The Boss Lost

It was a day of superlatives. A record crowd (80,200) laid the largest amount ($805,082) in California racing history on the noses of the largest number of horses (23) ever to run in the richest Santa Anita Handicap in history. The winner: a six-year-old outsider named War Knight (one of eleven "field" horses), which paid $15.30 for a $2 mutuel ticket.

War Knight had not won a race since 1944, and Trainer Charlie Leavitt almost scratched him--but Owner Ethel Hill insisted that he run. He ran as he never had before, nosed out the dapple-grey favorite, First Fiddle, in a four-horse photo finish. To the owner, a Hollywood scenario writer, went a gold cup, a $101,220 purse, and a cool handshake from her boss, Louis B. Mayer, whose entry (Be Faithful) finished seventh.

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