Real Championship Race: Meeting of Jamestown and Twenty Grand in Belmont Stakes June 13, Daily Racing Form, 1931-06-03

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REAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE • Meeting of Jamestown and Twenty Grand in Belmont Stakes June 13. • Little to Choose Between Great Pair of Three-Year-Olds — Each Sound as a Dollar and in Perfect Condition. » NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2.— Turf rivalries of the season fade into insignificance before the coming meeting of the George D. Wideners Jamestown and the Greentree Stables Twenty Grand in the Belmont Stakes, at one mile and a half, which will be decided at beautiful Belmont Park on June 13. Past meetings of famous thoroughbreds have in many cases been marred by one or the other of the contestants not being at his best for the test. There can be no such taint to the meeting of Jamestown and Twenty Grand in the coming renewal of the Belmont. These colts are as closely matched as ever thoroughbreds can be. They are as sound as the proverbial dollar in every manner and form. The keenest judges of the thoroughbred can find no fault in either of them. At the present time they occupy the same pedestal at the top of the three-year-old division and will continue to do so until the running of the Belmont Stakes, which should be a decisive test and may be expected to bring out a slight difference in the colts. At this time there is nothing to choose between them. Twenty Grand reached the peak when he ran over his rivals to win the Kentucky Derby at a distance of a mile and a quarter, while Jamestowns winning of the Withers Stakes in a common canter proved that he has retained all his speed of last year. Neither colt will be at a disadvantage racing the mile and a half of the Belmont. Despite the fact that the Withers was decided at a mile, none will dispute the fact that Jamestown can carry his speed over any distance of ground. COLTS NEVER MET. What makes the running of the Belmont Stakes even more decisive in the battle for three-year-old supremacy is that Twenty Grand and Jamestown have never met. There was no "ducking" the isue by either side in the deciding of the many rich two-year-old stakes last season. Jamestown was early to learn his racing lessons, while Twenty Grand was slower coming to hand and did not attain his best form until the Fall, after Jamestown had been retired after winning six of his seven starts, all stakes, including the Futurity. Twenty Grand, aside from winning the Junior Champion Stakes at Aqueduct, went West to defeat Equipoise in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in 1:36 flat the fastest time for a mile ever recorded by a two-year-old. A comparison of the trials of Jamestown and Twenty Grand shown over the Belmont training track, through deep mud on Tuesday morning proves more conclusively than any other manner how closely these thoroughbreds are matched at the decisive distance of the mile and a half of the Belmont. Jamestown was sent a mile, which he negotiated in 1:44, covering the first six furlongs in 1:15%. Twenty Grand came out on the track shortly afterwards to cover the same distance in 1:43%. The fractional times are interesting. Twenty Grand took 1:17 for his six furlongs but was caught passing the mile mark two-fifths of a second faster than Jamestown. This slight difference was caused only by Jamestowns being eased up at the finish of his trial, while Twenty Grand was sent an extra furlong, covering the full mile and a furlong in 1:56%. These trials of the rivals go to prove that the final half mile of the Belmont Stakes, when the pair head for the stretch, will be worth going miles to see. It also disproves the theory that Jamestown would have an advantage in the event of muddy going. Twenty Grand can. as has been proven, race well under any conditions. — _*_


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1931060301/drf1931060301_20_9
Local Identifier: drf1931060301_20_9
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800