That was just a coincidence, but viewed through hindsight’s clear-eyed lens more than a half century later, the fleeting overlapping of eras was flushed with symbolism that all but shouted a message. The country’s habits were changing, and if few knew yet how profound those changes were, Native Dancer, being readied for his three-year-old season, would soon help illustrate it. Palmer, at forty-eight, symbolized the country’s familiar syncopation of mainstream media, and in a broader sense, life as it had always been. He was racing’s press box bard, a Kentucky native with a master’s degree who had taught college English before switching to journalism. He brought wit and literacy to all of his endeavors—books on breeding and racing, columns in the Blood-Horse, and his beat work and “Views of the Turf.” column in the New York Herald Tribune. He was also heard by millions on CBS radio’s national broadcasts of major races. “Joe was one of the great writers of our era, a tremendous composer of English,”
