He Was as Good as Gold for Three Years in a Row

It was an overwhelming performance by a horse accustomed to providing such performances.

When Native Diver won his third consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup 32 years ago today, he did it with gusto.

For one thing, he beat heavily favored Pretense by five lengths. And Native Diver’s time for the mile and a quarter, 1:58 4/5, was only a tick behind Swaps’ track record and three-fifths off Noor’s world record.

Also, the $102,100 winner’s money boosted Native Diver’s career earnings to $1,002,850.

Pretense, carrying 131 pounds, took his best shot at Native Diver on the final turn and fired a blank. Native Diver, ridden by Jerry Lambert, had covered the mile in a blistering 1:34 flat and Pretense had nothing left. Native Diver covered the last quarter in 24 4/5 seconds.

He rewarded his backers with payoffs of $11.60, $2.80 and $2.10.

Not bad for a horse that actually finished second.

A longshot, O’Hara, crossed the line first, beating Native Diver by a length.

Problem was, O’Hara didn’t bring his jockey along. O’Hara stumbled out of the gate and dumped his rider, Milo Valenzuela.

Throughout the race, O’Hara ran alongside Pretense, until the 3-10 favorite wilted in the stretch. Then he took aim at Native Diver and passed him.

Also on this date: In 1912, Jim Thorpe won the Olympic decathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Games. The next day, Sweden’s king, Gustav V, sent a courier to the U.S. team, asking Thorpe to report to the palace, so that he could be royally congratulated. “I don’t know much about kings,” Thorpe told him. “I guess I won’t go.” . . . In 1967, Wilbur Johns, a three-sport UCLA letterman and the university’s athletic director from 1947 to 1963, died at 64. His first hire as athletic director: John Wooden.