Richest in History

The weather was clear, the track was fast, and the stake, $205,700, was the richest in the history of thoroughbred racing. Except for the absence of three topflight four-year-olds originally slated to run./- the fourth running of the Santa Anita Maturity had everything the most exacting railbird could ask of a great horse race.

Well on the outside in the field of eleven, at post position ten, was John T. De Blois Wack's big, bad-tempered colt.

Great Circle. While he had done well in numerous Western races and set a new track record in winning the Del Mar Derby last year, Great Circle had not fulfilled his promise in recent tries. This time his jockey was Willie Shoemaker, co-holder of top 1950 riding honors. Willie rode the big brown colt at Santa Anita last month and learned a useful lesson: Great Circle can run in the clear, but when he is close in with the field he is apt to fall back. For the Maturity, Shoemaker put the lesson to work.

For the first half-mile of the mile-and-a-quarter race, Shoemaker "just folded up on him and let him run his own race," while two fillies, Next Move and Special Touch, fought for the lead. But in the run down the backstretch, Shoemaker began bringing Great Circle up on the outside. Coming into the stretch, with Shoemaker giving him plenty of whip, he overhauled the pacemakers, won by a length and three-quarters.

Great Circle, relatively lightly regarded inthe odds (9-1), set a new record for the Maturity: 2 :00 2/5. He earned a purse $144,325 for his owner, $14,000 for his breeder, Louis B. Mayer, and another $14,000 for Willie Shoemaker--all three record figures. Second and third money ($20,000 and $15,000) went to T. G Benson's Lotowhite and Alfred Vanderbilt's Bed o' Roses.

For Vanderbilt, show money was small consolation: in making her final bid, Bed Roses, top two-year-old filly of 1949 pulled up lame with a spread hoof. If she had been able to finish on four good legs instead of three and a heart, she might have won.

/-Middleground, Your Host and Hill Prince, all out with cracked or broken leg bones.

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