Camel, Buffalo, Zebu and Llama Race in Bowie

Walk a Mile

February 25, 1972 (42 years ago today): The Noah's Ark Animal Race was held at the Bowie Race Track, featuring a camel, buffalo, llama and a zebu (a single-humped cow from Asia).

Two camels were scheduled to race, but one of the camels died at the race track after traveling to Bowie from Missouri.

Walk A Mile, Llama Fleece and One Large Hump

The second camel had to be muzzled for the race after it injured a track worker earlier in the week.  The camel became aggressive in the starting gate during a practice run.  It bit the arm of Michael Pearson, an "exercise boy" at the track, and then shook Pearson's arm violently.  Pearson suffered a broken arm, and he required surgery for his injuries.

One Large Hump (the zebu) won the race, followed by Llama Fleece (the llama), and Walk A Mile (the camel) came in third.  Home on the Range (the buffalo) "wallowed in the mud," according to The Baltimore Sun, and it didn't finish the race.

Walk A Mile (the camel) was favored to win after easily winning two heats earlier in the week.  Walk A Mile, however, was forced to wear a muzzle during the last race after breaking Pearson's arm, and jockey Charley Cooke speculated that the muzzle caused the loss.

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The Four Degrees of Separation between Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Belair Mansion

Philip Seymour Hoffman played the part of Truman Capote in the 2005 movie “Capote.”

In 1975, Truman Capote wrote a short story called “La Côte Basque 1965” that appeared in Esquire magazine. Although the story was technically fiction, Capote let it be known that it was about high society socialite Ann Woodward. The pending publication of the story drove Ann Woodward to commit suicide.

Ann Woodward was married to Billy Woodward. She killed her husband in 1955 in an incident that Life magazine called “The Shooting of the Century.”

Billy Woodward became owner of the Belair Estate, including the Belair Mansion, in 1953 upon the death of his father, William Woodward, Sr.