Sport: Little Joe

Even in the paddock, the mousy little man in the gold and white silks seemed out of place. He flicked his whip in the dust and scuffled his boots like an embarrassed kid. Beyond him New York's Saratoga Raceway came alive with rural vigor; floodlights brightened over the hayseed atmosphere of a country carnival. Grandstand and clubhouse bulged with bettors, lines lengthened at pari-mutuel windows, tip-sheet hustlers hawked their wares. Joseph Cyril O'Brien, 38, looked just a little overawed by all the excitement.

Horseplayers who turned up at the half-mile harness track one evening last week looked over the field in the $10,000 Runnymede Trot, put their money on "Little Joe" O'Brien and watched him romp home. Such confidence in Little Joe and his Hambletonian-bound colt Scott Frost is getting to be a habit. Just the week before, at Long Island's Roosevelt Raceway, the same pair were odds-on favorites when they won the $15,000 Old Country Trot. Today, when bettors back their judgment of the wagon ponies to the tune of $444 million a year at 81 tracks around the U.S., Little Joe is a standout driver wherever he appears.

Shy Weakling. When he was 18, Little Joe O'Brien rode an empty coal car into Nova Scotia to take a job as driver and trainer for a River Hebert horseman. He weighed 100 lbs. soaking wet, and looked like a shy weakling. But he had a way with horses. Soon he was driving and winning on bush tracks in New England and the Maritimes. He took a broken-down, eleven-year-old gelding named Dudey Patch and patched him up so well that he became a Canadian champion. On the little country tracks around the U.S. and Canada in the early 1940s, it was a common occurrence to see Little Joe win every race on the day's card.

After World War II, when harness racing caught the public eye, and horse-players learned to tolerate the nighttime trots, Little Joe and his string built a reputation wherever standard-bred horses drew sulkies. In 1952 Joe gave up his own stables to go to work as trainer for California Cotton and Tobacco Farmer Sol A. Camp, a well-heeled horse lover who owned some of the best trotters and pacers in harness. Ever since, under Little Joe's hand, Camp's horses have been coming home with rewarding regularity.

Strong Contender. The shy youngster who reached River Hebert with only $2 in his pocket now wins more than $300,000 a year, is a trotting equivalent of "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons and Eddie Arcaro combined. He drives a Cadillac painted in the bright gold and white colors of his stables, and he modestly gives the credit for his good luck to the St. Christopher medal he wears.

Next week, when Hambletonian time comes around and the trotting crowd invades Goshen, N.Y., three O'Brien-trained horses (Scott Frost, Butch Hanover and Home Free) will probably step out for the big race. Their backing will suffer not a bit from the fact that Scott Frost trotted record miles (2:03 4/5) at both Roosevelt and Saratoga.