Evening star., 1942-09-20
Finish So Close
Jockeys Can't
Tell Who Won
Soboth Colt Fights
OFF Blazing Stretch
Bid by 4-Yeor-OId
Continued From Page A-1.)

time he met his match. Twice dur
ing the trip around the track Alsab
opened leads of lengths, and again,
when the pair had negotiated nearly
two-thiTds of the distance. Alsab
took 2is-lengths lead The closest
Whirlaway got to Alsab was at the
wire. -"
Finish in Mad Rush.
The time was SO 2-5. more than
a second above the track record of
l:55 set in 1894 by Discovery, but
neither rider was out to establish
mark. The first three-quarters were
run in the very mediocre time of
1:l415, considered only fair for
maiden 2year-olds. but the last
three-siXteenths were incredibly fast
as Woolf shook up Whirlaway and
Bierman and Alsab answered the
challenge.
In that mad rush each horse
clicked off each sixteenth in sec
onds as both jockeys went to the
bats, Bierman screaming as he had
done from the start, Sab, Sab"
Alsab has habit of taking himself
up when out in front and to guard
against too much loafing Bierman
yelled the horse around until the
flnal sixteenth, when he joined
Woolf in waving whip.
AS betting race it was an al
most incredible flop. The big crowd
wagered only S35,142-an average
OF a dollar per person-and the
Army Emergency Relief and Navy
Relief Society, to which 6l2 per
cent of the betting, plus breakage,
was donated, was not swelled con-
siderably.
Short Odds Curb Bettors.
The crowd was intensely inter-
ested in the race as a competitive
test but the odds, 1-to-5 on Whirl-
away and 8-to-5 on the new
champion, were not tempting. Alsat
paid $500
1t was to the surprise of nobody
that Alsab popped first out of the
box and took the rail position which
Whirlaway had won IN the draw
The notoriously slow starting
Whirlaway, greatest money winner
OF all time, was two lengths back
at the sixteenth pole and not until
another quarter OF q mile was. run
did Warren Wright's racer make
move.
Then he picked up half length
lost it, regained it, and lost it again
All things considered. Whirlaway
clung closer to Alsab during the
early running than some. had ex.
pected, but the big difference toda,
was when Whirly went all out. In.
stead OF folding, as is usually the
case. Alsab met every test like &
champion.
The pulse of the crowd began Il
beat faster as Alsab and Whirlawa,
reached the far turn. where Whirl,
invariably makes the bid tha
crushes his rivals. but not until tn,
horses hit the top of the stretch dit
Whirly gain any ground. Then h.
came roaring.
Whirly Drifts" Slightly.
Whirlaway, again wearing tina
single blinker, did not run wide. bu
neither did he save the ground tina
Bierman boarded aboard Alsab. TIL,
colt never lost an inch but, a
Whirlaway heightened his stride ant
cut down Alsab's lead to head will
only two -sixteenths to go, h.
"drifted" slightly TT wasn't much,
said Woolf, the Idaho iceman. H
always drifts a little when h
reaches far in making his real run
but at that he probably lost enough
to lose the race. At least. it wa
the difference between defeat an,
dead heat"
Alsab's victory increased the win
nings of Lawyer Albert SABBATH
colt to $298,46 for 80 races in tw
years and Whirlaway, by those thre
or four inches, lost his chance t
soar well over the half-million mar
Had Whirly turned the trick today
his earnings would have totale
$516,136.
That's the drift" of it.