How Arcaro Did It

Sword Dancer unquestionably is a fine horse, but he was first in the Woodward because Arcaro combined patience with perfect, split-second judgment. Arcaro wasted not a step of his mount's energy for a long mile, then struck at the precise moment when victory was attainable. An instant of indecision and the race might well have been lost. As he describes it: "At the quarter pole (below left) I was faced with the problem of going around three horses in front of me unless a hole opened. Driving down to the eighth pole, I looked up and saw that Bald Eagle was beginning to veer out just a bit. I dove into that hole between him and Careless John (below right) as quick as I could. You've got to have a real horse to be able to cash in that quick. Sword Dancer had gone a long way, but he still had terrific speed left. If he didn't we would have been in trouble."

1 Tompion
1A Dotted Swiss
3 Sword Dancer
4 Careless John
6 Warhead
7 Bald Eagle
8 T.V. Lark