view raw text
Count Fleet Seeks Laurels in Withers Crete Handicap Draws Field of Eight Hertz Star Meets Five at One Mile MileSlide Slide Rule TipToe Principal Opponents Juvenile Stakes Draws Thirteen at Belmont BelmontELMONT ELMONT L I N Y May 21 Count Fleet and a lavish dual stake program will attract New Yorks racegoihg thousands to Belmont Park this weekend The colt about whose heels the lightning flashes looms as a prohibitive 1 to 10 favorite to capture the sixtyeighth running of the 15000 mile Withers in which an unex ¬ pectedly large field of five rivals are named to introduce a competitive element into proceedings In addition to W E Boeings clever Slide Rule hero of the recent Swift and Belairs TipToe a winner of two straight purses the names of Townsend Martins former plater Bankrupt King Ranchs filly Too Timely and Foxcatchers maiden Fairy Manhurst were dropped into the entry box for this eight furlong classic classicThe The Withers companion feature is the Juvenile 5000 added spring annual of five furlongs for juveniles Distinguishing a field of 13 in this chute affair are George Wideners Youthful winner Lucky Draw and Mrs E duPont Weirs Galactic who captured Pimlicos Nursery Lucky Draw appears the probable choice in a fairly open race raceCount Count Fleets quest of the Withers of course completely overshadows in public interest anything else contained in this Westchester Association program for his phenomenal order of speed and more speed has rendered him the outstanding box office attraction in the entire Ameri ¬ can sports field fieldNumerous Numerous Form Reversals ReversalsMany Many more thousands will attend to see The Count perform than to wager either for or against him Only the most ram ¬ pant pessimistics can imagine anything so fantastic as that his imposing sequence of stakes conquests will be rudely anticli maxed with a reversal in the Withers even though seven of ten oddson choices were victims of the Gremlins the initial ten days of the ambitious meeting of 24 and even though Slide Rule exhibited ponderable im ¬ provement in capturing the Swift SwiftIf If all the half dozen promised for this edition of the Withers actually accept it will yield the victor a net purse of 13300 Similarly if the 13 drawn for the Juvenile all face the starter this feature will have a net value of 8225 Incidentally in addi ¬ tion to the stakes winners Lucky Draw and Galactic the Juvenile field includes a half halfContinued Continued on Page Three Count Fleet to Go In Withers Renewal RenewalSlide Slide Rule TipToe Among His Five Opponents in Mile Stake Thirteen in Juvenile JuvenileContinued Continued from Page One Onebrother brother of Count Fleet in King Ranchs Depth Charge ChargeWeather Weather permitting it is confidently predicted that 20000 Metropolitan turf en ¬ thusiasts will wend their xtortuous well rationed ways out to the Hempstead turn ¬ pike course tomorrow afternoon There really is no equitable basis for comparing all situations this spring with those of 1942 under the inauspicious transportation cir ¬ cumstances but crowds have not fallen far below statistics last season All the boxes have been reserved for the Withers as well as for Decoration Day incidentally while the popular Stevens caterers report a rush of advance reservations for luncheon parties in the ornate clubhouse restaurant restaurantCount Count Fleets achievements are much too well known to warrant recounting them here though Mr and Mrs John Hertz and trainer Don Cameron are opposed to any unnecessary use of the colts extraordinary speed in some histrionic onslaught against time marks he has approximated and shattered so many with such casual aban ¬ don that many racegoers have come to expect he will break a record at every turn indeed are disappointed when he does not notAs As every school boy of course knows the Withers Stake record is 135 held jointly by those titans Man o War Johnstown and Snob H each carrying 118 pounds while Count Fleet carried 116 as a two yearold and established a worlds juvenile record of 134 racing over the mile dis ¬ tance ih Belmonts Champagne last fall A factor that has militated against max ¬ imum speed exhibitions thus far in 43 aside from Longdens efforts to the con ¬ trary is that in none of Count Fleets per ¬ formances has the going been speedcon ¬ ducive duciveFavorite Favorite in Fast BlowOut BlowOutOn On the contrary each track over which he appeared this spring has been more or less off and it should surprise nobody were this to be the case also in tomorrow afternoons Withers for which he opened up Friday morning with three furlongs in 23 35 hard as Longden could hold him Under the conditions of the Withers each starter carries 126 pounds with the exceptions of the maiden Fairy Manhurst and the filly Too Timely who carry 121 pounds apiece apieceSlide Slide Rule comes best recommended of Count Fleets rivals Snarks son captured the Jamaica Experimental Handicap open ¬ ing day of the Long Island season His trick knee then gave some trouble inter ¬ fering with his conditioning for the Derby He nevertheless finished third Returning to Long Island the Seattleowned colt tow roped a moderate field for last weeks sevenfurlong Swift SwiftWilliam William Woodwards TipToe has been whipping ordinary fields in flamboyant fashion on Long Island Tomorrows sally will mark his first against the class of his division and trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsim mons apparently has Foray Hs bigbodied brown son in the pink pinkToo Too Timely a distance runner from way back so to speak would be benefited im ¬ measurably were some member of this field to discover sufficient speed to carry the Count The Texan is fit enough if she is swift enough enoughBankrupt Bankrupt beat Four Freedoms in a seven furlong allowance race Thursday after ¬ noon after a particularly heated stretch duel as his public test for the Withers
