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Charles Hatton THE JUDGES STAND Bv Charles Matron Aqueduct Figures Important Breeders Awards Temporary Expansion Involves Economies The Count Rests for Classic NEW YORK N Y June 5 5The The most important though hardly momentous occurrence of the day in the fascinating course of this wartime turf season of 1943 is the introduction of the Queens County Jockey Clubs annual summer meeting of 18 days This rather ambitious three weeks ranges munificently through nine timemellowed fixtures in eneral and the 30000 Brooklyn and 25000 Dwyer in particular We doubt if anyone will deny this modernized version of the Aqueduct course which verges on Jamaica Bay presents an opportunity for improvement here and there especially as regards its racing strip one said to be curiously sus ¬ ceptible to influence by the tides But the Aqueduct of today is nevertheless the most unrecognizably improved New York plant If you judge from that observation it began indeed unpretentiously you are quite right We listened with rapt attention to its history as recounted by the late W S Vosburgh one steamy summer after ¬ noon there some years ago Aqueduct had only a seven furlong track when it opened in 1894 the noted official said continuing It was operated for a foreign book and the clubhouse was an incredible little wooden structure that was supported on stilts Aqueduct has come a long way since then thenAqueducts Aqueducts tote statistics and attendance as t v vvr iiuuiiv j ni IV T tilt Wl C VtKlUl Ulliai y interest and significance this summer For Governor Thomas E Dewey has suggested shrewdly that this comparison decide the issue of whether Belmont or Aqueduct will be host to Saratogas August meeting And incidentally the stales chief executive is taking a lively interest in the commonwealths thoroughbred sport He will sanction Empire Citys transfer to Jamaica t tMarshall Marshall Cassidy who is one of the most progressive officials in contemporary racing affords an enlightening bit of data on the New York clubs breeders awards program programIn In the instances of imported horses that win the award goes to the importer he noted By way of explaining this somewhat confusing point he added This is not to encourage the importation of horses The object is to aid the bloodstock industry here But the majority of the imported horses that win in New York are steeplechasers Americans acquire at obscure farms in Ireland and England Importing EnglandImporting and developing a fencer is a comparatively slow and expensive project The sportsmen and women who are patrons of this important branch of racing deserve encouragement Though the award in itself is of no moment to them they would feel rather left out of things otherwise You may recall that some years back dozens of subscription jumpers were brought here to be drawn by the sub ¬ scribers to foster the hedge sport Awarding these breeders prizes to the importer is in the same spirit It is estimated that more than 70000 will be the annual total in breeders awards in New York state It was 58000 at the original flat rate of 25 to the breeder of winner 15 to whoever was responsible for the second horse horseRather Rather an important point that should be mentioned but has not we believe is that New York clubs adopted this program temporarily until World War II is won or the present crisis in American bloodstock breed ¬ ing is passed passedi i The present policy of awarding 25 to breeders of winners in overnight events and the equivalent of 5 per cent of the clubs endowment in stakes will be altered if this program is adopted on anything approximating a national scale For it is the opinion of racings intelligentsia that were Illinois Kentucky Maryland and New England tracks to offer awards of similar value the annual yield to breeders will be wildly disproportionate Though some believe the New York premiums should be larger to be really efficacious If this same ratio were expanded to become national in scope the total yield would be too high it is argued arguedProbably Probably a conference among representative groups of track managements and breeders would be called to fix a safe and sane rate of neither too much nor too little were this policy adopted everywhere and we think it should be Americas brown wonder Count Fleet a descendant of Englands spotted wonder The Tetrarch will enjoy a welldeserved respite until the decision of Arlingtons Classic July 24 and Washingtons American Derby August 28 Mrs Hertz colt began on April 13 at Jamaica and raced six times in seven weeks at distances varying from a mile to a mile and a half with an itinerary of some 2000 miles and an injury sandwiched into that tour de force forceThis This is written in advance of the Belmont but to that engagement The Count had not performed over a really fast track in 43 His races were the sheerest exhibitions but the courses over which he performed were tough Garden State Park will bid for more of the effete East big names during its forthcoming summer season which will be inaugurated July 7 Texas Tommy Heards storybook horse Boysy whom Colonel Bradley sold for an humiliating 100 is the most familiar development of the Jersey courses opening meeting last year Then too Whirlaway distinguished that successful period by his triumphal foray there for the Trenton This occasion we are told will be commemorated in one of the decorative murals that are being hung in the grandstand entrance lobby lobbyJimmy Jimmy Loftus the Garden State Racing Associations engaging press agent writes us that Jockey Club chairman Woodward has nominated the queenly Vagrancy and the record holder Apache for various of the courses salient attractions this year With understandable enthusiasm he notes Mr Fitz may ship a division of his string here this summer a thing that will add something to the general tone of proceedings This will be the first time The Jockey Club chairmans internationally famed white Zetland spots will be seen at Garden State Park Warren Wright dapper master of Calumet Farm finds the showy Belmont Park form of the sisters Nellie L and MarKcll one of the most gratifying experiences since he converted his Blue Grass haras from a nursery for standardbrcds to a stud for runners These daughters of Blen ¬ heim II Nellie Flag heroines of the Acorn and Top Flight respectively are of inestimable intrinsic worth as producers Each is not only a stake winner but so was Nellie Flag who is Wrights favorite brood mare while the next dam Nellie Morse captured a Preakncss
