Word: coaltown
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Back in the barn, the help call Calumet Farm's Coaltown "the Goose"; he has a way of outstretching his long, thin neck when he runs. On St. Valentine's Day at Hialeah Park last week, the Goose flew as he had never flown before. Flashing by the seven-furlong marker in 1:21 1/5 (world-record time), Coaltown was ten lengths in front and still pulling away. At the mile, stop watches caught him in 1:34 1/5 (a shade faster than Equipoise's world record set at Arlington Park...
...Coaltown kept going, his jockey sitting as motionless in the saddle as a park policeman. At the finish of the mile-and-an-eighth race, the handsome bay stallion had equaled another world record-the 1:47 3/5 that Indian Broom hung up at Tanforan in 1936. Jockey Eldon Nelson dismounted, stared at the fractional times posted on the odds board and exclaimed: "Gosh almighty...
...worst didn't have a chance to happen. The diathermic duo was in fourth place, six lengths behind such high-caliber swifties as Spy Song and Coaltown (a stablemate), when suddenly, as if stung by bees, Citation shot ahead. In one brief explosive burst he catapulted past the leaders. Said Arcaro later: "I never hit him. I never even clucked to him. All I did was look ahead and see that LeRoy Pierson, on Coaltown, was blocking the way. So I yelled 'Watch out, LeRoy!' It must have been the password...
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt was on hand to watch two fillies carry his cerise & white diamonds in their maiden tests (they finished one & two); so was Warren Wright, whose Citation, Coaltown and Free America would all race in the 18-day meeting. Hidden in the crowd near the pari-mutuel betting windows, two Pinkerton agents ignored racing's big names and kept their eyes on the bald bookie in suede shoes...
...broke like a shot and led into the stretch. Then 41,877 fans saw a sight they had trouble believing. Instead of pulling away, Coaltown was staggering. Vulcan's Forge caught up and passed him. A stunned audience had to wait for a photograph to make sure The Goose had finished even as well as second...