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7/7/2025, 5:28:21 PM
>>530302805
>Reckless’s roots in racing were not forgotten by the men of the RR platoon. “We challenged Native Dancer,” Riley recalled. “She was the big horse of the day.”
>Latham and Riley drafted a letter to Native Dancer’s owner, Alfred Vanderbilt. The note laid out race terms and conditions: “There are two stipulations we must make. Because Reckless is a very busy horse, Native Dancer must come to Korea and agree to a handicap.
The contest was to be held at “Upsan Downs,” a makeshift mile-and-a-half course of hills and rice paddies. The handicap: each rider-less horse would carry four rounds of 75 mm ammunition weighing 96 pounds. The first to reach the Recoilless Rifle team waiting at the finish line would be anointed the winner.
>The purse: a whopping $25,000, equivalent to about $215,000 today. It was proposed that each man in the 1st Marine Division would put up a dollar, but the Marines had so much confidence in their little mare that they easily could have raised three or four times the proposed purse.
>They never needed to because their daring challenge went unanswered. They never heard from Mr. Vanderbilt. The disappointed Marines remained cocksure of Reckless’s superior speed, even after Native Dancer took the Belmont plus the historic Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Caption: Throwing down the gauntlet: U.S. Marines challenge a champion at a makeshift war zone racetrack with a punny name. The dare went unacknowledged.
IMAGINE the umafied version.
>Reckless’s roots in racing were not forgotten by the men of the RR platoon. “We challenged Native Dancer,” Riley recalled. “She was the big horse of the day.”
>Latham and Riley drafted a letter to Native Dancer’s owner, Alfred Vanderbilt. The note laid out race terms and conditions: “There are two stipulations we must make. Because Reckless is a very busy horse, Native Dancer must come to Korea and agree to a handicap.
The contest was to be held at “Upsan Downs,” a makeshift mile-and-a-half course of hills and rice paddies. The handicap: each rider-less horse would carry four rounds of 75 mm ammunition weighing 96 pounds. The first to reach the Recoilless Rifle team waiting at the finish line would be anointed the winner.
>The purse: a whopping $25,000, equivalent to about $215,000 today. It was proposed that each man in the 1st Marine Division would put up a dollar, but the Marines had so much confidence in their little mare that they easily could have raised three or four times the proposed purse.
>They never needed to because their daring challenge went unanswered. They never heard from Mr. Vanderbilt. The disappointed Marines remained cocksure of Reckless’s superior speed, even after Native Dancer took the Belmont plus the historic Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Caption: Throwing down the gauntlet: U.S. Marines challenge a champion at a makeshift war zone racetrack with a punny name. The dare went unacknowledged.
IMAGINE the umafied version.
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