Longden’s Long Career Concluded With a Win

OK, here’s your time machine. Climb in and dial up any 20th century sports event. But you only get one round trip. Yikes, what to pick?

* The 1938 Louis-Schmeling rematch?

* Red Grange’s five touchdowns against Michigan in 1924?

* Bobby Thomson’s 1951 pennant-winning homer?

Here’s a tough one to beat: the last ride of Johnny Longden.

He rode 6,032 winners over a 40-year career, including 452 stakes races. But it was No. 6,032 folks remember most.

By the mid-1950s, in his late 50s, Longden began hearing the whispers: Time to quit . . . too old.

In January 1966, he was injured when a horse, Douceville, first threw him, then kicked him in the back. Recovery was slow, hastening his decision to retire.

His last ride, at 59, would be aboard George Royal, in Santa Anita’s $125,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap.

A big crowd was on hand but few expected Longden would go out a winner. His horse was a 7 1/2-1 shot. But . . . here’s how L.A. Times turf writer Bion Abbott described it:

“It couldn’t happen this side of a movie studio, but it did. And there are 60,792 witnesses who can testify--if they’ve recovered their voices--that the old master, John Longden, captured the climactic closing race in his career. . . .”

It was a photo finish and the crowd exploded when George Royal was announced as the winner.

Then, when Longden reappeared in the winner’s circle, the ovation began anew, as spectators tried to say at once: “Thanks for the memories.”

Also on this date: In 1966, Chicago’s Bobby Hull, the third NHL player to score 50 goals in a season, scored his record 51st, in a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers. . . . In 1910, sports fans were shocked to hear boxing promoter Tex Rickard say that the house for his July 4 Jim Jeffries-Jack Johnson heavyweight match would be scaled from $10 to $100, the most expensive sports tickets in history.