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THE JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatton Trainers Licenses Problem Firing Iron Used Excesively Spa Cup Bids for Name Horses Many L. I. Runners Go Sore NEW YORK, N. Y., June 25. It is clear that American racings administrators need to be more circumspect t about the qualifications of applicants for trainers licenses. Officials who have a 1 serious regard for their duties and members of trainers fraternities, such as the * Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association and the American Trainers Association, " are among the most "conscientious objectors" to the promiscuity with which 1 licenses are being dispensed. They complain, and not unjustifiably, that this negligent ttitude has introduced an undescribable element into the profession, one depriving it of dignity and infringing upon its ethics. In all too 3 many instances, the licensee is incompetent, in others a shade less than scrupulous. A great many panaceas have been prescribed by well-informed racing men. One " cannot simply plow under every fourth license. By way of putting in his two-bits worth, this bystander believes that a possible solution would be the creation of a national board of examiners under the auspices of the non-political Jockey Club. Lest some state racing commissioner suffer a stroke at this point, we hasten to add ■ that each Commonwealth could exact a fee for enforcement " of such a boards licenses, at their accustomed assessments for a license, which vary from 0 to 5, Under this arrangement it would, of course, be necessary to appoint authorized representatives of TT j * the board to test applicants in California, Chicago j, Hatton Charles and New York and make resoiuti0ns to the national board of 4 arbiters. On this red-hot subject of trainers licenses, we are reminded that since Marshall Cassidy came to New York as a steward in 34, the questionnaire was innovated, has become progressively more exacting, and we have no doubt, eliminates scores of unqualified applicants annually. In time there will be fewer undesirables. It is gratifying to note that the Saratoga Association and Maryland Jockey Club propose such substantial increases in prize distribution this season. Transferring his August meeting from up-state New York to Belmont Park, prexy George Bull 1 is enabled to proffer stakes and purses more attractive by nearly 00,000. Saratoga i no longer is so dependent upon horsemens nomination fees. At the nostalgic Spa i home of the club, owners ran virtually for their own money in many of the roster • of some 30 time-mellowed stakes. Harry Parr indicated at Pimlicos spring meeting r that horsemen would share liberally in the tracks receipts in the fall. Following a [ conference of the Maryland Jockey Club directorate, it is announced that the daily r average in purse monies will approximate 5,000. Saratogas Cup, which looms importantly among Americas scarcity of weight-forage . fixtures, has been increased to 5,000 added. It is earnestly to be hoped horsemen will support the Cup in the wholehearted fashion it deserves. Jock Whitney, wherever he is, will be delighted to learn that a son of the patriarchal little stallion, The Porter, captured Arlingtons Primer from the classiest mid-western juveniles. This hostage to fortune is A. C. Ernsts Alorter, whose latest tour de force was achieved at the direct expense of two such precocious kindergarteners as Occupy and Black Swan. Perhaps smarting under the sting of a defeat suffered at the heels of Black Swan in the Bashford Manor, Alorter led the ill-fated Riverlands courageous brother in the Primer, as well as disillusioning Occupys large following. Some of these latter must have been prudent enough to play him "win, place and youU-be-sorry" as Operative 6 7-8 puts it. We are occasionally seized with the conviction that recourse to the firing iron Is taken all too often in America. In many cases in which our comparatively adamant ! skinned courses have induced some vicissitude of racing and training, a long respite from activity under saddle will effect the same cure achieved with the aid of the firing irons. And without binding the tissues, tendons and joints of horses underpinning and thus without destroying a horses action. Besides, the tell-tale marks of a firing iron are a mute knock against a potential sire when they embark on a stud career. Last season it was a joy to connoisseurs of the thoroughbred to observe Occupation in action. Bull Dogs attractive son was a slick-striding runner. It is said that he still flexes his forelegs neatly though these were fired last winter. But his case is an exception. The average horse that is fired from the knees to the ground in front loses his natural, more fluent gait. *v In this vein, it occurs to us that it is perhaps just as well for the Long Island horse colony Saratogas meeting will not be staged at Aqueduct. Such a thing would mean 48 consecutive racing days on the Queens County Jockey Club strip with some pretty widespread and adverse effect on the soundness and public form of those animals the least inclined to soreness. An unusual number of sore-going performers sported colors at the meeting just closing. It is often difficult to arbitrarily draw a line of demarcation as to when an entrant shall be permitted to start. This department believes soreness is responsible for much of the sulking refusal to break and at least one fall in recent days at Aqueduct. Few racing strips in this country are quite what they were previous to Pearl Harbor. Owing to associations self-imposed policies of cooperating on gas and rubber conservation at an inconsequential saving of those commodities, it is patently impossible to sprinkle or harrow tracks as efficiently as heretofore. Merely by way of illustrating this point, it is our theory that could Belmont Parks management have moistened its dusty mile and a half main course more thoroughly, Count Fleet would not have rapped himself in the Belmont Stakes and I would have performed a major operation on Bolingbrokes American mile and a half mark, Longdens efforts to the contrary notwithstanding. We think Neil Boyle, who is quite the most proficient track superintendent we know, called attention last spring to the doubtful advisability of endeavoring to care properly for tracks to save so minute a quantity of gas and rubber. The breeders awards gives those who are producing Americas thoroughbreds more than an academic interest in the output of their studs after they are marketed at the yearling sales. For instance, the Gazelle heroine, Anthemion, sold for only ,000 at the Spa bargain counter. But in the Aqueduct feature she added 50 to that sum and encouraged some thought she will continue to be a source of revenue to breeder Hancock. We should think these awards would be a solace to market breeders who fancy some of their colts and fillies sold too cheaply.
