$10,000 Cakewalk

Rose Bowl of horse racing is the Pimlico Special, held at old Pimlico, outside Baltimore, at the end of the racing season. Invited to run this year were nine of the nation's headliners. At post time last week only one answered the bugle.

In a stake race, the show goes on even if there is only one performer. In the stands 10,000 fans watched the track--not so much to see the rarity of a walkover (only 18 in the U.S. since 1910) as the popular headliner who had scared away eight rivals: Warren Wright's twinkle-toed Whirlaway. A sort of Veronica Lake of the turf, Whirly can draw a crowd even if he does nothing but swish his long golden tail.

Last week Whirlaway gave his admirers more than a swish. Dressed in his devil's-red hood with one-eyed blinker (to keep him from bearing out), he strutted to the post, cakewalked around the track until he reached the stretch, then, with nothing to pass but the grandstand, put on the famed finishing sprint that has made him the turf world's top money winner. Time: 2:05 2/5 for the mile-and-three-sixteenths.

For this personal appearance, Whirlaway got $10,000--the biggest purse ever won in a walkover.

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