Sport: Dancer's Exit

The Grey Ghost had come back. Last week, at Saratoga Springs. Native Dancer, one of the finest thoroughbreds ever to run on an American track, went to the starting gate (in a betless race) for the first time since May and romped home a winner. The champ seemed fit and fully recovered from the bruised foot that forced him into temporary retirement (TIME, June 7).

But this week, after an early-morning workout, misfortune came back to dog the Dancer. He pulled up lame again, and Owner Alfred Vanderbilt finally decided to call it quits. In three years and 22 starts, the Big Grey had lost only one—the 1953 Kentucky Derby—and earned $785,240. Said Vanderbilt: "He will not race again, and will enter stud at the Sagamore Farm in Maryland next spring."