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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Interesting Races at Many Tracks Alsab Attempting Unique Triple. Detroit Opens Long Meeting Today Hickory Head Starts in Juvenile NEW YORK, N. Y., May 22. Alsab will be attempting something of a feat in winning the Withers tomorrow, and then the Belmont Stakes after taking the Preakness honors. Only one horse in history has been able to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Withers and Belmont and that was Sir Barton in 1919. Man o War did not start in the Derby, but went on to win the other three events. Since Big Red, not one three-year-old has duplicated his feat of winning the Preakness and then going on to take first honors in the Withers and then the Belmont. It is something to train a horse to win at one ALSAB Will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Man o War in winning the Preakness, Withers and Belmont Stakes. and three-sixteenths miles, then at one mile, and then, within a month, send him out at one and one-half miles. The very fact that Sir Barton accomplished this after having won the Derby is testimony he was a better horse than generally credited with being. Should Alsab duplicate the feat of Man o War, then there can be no denying the courageous little colt has atoned for his eight defeats, and is a, true three-year-old champion, to say nothing of the title "King of the Iron Horses." We are not saying he will do it, but if he does we will go in search of proper words "to fittingly frame our admiration. If he is shopped, it will more likely be in tomorrows race than in the Belmont. Tomorrows Belmont Park card should draw a huge throng:, for the Juvenile Stakes, in addition to the Withers, is also an event of keen interest to turf fans. Fine racing: will be staged at other racing courses. At Suffolk Downs, the feature will be the ,000 Paul Revere Handicap, for three-year-olds and older horses, and the Crete Handicap will be the first stake event of the Lincoln Fields meeting. While this is written before the entries come over the wires; both the Boston and Chicago events appear likely to draw fields that will result in keen contests and throngs that will attest to racings continued popularity. The 73-day meeting of the Detroit Racing Association will get under way tomorrow, and reports from the "Motor City" would indicate more than enough horses are on hand to insure good-sized fields. Charles Town and Beulah Park will complete the racing circuit for the day. Speaking of a horse winning an important triple. Back in 1913 Whisk Broom II. won "the Big Three" the Metropolitan, Suburban and Brooklyn. Whirlaway did not start in the Metropolitan, but from all indications, he is going to try for the other two. If he does it, the feat will earn the acclaim that Alsab will be entitled to by winning the Withers and Belmont. Whirlaway will be taking on a formidable quartet in Attention, Mioland, Market Wise and Challedon. Alsab will hardly be a starter, even though we hear Sarge Swenke has it under consideration. And we can forget all about an Alsab-Whirlaway match in July or any other month. Alsab has a busy schedule ahead and will be confined to three-year-old events. "No one can blame Sabath and the Sarge for that. Incidentally, we have been reading where John Campbell considers Alsab a two-pound better horse than Whirlaway. But, as the scale changes two days after the running of the Suburban, the June scale would mean that The Jockey Club handicapper believes Whirlaway a three-pound better horse than Alsab. We believe Campbell had the June weights as much as the May scale in mind in assigning the Suburban imposts. After viewing the Charles L. Appleton Steeplechase on Tuesday, and the Belmont Spring Maiden Steeplechase on Thursday, we can only hope Cottesmore, Ossabaw and a few other jumpers, who do not make a travesty of a steeplechase, will be in next Tuesdays Corinthian Steeplechase Handicap. In that event, which has ,000 added, Cottesmore is assigned 163; Manding-hara 156, and Ossabaw 152. Next on the list is Bath at 149, and on his Charles L. Appleton showing it is difficult to see how he earned any such rating. He jumped worse than many in the Belmont Spring Maiden Steeplechase, and that event attracted just about the poorest group we have watched in many a long day. OKelly, the favorite on Thursday, ,was as rank as Bath was on Tuesday, and when jumpers of this kind are sent to the post, the hatpin method is about as good as any other in endeavoring to pick a winner. Tuesdays Corinthian will be followed a week later, or on Tuesday, June 2, with the Meadow Brook Steeplechase Handicap, and unless these two events show decided improvement, the steeplechasing sport at Belmont will have to be rated far below that of former meetings. After tomorrows Juvenile, top flight two-year-olds will point for the National Stallion, co-feature to the Belmont on June 6. With ,000 added, this closing- day event is at five furlongs and, like the Juvenile, drew the best bred youngsters of the season. Last year it was won by Some Chance, and in the year before by Attention, with the roster containing many juvenile champions in the years before. Aqueduct will offer two events for the babes, the first being the ,000 Tremont on Saturday, June 20, and the ,000 Great American on Saturday, June 27. Throughout July, important racing centers will be staging rich events which will aid in the juvenile elimination and, as usual, Saratoga will be the testing ground of those who have not been relegated to the limbo of the forgotten. Red Sonnet is the modern example of the official-heard neglected youngster who will have to come up the hard way. Jack S. L., Hickory Head and others will give us a good line on the outstanding babes in the Juvenile tomorrow, and as the season progresses, new ones will emerge from the barns prepared to challenge for their place in the sun. To us, this is one of the most fascinating angles in all the sport of horse racing.
