Sound Investment

Last December, when nominations closed for the $100,000 Santa Anita Maturity Stakes, Elizabeth Arden Graham decided to let her Ace Admiral stay in his stall. Citation, 1948's wonder horse, looked like an obvious shoo-in. Then Citation injured his left foreleg, and temporarily retired from the wars. Hastily Mrs. Graham's Maine Chance Farm shipped Ace Admiral west, and plunked down $5,000 for the handsome chestnut colt's late entry in the Maturity.

It was a sound investment. Last week, the biggest crowd of the year (52,000) bet the most money of the year ($2,847,663) on the first big race of Doc Strub's rich Santa Anita winter season (TIME, Jan. 31). The track had been a quagmire much of the meeting, but sun and 1,000 tons of beach sand had finally dried it out. Most of the dozen four-year-olds were in patently poor condition. Ace Admiral quickly took the lead, was never in danger of being headed, and won by half a length in 2:02 1/3. Said Jockey Johnny Gilbert: "This colt is going to be tough to beat in the [Santa Anita] Handicap next month."

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