Sport: The $200 Horse

As a yearling, Counterpoint cracked a bone in his ankle, and it was questionable whether he would ever get to the races (“You wouldn’t have given $200 for him,” said his trainer afterwards). As a two-year-old, the colt raced only twice, earning a measly $700. This year, since running a dull eleventh in the Kentucky Derby, he has turned into the runningest three-year-old in the U.S. He broke the track record at Belmont to win the Peter Pan Handicap, captured the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes, bruised a foot so badly he was laid up for two months, then came back to win the Lawrence Realization and the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, in which he upset odds-on four-year-old Hill Prince.

Last week, in the Empire City Gold Cup, Counterpoint again met Hill Prince. The public, refusing to believe what they had seen, again made Hill Prince an overwhelming odds-on (7-20) favorite. Flawlessly ridden by Eddie Arcaro, handsome Hill Prince ran like a champion. Leggy, light-bodied Counterpoint (2-1), with his regular jockey Dave Gorman up, stayed off the pace for the first mile, moved to Hill Prince coming into the stretch and won by a length and a quarter going away.

Counterpoint, carrying 119 Ibs. to Hill Prince’s 126 in the weight-for-age race, covered the mile and five furlongs in 2:42½, tying Stymie’s 1946 track record.

Counterpoint’s win finally convinced most skeptics that the C. V. Whitney homebred* is a natural distance runner. The winner’s share of the $35,800 Gold Cup purse brings the colt’s 1951 earnings to a total of $209,025. If his racing luck holds, he will probably end the year as the leading money-winner as well as the three-year-old and horse-of-the-year titleholder.

*By Count Fleet, the leading three-year-old of 1943 and a top contender for 1951 sire honors.