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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Count Fleet Blue Swords Again Marylanders Support Vincentive New York Tracks Help Breeders Tedious Comes Back to Win Race BALTIMORE Md May 7 7Featured Featured by the Preakness the Pimlico meeting ends tomorrow with Harry Parr and his associates highly pleased with the results Thursdays card had no stake event and yet the crowd was bigger than that of Wednesday when the Pimlico Oaks was run My good friend Sid Feder of the Associated Press thinks Count Fleet is a lucky horse because he was a supplementary entry for the Preakness and Belmont Stakes But it can also be argued that the track owners were lucky when Alfred Vanderbilt started the practice for had he not done so Count Fleet would be in his barn tomorrow afternoon His absence would have meant a larger field but a Preakness without the Hertz colt would have been a sad affair Not one reserved seat was left on Thursday so the fact that only four horses may start has not dampened the enthusiasm of Mary landers to see this outstanding colt in action We believe 40000 will be on hand when the small field goes post ward Loyal to the Old Line State many Marylanders are anxious to wager that Vincentive will beat Blue Swords for second money Vincentive is a good colt but we doubt if he is that good and in our book it is Count Fleet Blue Swords Vincentive and New Moon who may run for fourth money That 2000 is a soft touch v Some Marylanders have an unique angle on tomorrows Preakness renewal They are that the Marylandbred Challedon upset the dope and on Nelson Dunstan that premise so might Vincenlive Every man to his opinion of course but what has Challedon to do with Vincentive True they are by the same sire but right there the similarity ends Challedon was a grand racer and would have retired with a fine record had not his owner allowed him to be beaten by horses he could have towroped when at his best Vincentive is a long way from the Challedon that was beaten in the Derby but came on to win the Preakness We always regarded Challedon as one of the best horses we had ever seen that is until he became but a shell of the horse that created a worlds record at Keeneland To be anything like Challedon Vincentive must stage a whale of a race against Count Fleet and Blue Swords We do not believe he can defeat either one of them and if we are wrong tomorrow must be the day But on the cold dope we cannot see him better than third He may fool us horses often have but there is nothing in his record to convince us he will beat Count Fleet or Blue Swords But then the race itself holds the only true answer News that New Yorks racing associations had decided to give a premium to breeders of the first and second houses of all races run on Metropolitan tracks this year was hailed by breeders and horsemen alike Other track heads are certain to institute such a plan and it is hoped expand it to the point where breeders will have something beyond a loss to look forward to in years of depression war and bad business generally It will be a greater incentive to develop a winning horse for every victory in New York now means a dividend check to the man who bred and raised him or her There is no doubt that drastic curtailment would have been the order in the breeding season to come The one who now continues to breed his maximum number of mares will have an advantage over the one who does not and especially so if the war ends in 1944 If the plan of the New York tracks becomes general it may be that a graduated scale would be worked out so that the breeder of a stake winner would receive a larger sum than the breeder of a claiming winner To keep up the standards good horses are needed and it is such encouragement that will make breeders strive to develop one or more For racings good the recognition of the NewYork tracks should have a farreaching effect effectAlthough Although the myth has long been exploded Tedious demonstrated on Thursday that a horse may still hold his desire to race Having served four or five seasons at Alfred Vanderbilts Sagamore Farm Tedious is now a nine yearold Yet when he came on the track he appeared in fine condition and once the fifth race started he demonstrated that he had the speed of old At the break he took the track and with a come get me run led the field to the i head of the stretch At that point Rough Pass took command and it looked as if the old Vanderbilt racer had shot his bolt But with the crowd screaming his name he came on again and at the finish line was a length and a half in front True it was a claiming race but the point is that he was a stud so long and still came back with a winning race That old wheeze they never come back has had many a jolt in recent years Time and again during the past 20 years horses have returned to the wars with success Why even mares who had foals have returned to win races Strangely the early books tell of mares who had foals coming back to win races Then the practice became unpopular but from indications in recent years neither stallions nor mares who have been bred lose the urge to race
