Readings: Smith
Excerpts from a Red Smith column (“The Melancholy Days are Come,” New York Times, 12/17/1971) that seem apt for this chilly, wet afternoon on which the Aqueduct feature, named for the much admired sports writer, is the final graded turf stakes in New York for the year and apprentice Jackie Davis earned her second career win aboard 9-1 Americanus in the third. Fellow “lady” bug Maylan Studart also picked up a win in the fifth on 6-1 Senor Enrico over the sloppy track.
Now is the winter of their discontent, the melancholy days without a thoroughbred running this side of Philadelphia, the cruel times when New York horseplayers are thrown upon the mercy of Howard J. Samuels and his off-track gambling hells.
Beaming through charcoal-gray darkness, yellow lights on the tote board at Aqueduct gave the time as 4:29 P.M. when the winner reached the finish of the 2,187th race of the season. Moments later the reedy voice of Fred Capossela came over the public address system for the last time…. On laggard feet, 25,380 immortal souls took their leave.
Reluctantly, they would go home. They would note with interest how the children had grown since March. Somehow they would get through 76 dark days squandering their earnings on rent and bed and shoes until the sun would shine again, however bleakly, and the bugle would call the horses to the post….
In the catacombs below stands, a man rapped on the door marked “Lady Jockeys.” “Are your eyes gray or blue?” he asked Robyn Smith. “Green,” she said, “but right now they’re red and green.”
Lady on Horseback
She was wiping away mud kicked into her comely face by Canning and Sip Sip Sip, who had burst out of the fog and rain and gloom in the last few yards to finish one, two in the final race and mete her back to third aboard Advance Warning.
The world’s prettiest jockey had five mounts on Getaway Day. She won smartly with Princely Margin at $50.39 for $2, was third with Advance Warnings and third with Schnappy, an 18-1 shot, finishing sixth and seventh with the others. Princely Margin was her 15th winner of the Aqueduct fall meeting. In 51 days she had 124 mounts and finished third or better with 37. Only nine males had a higher winning percentage.
“You’ve made it in the toughest league in the world,” a visitor told her. “You are one girl who has done what the others talked about.”
She agreed with a matter-of-fact nod….
“Has there been one ride that gave you special satisfaction?”
“The day at Saratoga when I rode Beaukins to a track record for Allen Jerkens….”
