Sport: Titan's Romp

The muffled rhythm of trotters' hoofs is daily music in little Goshen, N.Y., but the howling of hot-dog hawkers is heard only once a year—the day of the Hambletonian. Last week the hawkers were in raucous full cry for the Kentucky Derby of harness racing.

Even though the race was as much of a foregone finish as any horse race can be, some 14,000 fans were on hand. One of the biggest purses ($51,046.96) in the 20 years of the Hambletonian (14 times at Goshen) was at stake. A record 19 entries were in the field. But everyone knew that 18 of them scarcely had a chance against Titan, the trim cherry bay colt with the proud Hanover name, who trotted a record-breaking two-minute mile as a two-year-old last year. His driver was a champ too: gum-chewing Brooklyn-bred Harry Pownall, who at 42 is a youngster among sulky drivers.

Faced with such an odds-on favorite (1-to-4), cagey Bill Cane, the straw-hat host at Goshen's Good Time Park, persuaded the State Harness Racing Commission to let him bar Titan from the betting. Denied the right to gamble on a sure thing, betters merely nibbled at the rest of the field, sending $15,000 less through the mutuel machines than last year. Then, more or less reconciled to what was almost objective sport, they settled down to watch Titan's free-wheeling spin, in a setting out of Currier & Ives. Titan, whose owners picked him up for $3,000, romped home in two straight heats of the normally two-out-of-three contest.

Only in the first heat was Titan pressed.

He drew a second-tier starting position, came from behind a scrambled crush of onrushing sulkies to get clear, then settled down to coast home. But it was not quite that simple. Approaching the wire, Driver Pownall looked back to see Axomite come thudding alongside. With a few deft, desperate flicks of his whip, Pownall shifted Titan into high and crossed the line half a length in front. Said Pownall later: "It was the first time I ever hit Titan. I hated to do it, but I had to. He's used to finishing two or three lengths ahead."

The second heat was a breeze.

Goshen's well-to-do E. Roland Harriman, co-owner with Major Elbridge Gerry (now overseas), got the one-year custodianship of the gallon-sized Hambletonian "cup," and a pint-sized replica for keeps. These he probably valued more than Titan's $27,608.33 share of the purse, which he needs less than Titan needs hay.