Sport: Hoot Mon's Daughter

During a Florida vacation in 1951, J. (for Joseph) Elgin Armstrong, a horse-fancying contractor from Brampton, Ont., took a fancy to a yearling filly named Helicopter. Half an hour later, he bought the little brown trotter from her trainer and part owner, Del Miller, for $7,900. Explains Armstrong now: "I wanted to win the Hambletonian."

Helicopter kept her new owners (Armstrong and his brother Edwin) guessing. Last year she won only four of 21 starts, but her purses repaid the purchase price, plus $85.41. This year she won four out of ten races, blithely coming in last one week and finishing first...

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