Prospects & Dope

After two years of famine, Florida was all set for the biggest horse racing jamboree in its history. Tents had to be pitched to stable the overflow of horses; enough jockeys were on hand to stock two race tracks; the tourist stampede had begun. The picture looked beautiful.

With no wartime blackouts to worry about, hard-luck Gulfstream Park (plagued for five years by bankruptcy and anti-racing bans) raised its purse ante 100%. For its opening-day Broward Handicap last week, Gulfstream drew too many horses (enough to run in two divisions), twice the attendance (20,216) it drew on commencement day last year. The mutuel handle--with $805,866 jammed through the machines--was up almost 100%.

But winter racing's sunny prospects couldn't quite cut the fog that hung over the just ended northern season. With two big-name trainers, Tom Smith and Dolly Byers, already charged with doping horses, the Maryland Racing Commission decided to check further. It consulted a new saliva test chemist. Result: four horses that won at Pimlico on Nov. 19, one that finished fifth two days earlier, were found to have been doped.

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