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Nelson Dunstan REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Twilight7 Racing in Broad Daylight Have Dinner Then Go to Races Detroits New Steeplechase Course Fine Chase Program Opens June 29 DETROIT Mich June 11 Call this Detroit track unique but alsocall it interesting At Pimlico we left the hotel at 1100 oclock to arrive at the track for the first race at 1200 noon You could get back to town in time to see a matinee Out here in Detroit you can see a matinee then get to the Fair Grounds in time to see the first race They run the last race at 800 oclock and you are back in town for dinner somewhere around 900 providing you have no tickets to cash The funny part of it is that they like it Many of them o home after work and get out in time to see Bryan Steele send the field away for the fourth race If you take the trolley out as we did you pass a huge Army reservation When a bugle blows you naturally think it is coming from the race track but soon realize it is mess call at the camp and if you think those boys cannot run faster than horses when they hear it come out and take a look Such highclass stables as Milky Way Dixiana and Dearborn are cam ¬ paigning here but even so the track has maintained to a large extent the air of a country fair Its a town where the twodollar player is in the vast majority yet one at which everybody appears to be having a lot of fun funIts Its all very informal at Detroit You go in to meet the officers and they tell you to take off your coat and be comfortable They are proud of the 100 women ticket sellers behind the windows Blondes brunettes and red heads Tall short fat and skinny gals And most of them mothers or wives of boys in the service the officers tell you rather proudly They average 35 years of age and after the first few days they are as efficient as the men We watched for quite some time and left impressed by the way these women handled their jobs It is one of the few tracks where the stewards are atop the grandstand but the important thing is that the stewards are seasoned veterans who know every angle of the game In its beauty and appearance it cannot be compared to Belmont Hialeahor Santa Anita It is hard to beautify the centerficld as it is the State Fair Grounds and the rodeos ruin any flowers or shrubbery planted It rained for 26 straight days in May and the track and centerfield are slowly coming around to normalcy There is a grass course the first race at this meeting was run over it today There also is a steeplechase course that is practically completed William duPont Jr who has laid out the best steeplechase courses in the country has been supervising the work and designed it with Pimlico as his model Charles F Henry energetic racing secretary has mapped out an attractive steeplechase program and has the assurance that many of the best jumpers now in the East will be on hand for the Bloomfield Open Hunt Steeplechase Handicap to be run on Tuesday June 29 With a purse of 5000 this event will usher in the jumping sport that Detroit officials are certain will be popular with fans in this part of the country With very few hunt meetings this year the innovation gives owners and trainers of jumpers daily opportunities to race for two months without moving from track to track Purses range from 1200 to 5000 and while the majority of the events are at two miles a few of them are at longer distances Charles F Henry has worked out his program so that all grades of steeplechasers will have I opportunities One group of three races that will prove of interest is the Endurance Handicaps The first to be run on July 8 is the Series 1 Endurance Handicap at two and a quarter miles for fouryearolds and older horses non winners of a race of 2500 since April 15 1942 The field will be limited to 10 starters for a purse of 2000 with the trainer of the winner to receive 100 The Series 2 second Endurance Steeplechase at two and a half miles will be run on Thursday July 15 The jjurse also will be 2000 Then on Thursday July 22 they will run the final Endurance Steeplechase Handicap at three miles with the field limited to eight The owner of the horse winning the greatest number of points in the three endurance races will receive a trophy while the trainers will receive an extra 250 100 and 50 respectively Due to the lack of transportation that meant cancellation of hunt meetings the staging of such rjfces by the Detroit Association comes at a most oppor ¬ tune time They undoubtedly will draw jumpers from all parts of the country and should give Detroit fans a spirited brand of throughthefield sport In fact now that the track is rounding to shape the better grade performers will be seen in flat races also Trainers were loath to start the good ones on a track that had a daily soaking for 26 consecutive days But from now on it will be one big happy family with every trainer trying to beat his brethren with horses who are ready to run without the aid of water wings wingsDetroit Detroit Fair Grounds has no such transportation problem as we find in the East As at Pimlico and Suffolk Downs trolley cars run from the heart of the city to within a short distance of the track For an hour or two we roamed around the lawn paddock and boxes and ran into scores of veterans They like it out here Roy Waldron Whitey Abel Pud McDaniel Willie Crump Harry Richards and others tell you how they like it and C Hyde Smith who has 24 of Detroits own Dearborn racers says There is no place like home George Krehbiel popular Detroit turf scribe has a horse or two here and gets more fun out of his job than his editor or his trainer Thats the strange part of it out here There is none of the tenseness you sense on some of the other tracks They are a pretty goodnatured crowd and when they want to have a little fun they give Johnny Adams a bronx cheer or two Johnny just grins and then wins another race You just cannot stand on the lawn without someone inviting you to have a frozen custard Yes sir nice town this Detroit
