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_ I THE JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatron______ Mrs. Ames Now Top 42 Bargain Lucky Draw Smart Tremont Hope Breakage a La France A Message from Giesler _ . s j . NEW YORK, N. Y., June 17 Mrs. Ames is in a rut. Restaurateur Henry Lustigs precocious filly now has won three stakes in three starts. It is only a matter of time, we reflect with a shudder •t until punsters flip-crack about Mrs. Ames stakes and Lustigs steaks. At any rate , when Mrs. Ames sallied down the alley in the Fashion, National Stallion and Astoria L she earned 4,625. As she sold for ,300 in the Fasig-Tipton bargain basement last t summer, Mrs. Ames may claim the distinction of being the best-bought yearling of f 42 based on racing records the first half of 43. That is scarcely anything to occasion i extra-editions or a fandango in the streets, because the B war curtailed two-year-old racing in California and i Florida while the cough has had the same untoward i effect on Long Island. But it is a beginning. In the e National Stallion, Mrs. Ames led some of the males, and in the Astoria encompassed the defeat of the hitherto j unbeaten gray Cocopet, completely disillusioning those g railbirds who fancied the Lazy F filly would annihilate 1 her field. These were in a luckless majority. Mrs. Ames , form tends to attract attention to the youthful sire, • Johnstown, and to her yearling brother, who was the - best foal in Kentucky in 42 and may prove to be the * most coveted 1943 yearling. It is entirely possible that the smartest eastern two-year-old has yet to sport colors, for an epidemic I , i j , [ Charles Hatton °f coughinff and bucked shins interrupted the train ing: of scores of the division. George D. Widener is popuarly believed to have the shiftiest beginner uncovered thus far in the Long Island turf season in the gelding Lucky Draw, who has placed the Youthful and Juvenile to his credit. Lucky Draw, on Saturday, may emulate his sire. Jack High, in winning the Tremont. Blithely ignoring such obstructions as the Appalachians and the ODT to project . our view to the mid-West, Chicagoans appear to be sponsoring Occupations brother, Occupy, as the shiftiest of the newcomers in that region. There is evidence this | sleek son of Bull Dog is a runner. He is in the 0,000 added Arlington Futurity on July 17 and the Washington Futurity of similar value on September 4. Occupy beat 1 nothing by an emphatic seven lengths in his debut. A Lochinvar of the West, this observer thought somewhat better than average when he won Churchill Downs Bashford Manor, is Slack Swan, a half brother of Riverland. We suppose any two-year-old who is slammed into the rail as late in a race as the sixteenth-pole and still can ccme around Civil Liberty and head him is better than an empty stall." The mornings mail included the following from a reader with whom we find ourselves in agreement not that we would have been disinterested otherwise : "My complaint is the habit they the tracks have of running the horses past the stand on the way to the post instead of walking them past so that people who bet on a race can at least get a peep at the horse they bet on. I thought the rules required that the horses be paraded to the post, not run or galloped. . . ." The officials explanation is that the horses are cantered by the stands so the public may note if any is sore. This argument seems to your correspondent as baffling as the explanation for unsaddling behind the stand at Belmont "to save time." Some three minutes per race is lost through this expensive procedure. Commissioner Swope, it occurs to us, would be interested in the contents of a note-from a reader who refers in no unsubtle way to "the iniquitous gouge of breakage." i The chevalier invariably finds it difficult to discuss this topic passively for long. Among other things this note points out: "The French have had experience in racing with pari-mutuels and they pay off to the franc. If the price figures 11.49 francs, they pay 11 francs. If it figures 11.51 francs, they pay 12. If the price is exactly ! 11.50 francs they pay off at 11 and put the 50 centimes into a fund for indigent jockeys : and horsemen. Incidentally, this fund is enriched by unpaid tickets. If you want ! your winnings in France, you must present your ticket within ten days, otherwise the money goes to the fund for indigent horsemen. Nor is there any political fenagling about it." Some weeks ago" it was noted that insistent reports were abroad to the exciting effect Hollywood Park enjoyed some prospect of resuming operations this season. Seemingly, it had, and still does have, for that matter. The announcement that the army command had bestowed its blessing on Bay | Meadows application for dates was accompanied by Jerry Gieslers footnote j the California Horse Racing Board is delaying action until army authorities approve or disapprove an application from the modernistic Los Angeles course. Our advices are Hollywood has not undergone such transformation fn the exigencies of war as has Santa Anita and could open on much shorter l notice. 1 Californians have invested millions in the thoroughbred industry during the last decade, acquiring the best available bloodstock and constructing world -of-tomorrow s race courses. These people, and in fact all the taxpayers of the Golden State, are entitled to enjoy racing, and its benefits as to property development and state income whenever that is at all possible without actual interference with "the war effort." To the energetically obnoxious element in California that has placed every possible I stumbling-block in racings path, one need only point out the American turfs proud war record and the fact it is now the most popular of all sports in the East and middle-West. c A meeting at Hollywood Park doubtless would be successful, in the sense that the club would not incur a deficit. Like Bay Meadows, it is not the most accessible ] track. The point is that the California turfmen, the State and the public are to j be considered. And they will be, it is nice to learn. g L. [ Bing Crosbys Del Mar course, near San Diego, is to be converted into e a feeder plant to manufacture parts for a California aircraft factory, by the c way. Crosby and his associates, grouped under the banner of the Del Mar C C. Turf Club, still will own the property and indeed propose to make these 1 parts as a sort of sideline until racing may be resumed at their track. I
