Word: tompion
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...when he had the race all but won on Gallant Man, only to misjudge the finish line, stand up in the stirrups and lose by a nose? Then there was 1958, and a colt named Silky Sullivan, who couldn't run but tried; and 1960, when he rode Tompion, who could run but wouldn't try. There was Candy Spots in 1963, and Hill Rise in 1964: both were heavy favorites and both lost. So when it came time to pick a mount for last week's Kentucky Derby, what could be more sensible for the Shoe...
...mount, then looked over the field. One glance told Jockey Bill Hartack, 27, that no horse was as full of running as his Celtic Ash. So Hartack coolly held his little-known colt in last place and let Eddie Arcaro on Venetian Way and Willie Shoemaker on Tompion fight for the lead in the $150,900 Belmont Stakes last week at Belmont Park...
...Disperse but Celtic Ash. Moving into the stretch, Hartack took Celtic Ash to the outside, and then simply let him go. Said Arcaro later: "That was the first I had seen of that pair. They went by awful fast." Celtic Ash ran the legs off both Venetian Way and Tompion to win by 5½ lengths...
...weeks, experts had said that the Kentucky Derby would be a private duel between California's stretch-running Tompion and Bally Ache, the Eastern colt with the early foot. All but shrugged off was Venetian Way, a handsome, blaze-faced colt who had won only two stakes races in a career of 14 starts. But on second sight (after the race) it turned out that the experts had forgotten some key points...
...gate, Bally Ache bolted, as expected, to an early lead. Tompion challenged at the half, then went into one of his strange sulks and faded to fourth. As ordered, Hartack bided his time until he found the spot: in the far turn he put the whip to Venetian Way and blasted past Bally Ache to the lead. The stretch run was a piece of cake, but Hartack did not let up until Venetian Way, the outsider, had run off with the 86th Kentucky Derby by 3½ lengths...