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Charles Hatton THE JUDGES STAND By Charles Matron Racegoers Hail Empire City Move MidWest Tracks Set Fine Example NEW YORK N Y June 3 3It It is doubtful if anything else that has come out of all the welter of confusion and dawdling that suffuses New Yorks wartime racing has been so generally and generously hailed as Empire Citys proposal to transfer its July meeting to Jamaica The Metropolitan Jockey Club site presents the maximum opportunity of reaping state revenue at the minimum use of rationed transportation facilities We should think this logical not to say obvious request of the Butler club will be granted though perhaps it is more complex beneath the surface On this subject of the shifting New York Clubs Help Breeders Scan Chase Sky for NewStar of meetings it seems to us the impressari of Kentucky and Illinois have established a splendid example of neighborliness and have exhibited superb tact in coping with their transportation problems Well in advance of the season and with a refreshing lack of noisy indeci ¬ sion and muddling the Keeneland Lincoln and Arlington meetings were moved respectively to Churchill Downs Hawthorne and Washington WashingtonIn In contrast to this tranquil picture of midwestern racing the scene in Maryland New York and New Eng ¬ land is like an unnerving canvas by Dali Nor can we pretend the disparities in the portioning of gas are altogether responsible v If one looks at all closely he will recognize most of those turf commentators and horsemen who are so urgently sponsoring a campaign for Count Fleet among the older performers as parties who were embarrassed when he won the Derby or have threeyearolds he has been beating What these propagandists have overlooked is that neither John Hertz nor Don Cameron is a JohnnyComeLately What is that hackneyed saw Saw about there being a time for everything The twain shall never meet perhaps but this pillar of nonsense and stuff cannot help thinking Bill Kynes Bay Meadows might cash the box office value of those two Californians Step By and Don Bingo who so recently progressed from anonymous runners that had languished unnoticed for years into name horses in the Handicap de las Americas arid the Suburban There seems little prospect Bing Crosby may resume operating his own Del Mar by the sea in the very near future futureGeorge George Widener who is more familiar as an ownerbreeder than as a racing entrepeneur at Belmont Park met with the prexies of the four other Empire State courses in the austere clubhouse board room the other afternoon Result A new more helpful program of breeders awards in contests at the New York meetings meetingsOriginally Originally the policy provided a 25 award to the breeder of the winner 15 to the breeder of the second horses in all purses irrespective of value or classification The 25 has been maintained in overnight events but the 15 to the breeder of the place horse has been discontinued In all stakes which do not provide breeders awards the breeder of the winner will collect the equivalent of 5 per cent of the added value valueWhat What this does is to encourage the breeding of stake horses rather than the breeding of more minerun animals animalsIt It is earnestly to be hoped this policy of breeders awards originally suggested in Daily Racing Form and the Morning Telegraph will be adopted at all Americas 56 recognized race courses There is an economic necessity not to say demand for relieving conditions in the bloodstock breeding industry These breeders awards are not panacea but they help Curiously while track receipts and purses have increased since the United States entrance into World War II the yearling market has tobogganed alarmingly At the same time farm produce values are increasing increasingGeorge George Widener is not the only advocate of this program of assisting the breeder through these times of stress John C Clark president of the Miami Jockey Club is another Recently he said There is no doubt about it purses should be regraded to be more commensurate with the varying Values of the cheap and middlegrade horses and racing should do something to alleviate the breeders burden In fact something must be done And you may be sure that when Hialeah resumes it will be with provisions for aiding breeders and graded purse values Nor do I think the purse minimum should be reduced The ranks of handicap entertainers of box office thinned noticeably In recent days Fenelon and War Relic have been retired for stud duty Shut Out is licking his Suburban wounds having returned home Memorial Day to Mrs Payne Whitneys palatial Greentree establishment on millionaires row at Belmont with some frightful cuts on one flank and ankle anklePrinceton Princeton Johnny Gaver is concerned about the lacerated ankle which filled The noted chocolatecolored son of racings late lamented Chocolate Soldier may as rather a disappointing consequence have to forego his engagement in the 30000 Brooklyn Handicap at Aqueduct on June 26 26The The young but highly efficient Maryland pedagogue who conditions the fashionable string of the American turfs First Lady still regards Shut Out as the classiest of his charges incidentally In fact Gavcr always has been partial to Shut Out and hopes fondly that rather countrylooking colt will rehabilitate himself later on by corroborating the excellent form he displayed in the Blue Grass Stakes Derby Belmont Classic and Travcrs last Steeplechase addicts are looking expectantly toward the hedge constellation in the expectation of finding a new star this year Cottesmore and Elkridge the Grand National hero and leading moneywinning fencer of 1942 appear to have backslid Mandingham has gone to his ancestors Bath is on the sidelines with injuries injuriesBrother Brother Jones and Knights Quest are a pair of more youthful fencers who give promise of proving championship contenders
