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Charles Hatton THE JUDGES STAND Bv Charles Nation Many Belmont Attractions From Diamond to Chinstrap Woolf Again Shows Skill Some Notes on Equine Diet NEW YORK N Y May 8 8Belmont Belmont Parks annual spring turf season which is one of the American turfs conceits will not look any different from the way it did in 1942 we dare say As anyone who was present then is aware that is not to imply it will be in any way monotonous On the contrary every minute of it is pretty exciting The racing is the thing of course but there are other attractions at the swank and swish Taj Mahal of the turf on the old old Hempstead Turnpike For one thing there is the parade of carriage elegance For another there are the horticultural aspects of Gebree Wideners park which are a joy forever even to jaded horse players who do not pretend to know a sunflower from an orchid Not to mention Brose Clarks famous pearl gray bowler the debs arriving for the style show in a cloud of Chanel number 5 and as a kind of counter irritant George F T Ryalls remarkable Weskit Race ¬ goers seeing this vest for the first time know exactly how school inarms feel at their first sight of a Grand Canyon sunset Of course The Judge is just jealous having himself long been the despair of the haberdashers in ¬ dustry Belmont is fun too in a social way It is amus ¬ ing to see folks who are on Rotarian terms in any other clubhouse suddenly become condescending and superior superiorStill Still the racing is the thing and there is going to be quite an orgy of sport of the highest possible class during the 24day session at the West chester Associations WorldOfTomorrow course It should not surprise anyone really were the fiftyseventh running of the Suburban Handicap to prove the most classical event in the entire roster of 19 stakes features What with Shut Out Whirlaway Market Wise Attention and Riverland among the possibilities this 30000 Decoration Day attrac ¬ tion might be billed as a sort of battle of the giants without any exaggeration exaggerationAmerican American racings threeyearolds have generated most of the public enthusiasm in the sport thus far in the 1943 season making turf history in the Wood Derby and Preakness The Westchester Association stakes dates afford these a welldeserved rest One or two may work overtime in the Withers Mile on the 22nd but for the most part they will await the Belmont which completes the Triple Crown on June 5 almost a month away awayMeanwhile Meanwhile the seasoned veterans handicap division will furnish the fireworks In the Metropolitan and Suburban two valuable relics of the gaslight era in New York racing racingV racingCoaching V Coaching Club American Oaks Day Wednesday the 26th seems to contain many interesting possibilities In the Barney Oldfield era of the gasbuggy the Coaching Club of America made a gala occasion of this Belmont for fillies which it sponsors complete with basket picnics on the lawns coachesandfours and picturesquely spotted dalmations Perhaps this charm ¬ ing custom will be revived We quite agree with John Coakley that it would be worth the price of admission just to see the Coaching Club members and their friends come wheeling up to the entrance in those nobby souvenirs of a wistful past pastThe The Coaching Club winner automatically will become the Queen pro tern of the threeyearold fillies class of 43 Hal Price Headleys sultry Ask menow heroine of the Pimlico Oaks is to defend her laurels in this exacting test of a mile and a half George Woolf who rides horses in a nerveless way his admirers frequently find unnerving won the Pimlico Nursery It chanced he was astride a tall colt named Galactic at the time This Milkman gelding now has captured each of two starts is a candidate for Belmonts important juvenile stakes and already is a demonstrable bargain at the 2700 Mrs Ethel duPont Weir paid for him at last seasons yearling auctions auctionsMrs Mrs Weir is among the staunchest pillars of the steeplechasing game and would much prefer winning a Belmont Grand National to a Belmont Stakes She already has cautioned trainer Jim Ryan not to allow himself to be carried away with any vague notions he may now entertain of continuing Galactic in competition on the flat when he has come of age for racing through the field fieldJust Just the same it may prove worthwhile remembering this Galactic item when he appears on the New York turf scene sceneIt It seems to us the proficient Don Cameron developer and trainer of Count Fleet has surrounded himself with something of an allstar staff of henchmen These capable aide de camps are Johnny Longden foreman Charley Hewitt plater Sam Martin and exercise boy Frank Kiniry an erstwhile rider Among horsemen Hewitt and Martin are widely recognized authorities Hewitt like Longden is a native of England hailing from London During World War I he was in the British cavalry One of his more important posts here before joining Camerons staff was as foreman for Pete Coyne and at various times during their careers he devoted his special talents to those worthies Roman and Misty Isle IsleA A part of the Hertz horses menu is an occasional garnish of dirt And they relish it Not just ordinary earth but a pinkish substance that was dug near Oaklawn and sifted with meticulous painstaking effort It is rich soil filled with those minerals horses so cfave Salt alone is an inadequate substitute Many other horse ¬ men feed their charges occasional helpings of earth Jack Skinner the successful chase trainer regularly adds a chunk of sod to the menu menuUsually Usually the first thing a horse does when you turn him out is paw down through the grass into the ground and bite put a few mouthfuls he observed adding Naturally you have to be careful where they graze so they do not eat any impurities or harmful substance substanceThis This observer incidentally would not be surprised if Hewitt were a little annoyed about the exaggerations of Count Fleets really slight indisposition en route from Louisville to Baltimore Never to our knowledge has a horse become ill in his care careAlan Alan T Clarke the leading trainer of the Pimlico meeting is a former big league pitcher as his nickname Lefty might indicate to baseball fans He began his ball career at the tender age of 16 playing for Cincinnati several seasons and hung up his gjove at 26 to rear thoroughbreds at Huntingdon Farm near Clarksville Md This place has been the Clarke family homestead for a century Mowlee the sire of most Clarke runners stood there for some seasons previous to his sudden demise three years ago
