"big apple: -- miscellaneous

[George Thompson]

A couple of reference from Proquest's historical newspapers from 1928, both explicitly referring to NYC and both from the context of horseracing.  They are from the Washington Post, so that the expression had gotten beyond the NYC locality.  Fred Shapiro had posted instances referring to NYC from earlier in 1928 and from 1927, but any early occurence of this expression is worth noting.

Thoroughbred race horses, which have been doing duty on the "Big Apple" tracks, are beginning to move homeward, according to Charles Meister, jr., who has charge of his uncle's fleet of vans working out of New York.  Washington Post, August 26, 1828, p. M16

[Jockey George] Schreiner will be remembered as having been in the limelight around the "Big Apple" this summer. . . .  [He had had 20 winners at NYC tracks]  Washington Post, September 23, 1928, p. 18

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.