Here and There on the Turf: Belmonts Last Saturday. Holiday Latonia Sport. Placing of Horses. Sure to Win Consistent, Daily Racing Form, 1924-06-07

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Here and There on the Turf Belmonts Last Saturday. Holiday Latonia Sport. Placing of Horses. Sure to Win Consistent. With the running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park Saturday afternoon there passes into history another of the greatest oi all the three-year old races. The Keene Memorial for the two-year-olds, and the Meadowbrook Steeplechase make it one of the most notable days of the Westchester Racing Association meeting. It is the last Saturday of the twenty days of racing at the big Nassau County track and a day that is marked by the most important of its turf offerings. Next Saturday will mark the opening of the twenty days of racing that will be offered by the Queens County Jockey Club at the old Aqueduct course. Its big opening race is the Brooklyn Handicap, the weights for which have already been announced. With the passing of the Belmont Park meeting interest will shift to this old mile and an eighth dash and from the number of candidates that are making ready lor the race it ought to be a thoroughly adequate renewal of the old handicap, that had its first decision in 1887, with that long famed finish that brought a thrilling battle between Dry Monopole. Blue Wing and Hidalgo. The Suburban antedates the Brooklyn by three years, but since 1887 the Brooklyn and the Suburban have been two of the greatest of New York handicaps. The roster of winners of each of these contains the names of many a turf champion and it has always taken a good horse to be the winner. The Bay side, a selling steeplechase, is an other of the features of the opening day at Aqueduct and, taking a line through the cross country races that have been run at Belmont Park, there is excellent prospects for that picturesque branch of racing to be well patronized. In the Saturday racing of the Kentucky Jockey Club at Latonia it is sprinting that furnishes most of the interest, with the Quick Step Handicap, at three-quarters, and the Clipsetta Stakes, for two-year-old fillies, at five eighths. The Clipsetta is one of the old time stakes and had its first running in 1883, when it was worth just ,670 to the winner. Last year, when Buddy Light beat Bobs Mary and Cherokee Lee, it was worth ,480. That vie tory also established the best time for the race when :59% was hung out. The track record for the distance is :59. The unfavorable track condition that has prevailed since the opening of the Latonia meeting has thus far been a handicap to the sport, and it is not likely that even on Satur day there will be any remarkably fast time hung out in any of the rac?s, but these sprint offerings have eligibles that should bring about high class racing. When Eaglet was such an easy winner from Billy Warren and Rejection at Belmont Park Thursday, it brought home with great force the mistakes that were made by Laverne Fator in the riding of the colt in his previous race, when he was beaten by Plough Boy. Eaglet made a show of the two that opposed him and over the bad going that pre vailed he ran the mile in 1:40, while timed privately it was even faster. Eaglet was in receipt of weight from Billy Warren, but his victory was so easily achieved that it was evident he was the one that should have been giving weight instead of receiving it. Sure to Win, the imported two year old son of Winstanley and Singing Thrush, by Apothecary, that races for P. Gorman, has come to be a decidedly consistent racer. When he was the winner of the Kindergarten Stakes at Blus Bonnets Thursday it marked his fourth consecutive victory. Sure to Win was first shown at the Havre de Grace meeting on April 17 and he went through that meeting as well as the Pimlico meeting without escaping from the maiden class. But it was an education that stood him in good stead, for he has not lost a race in Canada. His first success was in the Waterloo Plate at Woodbine Park and he was winner of two races at Connaught Park, rounding out bis fourth at Blue Bonnets Thursday. Prom time to time thoroughly good and useful hors?s never accomplish a full measure of success for the reason they are not properly placed. Too often this or that owner considers his geese swans and will not be content to pick out racrs where there is a real chance. The aim is always at the top of the class and as a result the horse that under different management would be a big asset to the stable is seldom other than a liability. Some of the old time turfmen would never think of permitting their colors to be shown among the selling platers. Then when a near-great horse was just about worn out in chasing the best of them, he would finally find his way into a stable where he was placed in the class where he belonged and at once became a bread winner of importance. There is no end of skill in properly placing the horses after they are ready to race and not picking out the impossible for them to accomplish. Many and many a good horse has had his heart broken in chasing after champions, and countless of them have been worthless after such a campaign, when if they were placed more modestly they would have gore on to a long campaign of usefulness. A commendable sporting spirit is to have confidence in your horse. It is fine to think he is the equal of any; but when a horse has to have a concession of twenty five or thirty pounds in a handicap he scarcely belongs in that handicap. Each year there are these lightweights that by reason of a big pull in the handicaps almast beat a real horse, but it is seldom that it is better than almost. Then when the unfortunate is finally in a handicap where he wins under a feather his usefulness is gone. He cannot expect weight off and he cannot win with a pound more weight. It is not fair to the horse to shoot too high with him.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1924060701/drf1924060701_2_2
Local Identifier: drf1924060701_2_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800