Scorecard

Problems of orthography seldom occur in hunting, but they are about to, it seems, because of the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission's program of importing exotic game animals. The prospect arose last week when a Siberian ibex gave birth to twins.

What is the plural of ibex? New Mexico newspapers, holding that the plural of index is indices, have, with a certain logic, been calling the twins ibices. Webster permits ibexes, ibices and even ibex, in that order of preference. "The plural of ibex is ibexes," says Dr. Frank C. Hibben, professor and member of the commission.

We report, therefore, that the commission now has five ibexes, eight oryxes and eight orthographically uncomplicated kudus in the Albuquerque zoo. Under federal law none of these, except the ibex twins, can be released in the wilds, but their offspring can be. The ibex twins may be the first released for eventual public hunting of rare beasts in the semi-desert country of New Mexico.

SOMETHING IN A NAME

Few secrets of war or peace are better kept than the details of a bookmaker's book—even in Britain, where betting with bookies is legal. But the day before the recent Derby, Billy Hill, England's biggest turf commissioner, opened his future book to a reporter for The Sporting Life. It was the first time any outsider ever had been permitted such a view, and it revealed that Hill had excellent reason to root against Santa Claus, the favorite. At that time the book said that a Santa Claus win would cost Hill $310,814. Santa Claus did win.

A common view of the bookmaking business holds that the bookies try to balance their bets and odds in such a fashion that they will emerge with a profit no matter what horse wins, and that they avoid disaster by laying off dubious bets with other bookmakers. Well, they do try, but Hill was handicapped by a number of factors. For one, as a matter of pride, he does not hedge bets but rather does a large business with bookies who lay off with him. For another, Hill's book was badly out of balance because there were so few nonrunners (scratch money goes to the bookie) and because no horse came in at the last moment from Ireland or France, as usually happens, thus leveling things up.

Finally, the favorite had a name, Santa Claus, that caught the public fancy—unlike Roquefeuil, whose name is unpronounceable to Englishmen, a fact that helped make him the least-backed horse in a field of 17. A total of only $92.40 was bet on Roquefeuil and had he won, Hill would have profited by more than $280,000. As it was, he stood to lose if any of seven horses out of 17 came in first. Santa Claus had been favored even in the future books and was the first winter favorite to win the Derby since Dante did in 1945.

"My book would have looked better if Santa Claus had been named Tom Jones," observed Hill.

CLEAN LINES

In a recent issue of the Saturday Review dedicated to "Design in America," Walter Dorwin Teague picked the 20 best industrial designs since World War II. In addition to such classics as an Olivetti Lettera 2 typewriter and an Eames chair, Teague picked eight items from the realm of sport: the Head ski, the Scott ski pole, a Honda motorcycle, a Porsche 904, two Russian target pistols, a Triton sloop and a Boston Whaler.