Native Dancer (10 page)

It was deemed a routine projection in 1952, however, and the Dancer’s busy month started with the Flash on August 4. Skies
were sunny in central New York after a morning rain. The usual eclectic blend of society icons, gamblers, and horsemen was
on parade among a crowd of 15,000. Jock Whitney and his sister, Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson, the co-owners of Greentree, flew
in from Casco Bay, Maine, where they summered, and greeted Vanderbilt in his box overlooking the finish line. Guests staying
at the elegant Gideon Putnam Hotel, nestled in the trees near town, came to the track and lingered in front of the betting
windows.

The Dancer was made the favorite in the Flash at 4-5 odds, but he was beaten out of the gate and up the backside by Tiger
Skin, a Greentree colt who had won his first race, and then was passed on the turn by a long shot named Torch of War. But
just as he had in his first two races months earlier, the Dancer accelerated when turning for home, with minimal urging from
Guerin, and quickly moved ahead. Torch of War faded and Native Dancer sprinted alone down the stretch, reaching the finish
line two and a quarter lengths in front of Tiger Skin.

Winfrey watched the race from Vanderbilt’s box and soon found his way to the barn. The grey colt had put on quite a show,
beating able, fresher horses as if they, not he, were coming off a layoff. Winfrey elected to give the colt twelve more days
off before bringing him back in the Saratoga Special, a six-furlong event known for its unusual financial conditions: the
owners put up the $17,000 purse themselves and the winner got it all. That attracted a solid field, including Tahiti, another
undefeated son of Polynesian, and Tiger Skin.

The race was run on the day of the Travers Stakes, Saratoga’s most important race, but rain fell through the morning and early
afternoon, limiting the crowd and leaving the Dancer to negotiate for the first time a track rated “sloppy.” He was still
the favorite at 7-10, and as usual, he was settled behind the leaders after breaking from the gate, with Guerin positioning
him along the rail. Doc Walker, a long shot, set the pace for the first half mile, with Tahiti and Tiger Skin close behind
and the Dancer fourth. Coming out of the turn, Guerin swung the colt off the rail and asked him to run. The Dancer blew past
Doc Walker and coasted to the finish line three and a half lengths ahead, with Tiger Skin and Tahiti out of the money.

His superiority was indisputable. Joe Palmer wrote in the
New York Herald Tribune
that “as far as Saratoga is concerned, Native Dancer has only one barrier left, Tahitian King.” That was yet another undefeated
son of Polynesian. The horses met a week later in the Grand Union Hotel Stakes. Eleven horses were entered in the sixfurlong
race. New York racing secretary John Campbell assigned Native Dancer the top weight, 126 pounds, meaning the horse would carry
that much as a handicap, the total including Guerin. “Native Dancer is tops with me,” Campbell told reporters. Tahitian King
was given the next-highest weight assignment, 122 pounds, along with Laffango, a colt making his Saratoga debut after winning
four straight races in New Jersey.

With three tough horses in the field, six of the other eight entrants were scratched on the day of the race. “They were waiting
in line at scratch time this morning, and I didn’t blame them for wanting to get out,” said John Gaver, the Princeton-educated
trainer for Greentree. They were scratching mostly to avoid the Dancer, of course. “If he doesn’t win this one, I’m not only
going to be surprised, I’m going to be very disappointed,” a confident Vanderbilt told reporters shortly before post time.

The horse’s reputation was beginning to spread. The largest crowd in Saratoga history—26,232 fans—jammed the track on an afternoon
that, Joe Palmer wrote, “was cool enough for a lady to wear a mink if she had one, and warm enough that if she didn’t, she
could pretend she had left it at home.” All eyes were on the Dancer and Tahitian King. The Dancer broke first from the starting
gate, then dropped to third along the rail, behind Laffango and Tahitian King, as the pack moved up the backside and into
the turn. At his favorite spot—turning for home—the Dancer swept wide of the leaders, passed Tahitian King and Laffango, opened
up a lead, and coasted to the finish line three and a half lengths in front. So much for the battle of unbeatens. Tahitian
King was no match for the Dancer. The colt had now won five in a row without Guerin even once using the stick to urge an extra
effort, and imaginations were beginning to stir. The Associated Press reported that the horse had “run like another Citation,
or as some predict, another Man O’ War.”

It had been a long month; as always in August at Saratoga, the afternoons and evenings were hot, and the mosquitoes were terrible.
The Dancer, like many greys, had a sensitive hide, so the buzzing of mosquitoes and flies agitated him. Murray also was annoyed.

“You just like me, you bum,” the groom grumbled as he pinned bandages to the Dancer’s legs after a morning workout. “That
buzz makin’ me sweat That buzz terrible.”

Finally, J.C. Mergler, the barn foreman, brought a fan into the Dancer’s stall to cool the horse, and also constructed a mesh
screen that went over the front of the stall and kept bugs away. Of course, it wasn’t entirely clear if the fan and screen
were there more to protect Murray or the horse.

One more race remained on the Dancer’s Saratoga docket: the Hopeful Stakes, the culmination of the Spa’s juvenile season.
Having already beaten all rivals on the grounds, the Dancer was virtually conceded the victory and was sent to the post at
1–4 odds. Another record crowd of almost 25,000 fans, the largest closing-day crowd in Saratoga’s history, came to watch,
certain they would see the Grey Ghost complete his sweep of four stakes wins in twenty-six days. To their surprise, they saw
him tested for the first time.

Tiger Skin had already lost twice to the Dancer, but Teddy Atkinson, the fine contract rider for Greentree, had noted the
grey’s custom of accelerating in the turn and charging from behind down the stretch, and he altered his tactics accordingly.
This time, when Guerin and the Dancer swept wide and began their familiar charge from sixth place—a little farther back than
usual—Atkinson squeezed Tiger Skin between the long shots that had set the early pace and he took the lead at the top of the
stretch. For a moment, he opened daylight on the rest of the pack as the Dancer briefly stalled; he had gotten the jump on
the grey. Guerin went to the whip for the first time in the Dancer’s career, striking him twice on the right flank. That was
all that was needed: the Dancer came on steadily, caught Tiger Skin at the eighth pole, and pulled away. He eased up once
he had the lead but still won by two lengths. Dismounting, Guerin spoke to Atkinson within earshot of reporters. “You have
to ride him to really see how good he is,” Guerin said with a smile.

The Dancer’s subsequent victories in the Futurity and a preceding tune-up ran his record to 8-0 by the end of September. He
had accomplished enough to warrant taking the rest of the year off. His superiority among his two-year-old class was established.
His undefeated record, earnings of $191,970—$27,000 shy of the all-time record for a two-year-old—and world record at six
and a half straight furlongs argued for his inclusion on the list of American racing’s greatest juveniles. There was more
to lose than gain, it seemed, by having him make another start and risk his place in history.

But as Vanderbilt and Winfrey discussed their plans, thoughts of history ran second to concerns for the future. Two-year-olds
were always raced with an eye to their three-year-old seasons, and the Dancer was no different. In fact, his success had only
heightened interest in his prospects for the Kentucky Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown the next spring. Did he have
the tools to win all three races, the surest pathway to American racing glory? The question was still unanswered, despite
all the Dancer had accomplished. He had never raced around two turns or farther than six and a half furlongs, and the spring
“classics” for three-year-olds were much longer, the Derby at a mile and a quarter, the Preakness Stakes at a mile and three-sixteenths,
and the Belmont Stakes at a withering mile and a half. Though the Grey Ghost’s dominance at shorter distances was established,
his capacity for carrying his weight over longer distances—the mark of a champion—remained uncertain, especially since Polynesian,
too, had excelled at shorter distances and wasn’t yet considered a safe bet to sire horses with stamina.

Horsemen typically began testing their two-year-olds at longer distances in the fall, inaugurating the process of sorting
out the contenders and pretenders for the Kentucky Derby. Winfrey and Vanderbilt weighed several options and entered the Dancer
in the East View Stakes, at a mile and one-sixteenth, on October 22 at Jamaica. The race lacked the purse and importance of
the Hopeful and Futurity, but the racing press wrote that it might reveal more about the Dancer’s Triple Crown potential than
his prior eight races combined. Was the Grey Ghost a legitimate Derby horse or, like Cousin, just a talented temptation destined
to frustrate Vanderbilt? The owner was certainly curious, his memories of the Cousin fiasco still fresh. “You know Cousin
was a prime motivation as the Dancer came on,” Alfred Vanderbilt III said.

In the twenty-five days between the Futurity and the East View Stakes, Winfrey put the horse through a regimen of longer workouts
aimed at building his stamina. Five other horses were entered in the race, including Laffango, winner of the Champagne Stakes,
a prestigious race covering a mile, in his last start. Almost 20,000 fans came to Jamaica on a cool, cloudy weekday afternoon
to see the Dancer’s attempt to prove he had stamina as well as speed. All other activity at the track halted as the horses
were loaded into the starting gate. The fans buttoned their topcoats and rubbed their hands, anticipating a show in the early
autumn chill. “Even the hard-bitten pros felt a twinge of excitement,”
Newsweek
reported later.

Laffango took the early lead and held it around the first turn and up the backstretch, with his jockey, Nick Shuk, determinedly
slowing the pace, covering the first half mile in 48 seconds. That was fine with Guerin, who kept a tight hold on the Dancer
as they rolled along in fourth place, behind several long shots as well as Laffango. The favorite at 1–5 odds, the Dancer
started to run on the second turn, easily passed the long shots, and bore down on the leader when turning for home. With Shuk
also asking Laffango to run, the possibility of a duel down the stretch briefly loomed. But even with Guerin just waving his
stick and tapping it on the Dancer’s neck instead of using it, the Dancer’s finishing kick was too strong. He caught Laffango
with a furlong to go and quickly put daylight between them, opening a two-length lead. He slowed just before reaching the
finish line, but was still one and a half lengths ahead at the wire and ten lengths up on the rest of the field. His unbeaten
record was intact, his first distance test passed.

He was breathing harder than usual after the race, but Guerin dismissed suggestions that he had been pressed in his first
race over a distance. “He had no trouble at all,” the jockey said. “He always does just what you ask him to do. He tried to
pull himself up before the finish, like he always does, but I kept him going.”

The winner’s purse of $38,525 pushed the Dancer’s earnings for the year to $230,495, a record for a two-year-old. The old
record belonged to Top Flight, a filly that had earned $219,000 in 1931. There were no longer any doubts about the Grey Ghost
ranking with the finest two-year-olds American racing had seen.

After the race, several newsmen pressed Winfrey about the horse possibly running yet again in 1952, in the Pimlico Futurity.
The trainer quickly quashed the idea. Within hours of the East View, he announced the Dancer was done for the year. “Native
Dancer has done everything asked of him this year, and he has been asked to do a lot,” Winfrey said in a statement that was
circulated in the press box.

The fans wouldn’t see the horse again until the spring of 1953, when—no doubt about it now—he would loom above the crowd as
a heavy favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. At last, it appeared, if all went well over the winter, Vanderbilt would get another
chance to win the famous race that had eluded him.

W
infrey wasn’t sleeping well. Though only thirty-six, he had spent his life around racing, and he knew what he had on his hands.
He had never trained a horse as talented as Native Dancer, and neither had his father, George Carey “G.C.” Winfrey, a respected
horseman who had trained a public stable since World War I. Trainers often toss and turn through the night, their minds cluttered
with options and concerns, especially when they have a star horse capable of demolishing fields and spawning headlines. The
fear of blundering with such a horse and having to live with regrets is enough to fray any trainer’s nerves, and the Dancer
was obviously such a horse.