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Charles Hatton THE JUDGES STAND Bv Charles Harron Turfs W R Effort Increased Name Horses May Boost Funds 1 NEW YORY N Y May 24 24The The American turfs extremely generous contributions to War Relief agencies are steadily advancing toward the 4000000 mark Churchill Downs Pimlico New Orleans Fair Grounds Oaklawn Park Bay Meadows and Sportsmans Park all have given unstintingly this wardepleted racing year So we feel jyill other associations that may function under the current transportation regulations Arlington Park and Suffolk Downs have announced receipts from the forthcoming Fourth of July programs respectively featuring the 30000 Stars and Stripes and the 50000 Count Can Shade 134 Boyle Thousands Witness Kings Plate Massachusetts will be added to racings War Relief Fund Only last weekend Belmont pledged its most aus ¬ picious day to War Relief This is Memorial Day which is also Suburban day The turfs gifts to these agencies ought not to be misconstrued as some times they have been They are not intended to curry favor at Washing ¬ ton Nor would it be at all possible for an industry in which there is a mere estimated 6000000 profit in a boom season to be the donor of a sum sufficiently astronomical to influence politicos accustomed to talk ¬ ing of tjvo billions as if it were two bits These gifts are nevertheless gratefully received by the relief agencies who rather count heavily on them in their budgets The thoroughbred industry in 1942 gave a mag ¬ nificent total of 3200000 or some 58 per cent of racings net profits after payment of taxes for the year We wonder how Jerry Giesler came by his exaggerated notions of racings profits and potential contributions Last year the Turf Committee of America fixed 2000000 as racings target Perhaps encouraged by the fact it was exceeded more than 50 per cent the TCA again has established a 2000000 goal for 43 Allowing for a shrinkage of approximately onehalf the dates scheduled this year racing may give more than 60 per cent of its net returns and experience difficulty achieving that 2000000 objective objectiveIt It seems to us American racing is indeed fortunate in these tumultuous times to be so singularly blessed with box office entertainers It seems to us also that glamor horses connections should make a special effort to race them on programs designated as War Relief days We like to think they will willAlsab Alsab and Whirlaway for classic example enhanced the publicappeal of numerous such patriotic projects in 1942 There is an engaging possibility at the moment how ¬ ever remote these celebs will resume their historic HatfieldMcCoy relations in Ben LindKeimers Stars and Stripes StripesAt At any rate racing is achieving a war record that should make everyone in it glow with pride prideLincoln Lincoln Plaut of Daily Racing Form and the Morning Telegraph who originated this tremendous enterprise is by nature a modest fellow but we think he and Col Matt Winn Herbert Bayard Swopc William Woodward Warren Wright Bevcrley Broun Maj Louie Beard and the others who sup ¬ ported the venture in those shaky formative days can feel they have com ¬ pleted a job well done A good many men have talked a goodvdeal about organizing American racing and breeding but it was not quite done before beforeThis This is not to imply everyone may now lean back complacently and let matters take their course On the contrary and without recourse to an alarming imagination there has not been since Pearl Harbor more urgent need for unity and cooperation among the TCA TRA American Breeders Association American Trainers Association et alia Racings alert has been sounded We hope that Herbert Bayard Swope or some other such aggressive diplomatic racing man will be appointed to that threeman Sports CoOrdinators Committee It is difficult to comment in a moderate factual way about the exhibitions by Mrs John Hertz Count Fleet without giving the impression of recklessly exploding superlatives all over the page That impetuous stronglyknit brown colt continues to establish new standards of speed in the thoroughbred We prefer to let someone else discuss the Withers however for anything we said might be thought a bit on the bias biasTrack Track superintendent Neil Boyle of Belmont Park who knows the strip like the palm of his hand remarked The track was never less conducive to speed and Count Fleet raced 40 feet from the rail on the crown of the curve where the going was driest and perhaps stickiest I believe that 1 36 is the fastest mile of the year so far It is probable that when it is dry he can shade 134 for a mile against time with the track merely harrowed for the occasion occasionWe We wonder if 136 is not a world record muddytrack mile mileThis This observer inclines to agree with Boyle that it is regrettable in a way The Count has not chanced upon a really fast track in any of his five spring appearances and has not been ridden out in any of them Who knows what exotic time figures he might have displayed to his audiences Whatever became of The Anvil Chorus that was so positive Don Cameron was overdoing it when he was training Count Fleet in the late winter and early spring The Californian proved he is among the best trainers in America long ago whenjie virtually made over horses like Count dOr and Good Flavor not to mention his success with Count Arthur and Challcdon ChallcdonCount Count Fleet is growing and is filling out despite his five races at distances ranging from a mile to a mile and a quarter in five weeks all over dull tracks and with long hauls and an injury for good measure That speaks eloquently for Camerons skill at his craft The Juvenile described George Wideners blocky Lucky Draw as a nice sort Galactic ran well and encourages an impression he may improve with more maturity and distance It isvnot improbable that these geldings will encounter much sterner opposition when the annual spring epidemic of coughing and buckedshins passes passesThere There is an interesting prospect that next Saturday Lincolns Hawthorne running of the Joliet will bring together those hardhitting westerners Black Swan Civil Liberty and Ogham The first mentioned half brother of Riverland is a thoroughly game youngster while our Chicago talent scouts fancy Civil Liberty has improved since Black Swan caught him tiring near the Bashford Manor finish finishComparisons Comparisons are odious and its the sheerest most trivial guesswork but this precocious pair impressed us more favorably than any eastern newcomers thus far in the young Long Island season It is somehow refreshing that 35000 Canadians attended Woodbine Park on the weekend for the eightyfourth version of the Kings Plate which incidentally was captured by Charles Hcmstcads Paolite who beat Arbor Vita at an exhilarating 38 to 1 The Canadian Government not only sanctions but urged the continuation of thoroughbred racing during the war proclaiming it at once a popular form of amusement and an infallible source of needed revenue In England too the government does not merely tolerate but appreciates and fosters the sports continuity The King who added the traditional 50 guineas to the plate was Englands leading owner in 1942 and recently attended Ascot where his colors were represented in competition
