of his generation.

Last Sunday at Agua Caliente, the West Coast track where young Dew had won many a race, the management had arranged to present the champion with a gold watch, as a gala climax to the day's program. From the palatial stands the shrill yelling of 20,000 fans echoed through the mauve mountains, as field after field of selling platers pounded into the stretch.

In the sixth race, a sudden hush fell on the stands. Rounding the turn, Bosca, the favorite, tripped. Two other horses piled on her. Bosca lay on the track dead, her neck broken. Her jockey was rushed away in an ambulance. It was Earl Dew. Before he could get his applause and his gold watch, Hero Earl Dew died of a fractured skull.

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