Assault, by Himself

The mighty roar from 100,000 unparched throats dribbled off into silence. In the Churchill Downs jockey room skinny, Brooklyn-born Warren Mehrtens sponged the dirt off his face. Said he: "I knew I had 'em all at the head of the stretch--and oh, what a wonderful feeling."

From the start of last week's Kentucky Derby, 26-year-old Jockey Mehrtens suspected he had quite a horse under him. For seven furlongs he sat tensely tight--then he began laying the whip into chestnut, Texas-born Assault. An 8-1 white hope whose home base is the 900,-ooo-acre King Ranch of Texan Robert

Kleberg, Assault bolted through on the inside to take command. In the excitement of riding his first Derby, Mehrtens forgot to stop whipping. Assault flashed under the wire all by himself, an eight-length winner of the richest Derby ever (first-place money: $96,400).

Front-running Spy Song and stretch-driving Hampden were closest. Elizabeth Arden Graham's even-money entry finished out of the money. Knockdown ran out of gas after seven furlongs; Lord Boswell, with usually shrewd Eddie Arcaro up, twice ran into pockets on the backstretch. This week's $100,000 Preakness at Baltimore would tell whether Assault was really that good.

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