Reflections: Attention to Be Sold at Auction; Three Sons of Ekky in Suburban; Breeders Award Meets With Favor; Reds Trainer Admires Count Fleet, Daily Racing Form, 1943-05-20

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Nelson Dunstan REFLECTIONS Bv Nelson Dunstan Attention to Be Sold at Auction Three Sons of Ekky in Suburban Breeders Award Meets With Favor Reds Trainer Admires Count Fleet NEW YORK N Y May 19 19Attention Attention will go under the hammer at Belmont Park on May 28 Some keen bidding is certain to result for while this son of Equipoise is not too robust as Max Hirsch will attest he is one of the best sons of the Chocolate Soldier thus a good stud prospect when racing days are over He beat Whirlaway in the Classic at 6hi cago and that victory can be attributed to the fact that he proved to be as game as he was fast He does not resemble his sire being a tall Colt who filled out beautifully between his fouryearold season and the opening this year Whirlaway defeated him in the Dixie of 1942 but only racing luck prevented him from winning the same race this year He will J Je e sold three days prior to the running of the Suburban and your guess is as good as ours as to what he will bring Only the death of theowner makes such a sale possible and we daresay the buyer will be someone attracted as much by his breeding potentiali ¬ ties as his racing ability He reflects the speed of the Dominos on the male side with a cross of the fashionable Blandford in the bottom line His dam Fizzaz by Bub ¬ bling Over is out of Blandfords daughter Heterodyne He measures up to racing or breeding specifications from any angle It is unfortunate he has to pass from the carp of capable Max Hirsch who nursed him back to be the horse he is today The Suburban to be run on May 31 reflects the class of Equipoise as a stud for three of the eligibles are his sons Attention Shut Out and Bolingbroke The weights are due to be released in a few days and it will be interesting to see how John B Campbell reacts to the victories of Devil Diver in the sixfurlong Toboggan Handicap and last Saturdays Metropolitan Handicap at a mile The Suburban at one and onequarter miles promises to again i result in one of the most thrilling races of the spring season Alsab definitely will not start and there is only a slim chance that Whirlaway will be in the post parade But even with that illustrious pair out of the lineup the 30000 race promises to draw the same group of handicap stars who had the vast crowd yelling their heads off last weekend Shut Out Greentrees brilliant threeyearold of 1942 has yet to regain his form of old and many are now saying that his running mate Devil Diver is the better of the two Greentree also has The Rhymer and Corydon to draw from while Fenelon Mioland Attention and Market Wise are four of the recent comebacks who will draw their share of the throngs attention Still other eligibles include Ahamo Apache Vagrancy Marriage Boysy Riverland Thumbs Up and Tola Rose At one and onequarter miles this should prove a whale of a race We doubt if there will be many sales of horsesintraining this year Good horses are next to impossible to obtain and already there is much speculation as to whether this will not bolster the yearling market Speaking of that the idea of a breeders award has met with favor by the vast majority George Widener William Woodward Francis Dunne and Walter Donovan general manager at Garden State Park have publicly endorsed the plan Our mail contains more endorsements from important people in racing circles and there is hardly a doubt that other major tracks will cooperate with New York in the plan One Kentucky publication urges that we keep reprinting the editorial which brought this award to the light That will hardly be necessary for if the plan has the merit we thing it has it will take hold but if it has not it will die of its own weight Just two things we believe will determine the amount of breeding that will take place next winter one being the price of yearlings in August and the other the success of this breeders award plan Some of the breeders keep saying they will turn their farms to the growing of tobacco hemp and other products if they find they cannot make a profit with the horses To our knowledge just two people have objected to the breeders award and neither one offered anything of a constructive nature to replace it There is always some objection to a plan of this kind but in this case the great majority think it would be a fine thing The controversy of Count Fleet versus Man o War has been going strong ever since Clem McCarthy used it as his subject with sports and turf writers previous to the running of the Preakness The latest to ad d his bit is Louis Feustel who when interviewed by our friend Henry King said I dont want to make such a comparison Im too prejudiced for that But I am sure that Man o War was the best horse the American turf has ever had and there have been mighty few like him I believe that Man o War could give 10 to 20 pounds to any other horse ever foaled and beat him He was an extraordinary thoroughbred His mold has been destroyed and I dont think we will ever see his equal With these thoughts in mind one can understand why Im not eligible to compare Count Fleet or any other colt with him Count Fleet is the outstanding threeyearold and seems to have a championship and a pot of riches within his owners grasp He is in the care of a good horseman too Don Cameron has trained him perfectly and I believe this colt will go down in turf history as the best horse of the era This controversy will probably spring up as Count Fleet goes on to further victories but it will end as it started for there can be no comparison of horses who raced almost a quarter of a century apart apartInstead Instead of a coordinator President Roosevelt has announced that a threemember advisory committee would probably be appointed to make recommendations on a con ¬ tinuance or abandonment of sports during the war While this is not entirely in keep ¬ ing with the plan as originally outlined speculation was rife as to the three men who would be asked to serve on the committee The name of Senator James M Mead Democrat of New York still persists and in racing circles it is thought Herbert Bayard Swope is another who would be tendered an invitation Swope was the one to break the news of this plan But to date he has made no statement as to whether or not he has been asked to feerve Knowing the game as he does he would be a valuable mem ¬ ber as this committee will have dealings with horse racing as with all other sports The President stressed that the group would not have the power of final decision but it is safe to say its recommendations would be just as valuable as they would be upheld by Washington authorities It is hardlyjikely that such a committee would discon ¬ tinue any sport but that they would endeavor to make recommendations with aiding the war effort its first consideration


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800