Native Dancer Read Free

one, the horses were loaded into the starting gate as early evening enveloped the track and a slanting
     sun cast lengthening shadows. After a brief pause, the gate doors opened and the horses came charging out. A roar went up
     from the crowd. Was there a better sports moment than a fast horse’s reach for greatness?
    Seen from the grandstand, horses on the Widener course started as tiny, vague shapes in the distance and grew larger and clearer
     to the fans only as they neared the finish line in front of the grandstand. The crowd relied on track announcer Fred Caposella’s
     distinctive nasal call, listening for any mention of the Dancer. Guerin settled the horse five lengths behind Little Request
     as the Californian set the anticipated fast pace, covering the first half mile in 46⅖ seconds.
    Races on the Widener course were often won by top jockeys, their skills especially valuable on the seldom-used track. Any
     jockey could tell when he had covered a half mile or was turning for home on the main oval, but those markers were harder
     to judge on a straightaway. Jockeys with less ability or poorer instincts often moved at the wrong time, and in a short race
     for young horses, that was usually fatal. “Jockeyship often took effect on the chute,” recalled Hall of Fame trainer Allen
     Jerkens, who began his career in New York in 1950. “You had to be pretty darn good to win the Futurity.”
    Guerin had won it on Blue Peter in 1948, and after navigating an easy half mile on the Dancer, he inched the horse out of
     the pack and toward the front. It was time to make the winning move the crowd had expected. But just as the Dancer’s ears
     went back, Arcaro, a jockey so adept at measuring pace and timing moves he was nicknamed the Master, struck boldly. He drove
     Tahitian King, a 10-1 shot, through a hole on the far rail, past Little Request and into the lead. The crowd screamed with
     surprise as Caposella’s pitch rose and Little Request, suddenly fading, blocked the Dancer’s path and stalled the favorite
     in the pack. The big grey had never experienced anything like this.
    If any jockey could take a lesser horse and steal the Futurity, it was Arcaro. At age thirty-six, he was still in the prime
     of a career that had included five Kentucky Derby victories and dozens of other triumphs in major races such as the Futurity,
     which he had won three times. He was at his best in the big events, and his move on Tahitian King was a classic. Knowing he
     wasn’t on a horse that could beat the Dancer in a stretch duel, he had preemptively grabbed the lead, hoping the favorite
     might get blocked long enough to cause problems. The plan had worked, and Arcaro, sensing a possible upset, asked Tahitian
     King for a finishing kick.
    That the Dancer was behind so late in a race wasn’t unusual. He had trailed in all of his races until making a late move,
     then often, curiously, loafed to the finish line once he had established his superiority, almost as if he wanted the others
     to catch him. After months of observation, Winfrey had deduced that the horse preferred the company of others when he raced;
     running alone and in front bored him, it seemed. Winfrey had thus conditioned him to race behind the front-runners, in traffic,
     until it almost seemed too late, accelerating just in time to win at the end, leaving little time for loafing.
    But if it was normal that he was behind Tahitian King with a quarter mile left in the Futurity, it wasn’t normal that horses
     were in front of him and on either side, leaving him without a running lane. Guerin knew he had to react quickly. A successful
     rider on the New York circuit, known for his cool head and steady hand, he recognized that the race was on the verge of getting
     away. He hesitated, hoping the pack around him would begin to break up, and knowing he was in trouble if it didn’t Magically,
     it did: Little Request dropped toward the rear, fading fast, and a sliver of