Derby Dough

Stir Up was the horse to beat, and 7-to-1 Pensive did it. Jockey Conn McCreary, a stocky-chested mite (99 lb. on a 4 ft. 8 in. frame) told how: "I held him back until we hit the stretch, then turned him loose. That's all there was to it."

Pensive just missed being scratched. Only a fortnight ago, he had been beaten by a 30-to-1 outsider. But the veteran team of Trainer Ben Jones and Owner Warren Wright, who won the Kentucky Derby with Whirlaway in 1941, finally decided to race their chestnut colt. The decision was worth $65,675 to Wright ($6,600 of it to the jockey) and paid Pensive's backers $16.20, $7.20 and $4.60. Despite wartime travel restrictions and an ODT decree that only local residents could attend, some 65,000 got to Churchill Downs in time to wager $655,372--the heaviest Derby betting since 1929.

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