Sport: The Moneymaker

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Matched with the great thoroughbreds of the past, sober, hard-working Round Table seems as ordinary as a stable pony. His finishing sprint cannot equal Citation's. His reddish brown coat is run-of-the-paddock compared to the lustrous grey of Native Dancer. He sometimes even has trouble getting out of the starting gate. All Round Table can do as an unobstrusive personality of the tracks is win horse races. This season the industrious four-year-old colt owned by Oklahoma Millionaire Travis Mitchell Kerr is an odds-on favorite to win the most gilded title in racing: alltime moneymaking champion.

Last week, as Trainer Willie Molter eased him into top form at Arlington Park near Chicago, Round Table already had won $1,215,114, with 32 wins in 47 starts. In the dollar derby, he was ahead of Calumet Farm's Citation ($1,085,760, with 32 wins in 45 starts) and just short of the record set by Belair Stud's Nashua ($1,288,565, with 22 wins in 30 starts).

Anywhere, Any Time. Round Table's moneymaking skill comes mainly from a pair of homely virtues: he is placid and tough, ready to run anywhere, any time. He is indifferent to cross-continental flights (eight so far) that make other thoroughbreds airsick. He is at his best in races over a mile—and the longer the better. Despite his small frame, he has won eight handicap races carrying 130 Ibs. or more (neither Citation nor Nashua ever won carrying that much). Says Trainer Molter: "He hasn't even had a snotty nose since I got him."

Round Table inherited his speed from his dam, an English mare with a fast past named Knight's Daughter, and his endurance from his sire, the rugged. Irish-bred Princequillo. Foaled on the Kentucky farm of A. B. ("Bull'') Hancock, Round Table was running as a three-year-old in 1957 when he caught the fancy of his present owner. A younger brother of Oklahoma's Senator Robert Kerr, with the same family paunch and financial punch (oil, uranium), Travis Kerr, 56, suspected that Round Table might become the great horse he needed for the mildly successful stable he started in 1949. When Hancock asked for $175,000, Kerr sent Veterinarian John Peters and Trainer Molter to Hialeah, where Round Table was running, to see if the price was right.

California Gold. Trainer Molter was crowded off the plane, and Peters arrived alone just before the race. "We got to settle this right now, Doc," said Horse Trader Hancock as Round Table headed for the starting gate. "The price may go up after the race—or I might not sell at all." Veterinarian Peters quickly agreed to buy ("soundest horse I ever examined")—and then sat back to watch Round Table finish out of the money. When Trainer Molter finally showed up, he thought the colt looked discouragingly small. Says he: "If I had been there on time, I might not have bought him."

Round Table was taken to California by Kerr and promptly began to earn his keep on the hard-surfaced tracks that were to his liking. Kerr brought him east for the 1957 Kentucky Derby, where he finished a good enough third behind Ralph Lowe's Gallant Man and Calumet Farm's Iron Liege, then passed up the prestigious Preakness and Belmont to campaign against easier pickings in California. By season's end Kerr had won $600,258.