Here and There on the Turf, Daily Racing Form, 1930-04-09

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t Here and There I on the Turf 4 !. .It would appear from the manner in which Walter J. Salmons good colt Swinfield is training that the New York sportsman has a royal chance to win the 0,000 Preakness of the Maryland Jockey Club. This is the big three-year-old classic to be decided at Pimlico and on three occasions Mr. Salmon has had the thrill of seeing his silks triumphant. His first victory came in 1923 with Vigil. Then in 1926 Display, the best horse that ever carried his colors, was winner. This third success came last year in the score of Dr. Freeland. This is indeed a wonderful record and at this time the son of Swinburne and Careful, the best mare that raced for Mr. Salmon, has shown a progress in his training that is, to say the least, highly gratifying. The mile in 1:42 at Belmont Park, testifies to Swinfields present quality and it is doubtful if any other candidate for the big Pimlico prize is further advanced in preparation. It was fitting that in this trial Swinfield was accompanied by Dr. Freeland, the Preakness winner of last year and no better trial horse could have been chosen. Incidentally the move would likewise testify to the progress of the four-year-old. Both colts were well in hand at the end of the trial and the smoothness of the move was tremendously impressive. It is the intention of Pat Dwyer, who has taken over the horses since Thomas J. Healey, their developer, went over as head trainer of the big Harry Payne Whitney establishment, to ship both of these, with some others of the Salmon string to Havre de Grace for the racing there later in the month, and there will be ample opportunity to put on the finishing touches of training for the big objective. It is also the intention, if all goes well with Swinfield, to send him after the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after he has filled his Preakness engagement. And while Swinfield, Gallant Fox and Flying Heels are all showing such excellent training progress on Long Island, another that is to represent the east in the three-year-old classics is a sensation of the Kentucky training quarters. This one is Desert Light that races under the silks of Mrs. Graham Fair Vanderbilts Fair Stable. Alex Gordon, as is his usual custom, is training this fellow and the various others in his care, at Douglas Park in Louisville. For a considerable time both Desert Light and his stablemate Sarazen II. have been going along brilliantly for Gordon and now the first named seems to be the better of the pair for a gallop of a mile and a quarter. With Chicatie to carry him along Desert Light recently showed a mile over Douglas Park in 1:43 and no three-year-old now in Kentucky has shown anything like such a move. Such a move over Douglas Park counts for much more than a faster move over such a training ground as Swinfield worked and like the Salmon colt, this fellow was running at the end in a manner to indicate that he will readily be brought up to the mile and a quarter in ample time to be at the top of his form on May 19. There may be some advantage in being at Louisville for the training and Alex Gordon has been going along slowly and thoroughly with his charges. He is anything but boastful about his horses and when he is satisfied with condition there need be no apprehension about the fitness of the horse. He has reason to have high hopes this spring and barring accident Desert Light will have a big following on Derby day. Vander Pool, the Florida juvenile champion, yet to be beaten, has begun his Maryland campaign auspiciously. He will undoubtedly meet with sterner contention in the running of the Kindergarten at Bowie next Thursday, but his race of Friday was better than the chart might indicate. Danny McAuliffe, who had the mount, did not ride the son of Campfire, a good race, but he was good enough to win with ease. After being dilatory at the post McAuliffe went away whipping and he attempted to rush the colt along without permitting him to set into his stride. This is not calculated to show any young thoroughbred at his best and a smoother ride was more to be desired though the McAuliffe mistakes served to make the performance indicative of better class than Vander Pool has ever shown before. Vander Pool will doubtless be highly tried in races before the end of the Maryland season and hi3 last race stamps him as a better prospect than any of his Florida victories. Fred Hopkins has been compaigning a string of the H. P. Whitney horses at the present Bowie meeting and when the Maryland sport moves over to Havre de Grace some of the first string will put in an appearance and it will mark the beginning of the season for those that are under the direct care and training of Thomas J. Healey, who succeeds the late James Rowe as head trainer for the big "racing stable. Two turf bereavements brought the appointment of Tom Healey to Mr. Whitneys establishment. There was first the taking, of James Rowe, than whom there was no more successful conditioner of thoroughbreds ; then there was the death of Richard T. Wilson, for whom Tom Healey had trained ever since his entry to the turf. These were indeed turf bereavements and James Rowe could never have been replacd in life with the Whitney stable, while Tom Healey was absolutely a permanent fixture in the racing establishment of Richard T. Wilson. No bigger contract in racing could be taken on than to fill the shoes of the late James "Rowe, but Tom Healey has made a reputation for himself in his long years of useful endeavor that he is peculiarly fitted. Then he enjoys a big asset in having the younger Jimmy Rowe as his first lieutenant. From early boyhood the younger Rowe has enjoyed the advantages of a schooling in training under his accomplished father and at the time of the death of the master trainer it was young Jimmy that was doing the actual training. Up to the time of the death of his father this young horseman had the advice and direction of that master mind of conditioners, but he was doing the actual training and he was winning results. When Tom Healey took over the Whitney string he took over young Jimmy with the horses and it is a combination that cannot fail. Stables have their good years and their bad years, but there will be no racing stable in 1930 better fitted in the matter of training staff than that of Harry Payne Whitney. And the prediction is made that before the end of the Maryland season the Whitney silks will have earned something of their usual importance. Boojum, the swift running son of John P. Grier and Elf will be of the lot at the Havre de Grace meeting and, while Healey has not made any definite announcement of his plans for the colt, it is known there is less apprehension about his training successfully than there was in January. Both Boojum and Whichone, the champion juveniles of 1929, are eligible for the Preakness at Pimlico to be run May 9, but they were not named for the Kentucky Derby. The training has been conducted at the Brookdale farm in New Jersey and it is known that several in the big string are well advanced. The Whitney horses are well engaged through the Pimlico meeting in each age division and before the close of the season at Havre de Grace there will have been some sort of line obtained on what to expect of them. James Fitzsimmons continues to set the pace among the trainers with eligibles for the Preakness and Kentucky Derby. There are many of the potential candidates for one or both of these spring classics that have been coming along handsomely in their preparation, but "Fitz" has one, at least, in Gallant Fox, which has galloped further at becoming speed than any of the others. That mile and a quarter in 2:17, over the Aqueduct course, was accomplished with such ease that it told eloquently of the, progress of the son of Sir Galahad III. He is a colt that bids fair to come up to the Preakness a probable favorite for the running, unless it should so happen that Boojum comes back with his brilljance of last year. With the declaration of Richard Carmen, Jr., that he will not start Siskin, the Agua Caliente two-year-old champion, and with Prince dAmour amiss, it would appear that Mrs. M. P. Allens Vander Pool has little to fear from the candidates for the Kindergarten to be run at Bowie, Thursday. Of the winter performers these were the ones apparently best calculated to give the son of Campfire and Bramble Rose argument. Of course, it is expected there are better eligibles in the list than have yet been sent to the races, but it is easily possible that the Florida champion will go along to a much later time in the season. Vander Pool, besides being a colt of undoubted class, has an even temperament that makes for racing usefulness. He is not easily disturbed, is a hearty "doer," has the best of post manners and thus there are the physical reasons for his standing up well in his bid for racing fame. Some of those that opposed Vander Pool Friday wjll, undoubtedly, improve greatly with racing education. This is expected of Westerner, the son of Westy Hogan, which races under the silks of Victor Emanuels Dorwood Stable, and Harry Payne Whitneys Airliner. Westerner showed little in his first start, by reason of his lack of education, but Airliner, which was racing for the second time, demonstrated that he had learned something in his first effort. He stopped rather badly, but that was evidence that he needed the race. With all duo allowance for all of this, it would seem that if Vander Pool is beaten in the Kindergarten, it will be by some two-year-old which has not yet been uncovered. The effort to restore racing to the state of California is under way at Tanforan and results will be of great interest. While it is racing under a court decision, it may prove a way out that would be entirely practical, but that may only be determined by the progress of the meeting that has just begun. A method of speculation has been devised and, when arrests were made under its operation, it was ruled that there was not sufficient evidence of law violation. If this speculation may be successfully carried on, as it was in the tests, it would seem that a great victory has been won for the thoroughbred sport in California. California sportsmen, generally, are of the opinion that a solution has been found to make the racing entirely within the law, when there is the opportunity to speculate. This is reflected in the number of horses on hand for the meeting that have just begun. There have been various unsuccessful attempts to restore the racing to California, but probably the present plan is more feasible than any that have gone before. If it achieves its purpose in awakening the right sort of interest there will, unquestionably, come another attempt for legislation that will make the turf secure.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1930040901/drf1930040901_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1930040901_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800