Word: trotters
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...give the other horses a chance to compete. At the nation's top race tracks-New York State's Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct -the man who decides how heavy a load the horses will carry is a tall, freckled handicapper with the eminently horsey name of Tommy Trotter...
Last week Handicapper Trotter, 34, closeted himself in his concrete-walled office for 60 hours in all, handicapping such horses as Bolinas Boy, Chief of Chiefs and Wolfram. Pursuing an elusive goal-"I'm always satisfied with a photo finish" -he follows a general rule of thumb: three lbs. of weight equals one length in a mile race. From his performance charts (meticulously maintained by a trained, fulltime staff of nine), his own turf experience (he began working at tracks when he was 19) and reliable paddock chatter, Trotter gets the information he needs to assign weights: the ability...
...Trotter imposes weights for about 45 stakes races and 50 overnight handicaps each season, gets $25,000 a year for his labors-but does not bet any of it on the horses. Though he has never realized the handicapper's ideal of a multi-horse dead heat, he has had some satisfying moments. His best: for last year's Citation Handicap at Chicago's Washington Park, he assigned 121 lbs. to On-and-On, 114 to Little Tytus and Better Bee, 110 to Top Charger. Then he watched them fight to a photo finish, with only...
Handicapping is no job for a sensitive man. Owners complain bitterly about "unfair" weights, but Trotter shrugs off such criticism with the impassivity of a baseball umpire. Fortnight ago, when he assigned 136 lbs.-heaviest handicap of his career-to the speedy, four-year-old gelding, Kelso, in the $112,800 Brooklyn Handicap, Trotter said calmly: "I expect complaints." None came-although Kelso had to spurt from behind to eke out a narrow, 1¼-length victory. "He's one of the great ones," said Handicapper Trotter after the race. "No question about it." Then Trotter added: "Of course...
Wonderland by Night (Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra; Dacca). An import from Germany that rocks on its mistily melodic way like an old-fashioned excursion steamer. The orchestra is expert, the vintage Prom Trotter...