Stretch Runner

Not many of the wise old railbirds liked Stymie's chances. Hadn't Assault come from behind to beat him the week before? Obviously Assault, undefeated in 1947, was the horse to beat, and one of the few hesitations the wise guys had was over those two unpredictable horses specially flown in from the Argentine and Brazil.

Strange reports had come from the workouts at Belmont Park. The bred-in-Argentina halfbrothers, Endeavor II and Ensueno, were being ridden without saddles, their peon exercise boys astride nothing more comforting than white sheets. Clockers and rival trainers were impressed: those dark bays were moving faster in their morning trials than many good horses travel during their afternoon races.

As the field of seven paraded to the post for last week's running of the $100,000 International Gold Cup, first truly international race of the air age on U.S. turf, Assault was a 1-to-2 favorite. As usual he got away slowly, and so did Stymie, who was third in the betting (at 5-to-1). A 25-to-1 shot named Natchez went to the front, with the two Latins on his heels.

At the three-quarter pole, Assault was 17 lengths behind the pace-setting Natchez, who liked the sloppy going, and Stymie was five lengths behind Assault. Coming into the stretch, it happened. A couple of mud-spattered horses seemed to pull away from the other trailers. From the finish line the leader looked like Assault, and cheers went up from the crowd. Actually, it was Stymie. He had overtaken Assault, and with thundering strides passed him. Then he took after Natchez and beat him by a neck at the finish of the 1 3/8 mile grind.

It was Stymie's 28th and greatest win in 106 starts, earned him $73,000. For the second time in two weeks, Hirsch Jacobs' rags-to-riches chestnut (he was picked up for $1,500 in a selling race) had replaced Assault as the world's top money-winning ($678,510) race horse.

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