"Big Apple" & recent Wikipedia change

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

    German "zugute kommen" here means "to benefit (smb./sth.)".  So the second German sentence says literally: 'For the horses whom the money didn't benefit [i.e., for the horses which didn't benefit from the money; i.e., for the horses which didn't receive the money] there was, parallel to the "Big Money," the "Big Apple," [i.e.] the big apple.'
---- I.e.,  the Wikipedia writer is saying in effect that the big apple which those non-victorious horses received was a sort of consolation prize.  And yes, Doug Wilson is correct in commenting "This idea seems a little odd." I'd go a bit further: The idea is bizarre and totally unsupported by any evidence. 
 
Gerald Cohen

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Sat 7/22/2006 10:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Big Apple" & recent Wikipedia change



>  '...Der Spitzname bezieht sich auf den Stellenwert der New Yorker
> Rennbahnen Belmont Park und Aqueduct, wo im Pferderennsport "Big Money",
> das große Geld, zu verdienen war. Für die Pferde, denen das Geld nicht
> zugute kam, gab es parallel zum "Big Money", den "Big Apple", den großen
> Apfel....'

My German is a little weak, even weaker than my English. Does this say that
since the big money was of no use to the horses, there were big apples for
them instead? This idea seems a little odd.

-- Doug Wilson

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