BackTrack: The Easy Confidence of Arts and Letters

"I wish they would stop talking about Jim Dandy," Elliott Burch said on the morning of the 100th Travers Day.

It has been more than a century now since William R. Travers, first president of the Saratoga race track, decided to card a nice stakes race, name it for himself, and then win it with his 3-year-old, Kentucky. Well, you know it was long ago, for he was not sued by the HBPA.

Over the years, the Travers has remained a class event, the Midsummer Derby for 3-year-olds. It has produced some of the finest performances of a long list of champions. It was in the Travers that Jaipur and Ridan battled every inch of the way and at the end of 1 1/4 miles could not be separated by the naked eye.

It was in the Travers that we saw the best of Damascus, the strength of Buckpasser, the quality of Gallant Man, the power of Native Dancer, the class of Whirlaway, Granville, Twenty Grand. The history of the Travers abounds with top performances by top horses—Man o' War, Sun Briar, Roamer, Broomstick, Henry of Navarre, Hindoo, Tom Bowling, Joe Daniels, Harry Bassett, Ruthless.

Yet memory clings to the great upset, that day in 1930 when William Woodward Sr.'s Gallant Fox, winner of the Triple Crown, came out to do battle with Harry Payne Whitney's Whichone, victor over the unbeaten 3-year-old in the previous year's Futurity, in their last meeting. The Travers was the rematch of two champions. And Subway Sam Rossoff claimed he got $100 down with Tom Shaw at 150-1 on a third horse with the improbable name of Jim Dandy.

At the finish it was Jim Dandy by eight and Subway Sam by $15,100. It was the kind of thing that eclipses such performances as Babe Ruth's called shot in the 1932 World Series, Roger Bannister's mile, Bart Starr's quarterback sneak against Dallas. Racing men harbor the memory of Jim Dandy, nurture it as proof that the odds-on choice is never a certainty. Especially in the Travers. Only last year, 15-1 Chompion upset Forward Pass in the Travers. Then there was the year 20-1 Crewman, who led home such as Chateaugay, Candy Spots, and Never Bend. Readily come to mind the unexpected failures of Travers favorites Traffic Judge, Tom Fool, Bed o' Roses, and Phalanx.

Burch was nervous. He had the odds-on choice for the Travers in his barn. It was not an unfamiliar situation for the trainer. Every five years he comes up to Saratoga Race Course with a Belmont Stakes winner counted a dead cert for the Travers.

In 1959 he trained Sword Dancer for Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane. In 1964 he trained Quadrangle for Paul Mellon. This year he had Arts and Letters for Mellon. For the third time, Burch worried all the way to the winner's circle.

With the Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner Majestic Prince reportedly cooling his heels in the Surf where it meets the Turf at Del Mar, Arts and Letters unquestionably is the best 3-year-old in training and a definite candidate for Horse-of-the-Year honors.

After the Preakness, Arts and Letters took on the leading handicapper of the season, Nodouble, and, getting four pounds by scale, beat him in the Metropolitan Handicap. The son of Ribot then bested Majestic Prince at 1 1/2 miles in the Belmont Stakes and was given a rest.

Pointing for the Travers, Burch accepted the 128-pound assignment for Arts and Letters in the Monmouth Invitational Aug. 2. The monsoon season coincided with Monmouth Park's meeting, however, and when it seemed on the morning of the race that the track would never dry out, Burch declared Arts and Letters and shipped him to Saratoga.

On Aug. 8, Burch found a tightener. It was called the Jim Dandy Stakes, of all things, and it proved to be a reminder only that Arts and Letters was indeed an exceptional 3-year-old, one in top form, that could handle with ears pricked the likes of Dwyer-winner Gleaming Light and less qualified rivals.

On Travers Day the ropes went up around the No. 5 tree in the Saratoga paddock. Rope watchers noted that this treatment in itself put Arts and Letters in a class with Buckpasser, Kelso, and Native Dancer, which also required crowd-restrainers in the Saratoga paddock.

With some 40,000 horses racing this season, it seems odd, but there really is only one star shining right now. Racing's star is Arts and Letters, a well-muscled but relatively small (15.2 hands) dark chestnut colt of marked by intelligence and considerable ability.

For the Travers, A.B. Hancock Jr. decided to try Arts and Letters again with his consistent Herbager colt, Dike, which had been running well against older horses since finishing third in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont. Gleaming Light, owned by Albany hotel man Neil Hellman, would try again. Robert G. Kleberg Jr. sent Distray. Meadow Stable's Hydrologist was saddled by new trainer Roger Laurin.

There was no Jim Dandy in this field. Gleaming Light and Hydrologist dueled on the front end for a mile in 1:36 4/5 while Braulio Baeza had Arts and Letters going along easily, four lengths back in fourth place, while Dike trailed the field by five lengths.

Going into the far turn, Dike began a move. Dramatically. He closed the gap with a big rush on the turn and he drew even with Arts and Letters in the midst of a wide sweep around the tiring early pace-setters.

It seemed at the head of the stretch that it would be a real horse race—Dike and Arts and Letters. It was not. As soon as relative margins could be ascertained, it was found that Arts and Letters had spurted away to a decisive lead. After two tentative reminders, Baeza put away his whip at the eighth pole and hand-rode Arts and Letters home, finishing with a widening 6 1/2-length margin over Dike.

The time for 1 1/4 miles, 2:01 3/5, equaled the mark set 23 years ago by Lucky Draw and matched by Travers winners Jaipur, Buckpasser, and Damascus. It was not the time, though (Mrs. E.S. Moore's Comfrey broke the six-furlong track record in the next race), that distinguished this race.

It was the easy confidence of Arts and Letters.