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DOUBLE VICTORY FOR A. G. VANDERBILT COLORS NOW WHATS ASTORIA Daughter of Chance Play Carries Off 33rd Running of Famous Race. Covers Five -Eighths in :585 to Outlast Us and Fairy Chant — Be Prepared Also Vanderbilt Winner. A. G. VANDERBILT NEW YORK, N. Y., June 14.— Now What, a fast-running chestnut daughter of Chance Play and Thats That, by High Time, carried the cerise and white diamonds of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, president of the Maryland Jockey Club and a director of The Jockey Club, to a scintillating victory in the thirty-third Astoria Stakes, fourth and standout offering today at Aqueduct. Over a track rated sloppy, the filly ran five furlongs in :58%, missing the stakes mark established by Panoply in 1919 by one-fifth of a second and equalling the second best time in the fixtures annals. WORKMANS VIGOROUS RDDE. While Now What was the choice to win at 4 to 5 and while she obviously was the best of the five Astoria starters, the fact remains that Raymond "Sonny" Workman had to exert the very last atom of his and her strength and ability in order to achieve victory. In the final sixteenth the daughter of Chance Shot was all for giving up, but Workman refused to stand for that. Now What kept digging in and it appeared to some of the well-versed stifdents of racing that the going might not have suited her. Despite threatening skies in the late morning, some 8,000 visitors were on hand when Continued on thirty-ninth page. DOUBLE VICTORY FOR A. G VANDERBILT COLORS Continued from first page. the prgram got under way. By that time a bright sun had the racing plant aglow and as a result of rain last night and yesterday afternoon the infield looked far greener than it had for many weeks. The racing strip was heavy with water and in the first two contests the horses kicked up great clouds of mud. The Vanderbilt establishment, with its owner and his wife watching from their box in the clubhouse enclosure, started what was destined to result in a double for the day by winning the opener with Be Prepared, a chestnut daughter of Chance Play and Girl Scout. This miss, like the winner of the Astoria, was handled by Workman. WITHDRAWS GRAND GALA. Some time after the racing got under way James "Sunny Jim- Fitzsimmons withdrew the Wheatley Stables Grand Gala from the Astoria, thus narrowing the starting field down to five and reducing the winners share of the purse to ,600. The bettors had little money for anything in the quintet excepting Now What and allowed the second choice, the Greentree Stables Piquet, to go postward at 9 to 2. After a delay of two and one-half minutes the field got on its way, with Us and Now What first in motion. It took Workman less time than it takes to tell about it to get the Vanderbilt representative to the front. Just inside the elbow Now What raced for the inside rail, thus losing considerable ground. That move resulted, no doubt, in cutting down her margin of victory. From the start Us, which finished third last Saturday at Suffolk Downs in the Betsy Ross Stakes, was Now Whats most formidable rival. Had the destined winner made the slightest mistake once she lost ground Us would have won the race. However, under Workmans powerful riding Now What managed to hold on to score by a half length. U4, representing William H. Gallagher and piloted by Johnny Barba, had it all over the others, earning second money by a four-length margin. Third honors fell to the Fox-catcher Farms Fairy Chant, which shipped to New York from Delaware Park for the race. She wound up a half length before Piquet, which ran fourth. Ranchos Girl was fifth and last.
