Down to the Wire

Nobody ever accused cocky Joe Cul-mone or quiet Willie Shoemaker of being a great jockey, but both boys know how to bring horses into the winner's circle. Six weeks ago, the figure-minded racing world noted with considerable respect that both of them had breezed right by the modern U.S. record of 319 wins in one year. Last week, on the next-to-last day of the year, Jockeys Shoemaker and Cul-mone hit the wire in a dead heat, with 385 winners apiece--just three short of the alltime mark set by Walter Miller in 1906.*

Since no U.S. tracks operate on Sunday, the two dead-heat kids spent Dec. 31 on foreign tracks. Culmone flew from Miami to Cuba's Oriental Park, rode in all eight races and booted home 3 winners. Shoemaker hopped a plane from New Orleans to Mexico's Agua Caliente, rode in eleven races there, also got home with 3 winners. Result: a triple dead heat with Miller at 388.

Mrs. Dodge SIoane's Brookmeade Farms, with the help of its contract rider, Joe Culmone, was the top money-winning stable of 1950 (total: $651,249), breaking the four-year leadership of Calumet Farm.

* Miller, who was the Eddie Arcaro of his day, won with 28% of his 1,384 mounts that year. No such ability was required of 1950's record-breakers: Shoemaker had a 24% winning average with 1,634 mounts, Culmone 23% with 1,674.

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