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JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton National Recognition of Rulings Bull Dog Reveals an Earnings Mark Illinois Board Makes Strong Ruling Ray of Hope for West Coast Turf LEXINGTON, Ky.. March 31. Your correspondent has just come from I ■ casual gathering of racing men at a| ! kaf fe-klatcii in the dim recesses of one of their favorite haunts i hen in the Blue Grass, j ! We were all prescribing j j panaceas for racing. ! J That is, all but the! j meditative little man j with the thick spectacles. He just listened! j attentively. Finally he cleared his throat, I | pushed aside his cup i i and said something we I thought rather provoc ative : He said : "All this discussion of claiming race evils and the definition of a stakes events is very profound. They are subjects of especial importance to horsemen. I doubt if the general public knows or cares a great deal about these matters, however, I j It seems to me that form is the racegoing publics chief concern. And that involves j j the supervision of the sport. A thing that j | is injurious to racing generally is the neg- I | ligence of some states about recognizing j | others rulings." Probably there should be I some sort of "clearing house" to notify the j | commissioners and licensing boards in all I racing states when a rider or trainer is denied a license. Those who are persona non grata in one area should not be tolerated in another. A weakness of the present system of supervision is the practice of merely warning undesirable riders and trainers to apply for licenses elsewhere instead of issuing a definite ruling. In instances in which there is insufficient evidence to make a ruling, a license should be granted just long enough to trap the suspect. Man o Wars thousands of admirers celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday Wednesday. Big Red himself passed the day quietly, with no disturbance in his schedule. The progeny of Fair Plays patriarchal son have amassed more than ,100,-000. a record sum. His last crop, now yearlings, numbers half a dozen, including a fine jaunty brother of War Hazard who vaguely resembles his sice and an outsize sister of Speed Boat and War Relic. Owner-breeder Riddle accounts these among the likeliest yearlings Man o War has s; ed. Man o Wars stud mark is about as secure, in these days of lush purses and stakes, as is Whirlaways earnings title, for example. A good many students regard Bull Dog as his most formidable rival. Charley Kenneys charge was the premier American sire of 43 and his issue amassed a grand total of ,000,000 when he was only 16, last year. No other stallion reached ; that sum so young. A contributing factor in Bull Dogs success is that Kenney is j more enterprising than most stud managers in seeking the best possible mares. It may be apropos to add, as an aside, that no ! stallion ever had a better "book" than has Whirlaway in his first season, this year. It is sometimes difficult to know who owns a thoroughbred, but the Illinois Racing Board proposes to find out, in the instance of each horse racing under its jurisdiction. Maj. Ednyfed Williams, chairman of the Prairie States turf governing body, and his fellow members feel sportsmen and sportswomen who race fashionable strings at Illinois tracks will bear with them in this questionnaire, for the good of the sport. It has been announced all applicants for horsemens licenses must submit to an examination that will provide "complete information as to th applicants record and reputation." How much California racing there will I be in this tumultuous year "depends." The I military has given the Del Mar Turf Club permission to conduct a meeting in autumn. • Bay Meadows, in addition to its spring session, has 56 days of fall sport i from September 30 through December 6. . In sanctioning these fall dates the California Horse Racing Board renewed the hopes Hollywood Park will resume in 44 when it made the proviso Bay Meadows fall meet may be revised "to avoid too great conflict with Hollywood Park." This is the nearest thing yet to official recognition of the possibility Jack Mackenzies track will reopen this year.
