Sport: Back in the Swim

At the end of the harness racing season two years ago, Dunbar W. Bostwick sadly contemplated Chris Spencer, his eight-year-old trotter. Soon after setting a track record of 3 min. 10½ sec. in the 1½-mile Gotham trot, the aging gelding had gone lame and looked finished. But Optimist Bostwick had observed that trotters swim at a trotting gait. He reasoned that Chris might get back his bounce if he could exercise his legs without jarring them on a hard track.

At his Vermont farm on Lake Champlain, Bostwick began giving Chris regular dips, towing him behind a motorboat. Chris improved enough to win two starts last year, but again pulled up lame. Last week, after many more lake workouts and a hot 1952 campaign, Chris, now a venerable ten-year-old, was back at Yonkers Raceway near New York City, a 6-to-1 shot in a renewal of the $25,000 Gotham Trot. Starting in the second tier, Chris passed such topnotch trotters as Yankee Hanover, Pronto Don and Main-liner, breezed across the finish six lengths ahead. The sea horse’s time: 3 min. 9 sec., breaking his own track record.