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i. - - - .......... ...... t Here and There on the Turf Suffolk Downs Taking Shape OHara to Stress Second Meeting .; Discovery Awaits Belmont Racing . Psychic Bid Brookmeade Hope The advent of mild weather in New England is likely to see construction work on the Eastern Horse Racing Associations new plant stepping along at a very brisk pace. With their site in East Boston selected for many months and d. franchise to build and operate more recently granted by the Massachusetts State Racing Commission, the Boston sportsmen behind the new venture hope to have their track ready for operation in July to fill in the gap left in the New England dates by Walter OHara, operator of Narragansett Park. The first of three meetings at the Pawtucket course starts June 17 and ends July 6 and the second commences August 7 and concludes September 14. So unless it wishes to avoid a conflict, except for possibly a few days including Independence Day, the new track, known as Suffolk Downs, must operate through July and the first week in August. A second meeting could be held during September without conflicting with Narragansett as the third session at the latter course is set to open October 9 and end on the twenty-sixth. Rockingham "Park undoubtedly would like to hold a second session in September but could hardly compete with the new Boston, course. Plans for Suffolk Downs call for the construction of one of the largest race track grandstands in America, its length to be around 600 feet and its depth comparing favorably with that pf the structures at Arlington and Belmont Paries. Such a stand should seat nearly 20,000 persons. Final dc- cision as to the size of the race course has not been made, but it probably will be the conventional one mile in circumference. Some of the leaders in the promotion are holding out for a greater size, however, and it may be a mile and one furlong. OHara is definitely out of the Suffolk Downs scheme and apparently has no further interest in Massachusetts racing except as to how it will affect business at Narragansett. Prominent persons connected with the venture include Charles F. Adams, V. C. Bruce Wetmore, Bayard Tuckerman, Jr., John R. Macdmber, Allen Wilson and Wesley Preston. That Walter OHara intends to stress the racing at the second Narragansett meeting, which will run in opposition to Saratoga and Belmont Park, is indicated by the program of stakes just announced for the first session and the decision to renew the Narragan sett Special with at least 5,000 added on August 21. Eight features have been scheduled for the first meeting, which will be eighteen days in length. Chief of these is the Rhode Island Handicap, which has been set for closing day, July 6. It will be at a mile and three-sixteenths just as it was last fall, when Discovery, in winning it, established a new worlds record of 1:55, and will carry an added value of 0,000.- Four of the other stakes will be endowed with 00 each and the remaining three with ,500 each. No purse will be less than ,000, which will enable Narragansett to maintain a daily distribution comparable to that at Belmont Park, Aqueduct, Washington Park and Arlington Parks, the other leading tracks whose meetings are spanned by the- racing at the Rhode Island course. ! , : Maryland racing fans may have hoped that Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilts Discovery would return to competition at Havre de Grace or Pimlico, but the Baltimore sportsman and his trainer, J. H. Stotler, are adhering to the" plan adopted during the winter of going slow with the good four-year-old son of Display and Ariadne. The first start to be made this season by Discovery, probably will be in the Toboggan Handicap, the six furlongs sprint straightaway featuring the opening of Belmont Park on May 15; but his first principal objective is the Metropolitan Handicap at one mile and then the Suburban Handicap at one mile and a quarter. Discovery tops the weights for the Metropolitan. After fulfilling his engagements at Belmont Park, the Display colt will be available for the important events for older horses to be offered at New England, Detroit, Chicago and the other New York tracks. Absence of Special Agents name from the workout tabs during the past few days at Belmont Park is an indication that trainer Robert A. Smith intends to rely on Psychic Bid for the Brookmeade Stables principal representation in the spring three-year-old stakes. Psychic Bid displayed a creditable performance in the Paumonok Handicap last Saturday when he was the top weight according to the scale, and on Tuesday he was sent a brisk mile at Belmont Park, covering the ground in 1:39.. That trial should make the Hopeful Stakes winners ready for Saturdays renewal of the Wood Memorial Stakes at Jamaica, in which the son of Chance Play and Queen Herod will be called upon -to meet Today, Plat Eye, Continued on eighteenth pagej HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. Omaha and other leading three-year-old prospects now undergoing preparation on Long Island tracks. Never in its history has the Wood shaped up as such an attractive event, even considering three years ago, when Top Flight suffered the first defeat of her career as the mile and seventy yards special went to Universe after a sharp stretch drive with Economic, The Wood was also the race which sent Gallant Fox and Twenty Grand on the way for their brililant three-year-old campaigns. Cavalcade, star member of the Brook-meade Stable band, has started on. his speed-training preparation for a return to competition, but he may not be called upon to sport silks until well into the Belmont Park meeting. The 1934 three-year-old champion recently went a half mile in :54 and followed it up a few days later with five furlongs in 1:07. This is slow time, but just the same it fits Cavalcade for faster work. The son of Lancegaye and Hastily was not nominated for the Metropolitan Handicap, but he is an eligible for the Suburban. Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane would, be glad to see her colors carried by Cavalcade in the most historic of American handicap races, but Smith will not take any chances with the colt in getting him ready for it. However, with no training interruptions, Cavalcade probably could get ready for the Suburban. Each new effort made by the turf-governing bodies to prevent opportunities for fraudulent or sharp practices causes indignation among many horsemen. Some trainers are feeling angry because the New York State Racing Commission has employed an inspector to examine the shoes of horses as they enter the paddock, believing such a move reflects upon their integrity and character. Nothing is so far from the truth or from the purpose of the New York Commission. Herbert Bayard Swope", John Sloane and John Hay Whitney, members of the board, are well satisfied that the horsemen under their jurisdiction are as honorable a group of persons as could be collected anywhere, but they are pursuing the policy of selling racing to the public as a fine, clean sport, and as a conseuqence are trying to leave nothing to doubt in their administration of racing.
