The Prudent Milkman

One evening last week a plumpish little five-year-old pacer named Hi-Lo's Forbes sped around Baltimore Raceway to win its $10,000 Special Invitational free-for-all pace. The horse was one-tenth of a second off the track record, but in June at Long Island's Roosevelt Raceway he had set his own world mark for the mile (1:58 1/5). After such a triumph, his owner might properly have gone on a nightlong celebration. Instead, hefty Earl Wagner, 35, grabbed the first plane ride of his life to hurry back to his home in Landover Hills, Md. By three-thirty next morning he was busy as usual, driving his milk truck around Washington, D.C.

Hi-Lo's Forbes has already won $48,000 this season. Wagner plans to start easing the horse off now, sharpen him up for the time trials to be held in Lexington, Ky. in October, where he will be racing against the clock rather than against other horses. There, if the horse can beat the world record for time trials of 1:55, set in 1938 by Billy Direct, Wagner believes Hi-Lo's Forbes will be worth far more than the $50,000-a-year stud fees he now potentially merits as a full-time stud.

But Milkman Wagner, who has dabbled in horses since 1945 and bought Hi-Lo's Forbes as a two-year-old (for $275) from a relative, is not yet ready to declare his independence of cows. "I've been working eight years to feed my horses, now one of them is feeding me," he grants. But he adds worriedly: "A horse can go lame just standing in a stable."

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