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_ ■ — i THE JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton Spa Gets Belmont Cue From ODT Dorothy Pagets Unique Honor Smart Lookin Is Aptly Named Don Bingo Shifty Three-Year-Old NEW YORK, N. Y., June 21. A long-standing prediction that is going rather well for your correspondent at the moment is about the probability that Saratogas August meeting will be staged in the verdant setting of Belmont Park. Of course, it is not yet official, but the ODTs relaxation of its bans against the use of electric trains to tracks is a cue to which, we should think, prexy George Bull and his colleagues will respond with alacrity. This mitigation of Eastmans regulation comes at the most opportune time, too, for Ben Lindheimers combined Arlington-Washington meetings is on the electrified Illinois Central line. At any rate, Long Island horsemen and Aqueduct stockholders now may all stop holding their breath. The former protested the tricky Queens County course as the site of the Saratoga Associations 30 days, and the Aqueduct management has seemed a shade less than hospitable. If it behaves as if New York racings Orphan Annie is a smallpox victim, that is understandable enough. What this ODT ruling does is to remove the only obstacle to the transfer of the up-state meeting to a down-state track with greater accessibility to the public and greater state revenue. At either Belmont or Aqueduct the Saratoga Association, which has never been a money-maker, this summer enjoys an opportunity of verging into the black for a stimulating change. Miss Dorothy Paget, a cousin of Jock and Sonnv Charles Hatton Whitney, emulated their grandfather, William Collins Whitney, when she captured the Epsom Derby with Straight Deal. In 1901, the late Secretary of the Navy, who founded the family fortune, leased Volodyovski to win the English turfs proudest boast. Straight Deals owner is among a comparative few, probably, to have taken both the Derby and Grand National, her Golden Miller winning the Aintree classic in 1934. Of more import than Straight Deals historic sally is the significant fact this renewal of the Derby was witnessed by its largest war-time attendance, 25,000, and was marked by the briskest wagering since Hitlers horrendous obsession assumed the form of mass murder. More significant still is the fact the British government permitted this Derby to be conducted, and so many thoroughbred enthusiasts eagerly assembled to see it, though it was deemed the discreet thing to have a formation of fighter planes constantly circle above the course, ready to fend off the enemy, just across the channel. A great many American soldiers were in the audience, it is said. There is something pretty exemplary about it all, it seems to us. • • William Leavitt Brann, who rather poignantly did not win the Dwyer with Challedon in Johnstowns year 1939», now may subscribe to the bromidic philosophy that racing luck has a fabulous quality of balancing itself in time. Nobody will challenge the statement Vincentive cannot make a Challedon run fast enough to keep warm, but he nevertheless won the Dwyer in 2:05. The Dwyer, which is, incidentally, an alias for the old Brooklyn Derby, attracted an extraordinarily ordinary field for its week-end edition. There was widespread uncertainty about "the best horse" of the field both before and after the race, the question seemed to be whether Vincentive won it quite so much as jockey McCreary lost it. Many of Famous Victorys disconsolate supporters were not nominating convertible Conn as the jockey of the year, briefly, they felt he misjudged his run, much as Eddie Arcaro did astride Mrs. Whitneys Shut Out in 1942. The Betsy Ross, which is Uncle Chuck Adams ,500 contribution to the turfs juvenile filly fixtures, generated a noteworthy degree of enthusiasm for Allen Simmons Smart Lookin among provincial Bostonians. The Akron radio magnet-sportsman has so many thoroughbreds in so many divisions deploying the racing map that Smart Lookin seems somehow to have been temporarily lost in the shuffle, for in her initial racing venture this sprightly daughter of Reaping Reward performed with a price upon her head of ,000. She had been a 00 yearling. The Betsy Ross was Smart Lookins first stake success in three essays, each of which she won and each of them at East Bostons steel and stucco course. The fact she is by Reaping Reward should especially recommend Smart Lookin to Yankee connoisseurs for the type. For it was at Narragansett Park that the half brother of Whirlaway achieved his first fame, when he encompassed Pompoons defeat in the New England Futurity. Count Fleet is expected to resume breezing this week and his reaction will determine his Classic status. Bill Corum recently penned a piece on Englands spotted wonder. The Tetrarch, whose descendant, Count Fleet, seems his American counterpart. It was recalled The Tetrarch was continually speedy-cutting and grabbing his quarters. But there really is no parallel in this regard, nor did Corum insist any exists. Mrs. Hertz colt was racing on a course seconds deep in the Belmont and rapped an ankle crossing the chute. Slow motion pictures afford a study that shows his action is pure and supple. He does not interfere or run down, races without bandages or supports and there is ifo waste motion. Charley Van Meter, we believe, was first to perceive any tendency toward the scorched-earth policy in Mrs. Hertz now spectacular colt. He shaded 23 seconds for a quarter as a yearling at Keeneland, then consumed about a bale of hay, moving taskmaster Van Meter to venture he was no ordinary pupil. If readers think The Judge unduly exuberant about The Count, these should hear Long Islands clocking fraternity who say his actual capacity for speed is as yet unfathomed. This gentry were on to him before his debut last season, when he traversed three furlongs in :34 so handily on Belmonts training track Longden fancied he was going seconds slower. Outrider Ken Force and his pony work overtime whenever The Count runs, catching up to him after the finish. He customarily over-runs these from a quarter to a half mile. "You cant just gallop over and get him," says Force, "you have to give the pony lengths the best of it and then sprint him at top speed." Forces pony, by teh way, is the whilom racer, Cherry Jam. Bing Crosbys namesake, Don Bingo, may be the second best of the three-year-olds. He will not be four, actually, until August 1, you know. The national birthday arbitrarily established for thoroughbreds bred in the United States is January 1, which precludes Don Bingos appearing for events exclusively for three-year-olds. The loose-eared broken-tailed brown Argentinian is not faring half badly competing against older horses in the handicaps, what with the Suburban to his credit, j Saturday at Aqueduct, he conceded the older Lochinvar seven pounds, while himself shouldering 122, and was beaten inches in a contest that made the Dwyer seem frightfully dull. At levels, Don Bingo can defeat Lochinvar any time the idea appeals to him.
