Sport: Pony Parade

After four months and six days of pinch-betting on everything from basketball to turtle races, gambling money had an eager new jingle. When the V-E gun lifted the horse-racing ban last week, everybody who had a nodding acquaintance with the nation's richest sport industry was straining at the post.

First off the mark was Rhode Island, which depends on racing for 8% of its state revenue. The betters jammed Narragansett Park 25,000 strong, could hardly wait to stuff $1,153415 (almost twice what they wagered on opening day last year) through the betting machines. In...