What's In A Name?

MEADOW LANDS SETS PACE

With his strategy set and a still-warm horse at the end of the lines, Miller tore away from the starting gate at top speed, made the front by the eighth pole despite the fact that he came from No. 5 post position. The first half he set as fast a pace as he dared, not over-tiring his own horse and yet forcing Adios Express and Morris Eden to use up some of their strength if they wanted to keep within striking distance. It was a delicate balance to maintain, one that only a master of pace could manage perfectly. For an instant, Miller yielded first place at the half, and then took it right back, refusing to allow anyone to sit down in front of him and slow the pace. In the final turn, Morris Eden and Adios Express had to make their moves or quit. Eden simply had nothing left after the early fast going, and faded badly. Express had clung to the rail all the way, saving ground and hoping to get clear later. But into the turn, he was stuck behind a tiring lot of colts—tiring just as Miller had hoped and planned they would—and he had to go three-wide to get around them. After that, in the stretch, Express could not make up the ground Meadow Lands had on him. Miller won by three quarters of a length, with Nyland Hanover, driven by Johnny Simpson, second and Adios Express, driven by Joe O'Brien, third.

It was a justly deserved victory for a fine horseman, and for someone else it was an excellent morale booster. Back in Washington, Pa., Miller's wife—Mary Lib to the harness fraternity—was lying in the hospital after an operation for a badly burned leg, the result of a cooking accident. Pretty, vivacious Mrs. Miller never misses Del's big races by choice. The nurses got Mary Lib up at 1:30 a.m., when the news arrived, and they celebrated with a special ration of coffee and cake from the hospital kitchen.