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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Duns tan- Five 0,000 Races in New York What a Super-Horse Could Earn! Lord Lonsdale Colorful Owner The Grooms Biggest Day of All NEW YORK, N. Y.. April 14. With the Empire City and Butler Handicaps raised to 0,000 each. New York now boasts of five events with that value in added money. The other three are the Suburban, Belmont and Brooklyn. These are golden days for three-year-olds and older horses, for besides the 5,000 Kentucky Derby, numerous 0,000 added events are programmed for the summer season at the various tracks. Five j j i ! j I I I J i j 1 j j j J of these are run at the Arlington-Washington meetings — namely, the American Derby, Classic, Stars and Stripes. Arlington Handicap and Washington Park Handicap. Add to that New Englands Massachusetts Handicap, Marylands Preakness and New Jerseys Trenton Handicap and they total fourteen events with 25,000 in added money. The Dixie Handicap has an added value of 0,000, so, placing that on the list, it is obvious that an outstanding three-year-old or older horse can pile up an impressive earning record in the season ahead. Alsab is aiming at Whirlaways record, but with stakes of such value being offered other horses could quickly climb that earning ladder. The three-year-olds will be momentarily forgotten as the Excelsior is run in New York tomorrow; the Bowie Handicap features the Pimlico meeting; the Spring Handicap is run at Narragansett, and the Keeneland meeting opens at Churchill Downs with the Phoenix Handicap. All of these events are for three-year-old* and older horses, with the vast majority coming in the older horse category. It will be the calm before the storm, however, for. in the next few weeks the Wood Memorial. Chesapeake, Blue Grass Stakes and Derby Trial will have the fans concentrating on these events which will lead up to the classic at Churchill Downs on May 6. Slowly the three-year-old division is taking shape. Durazna. Jezrahel and Occupy are definitely out of the big race. Black Badge will not be a starter and the latest word is that Platter is out of the Wood Memorial. The Widener horse has not been declared out of the Derby, but it is almost a foregone conclusion he will not take the trip to Louisville. Both Pukka Gin and Stir Up were impressive in the Experimental Handicap and. barring the unforeseen, they will be starters in the Wood Memorial. Olympic Zenith, the candidate of William Helis. is responding to training and will add interest to the three-year-old trial to be run at Jamaica a week from tomorrow. Yesterdays paper carried news of the death of Lord Lonsdale, one of the famous sportsmen of the British turf. It was an old story that he once defeated John L. Sullivan, the Boston "bully boy," and also that he was a party to a holdup of a stage coach when he was a cowboy in Denver in the early 70s. Like the late Foxhall Keene, he was an all-round athlete and performed many out-of-the-ordinary feats requiring both strength and stamina. England, like our country, has few of those old colorful characters left. Lonsdale was of the same years as Betcha Million Gates, Berry Wall and others who came to fame through their breath-taking plunging, their dre*» and what not. The grooms at Pimlico were given the raise they asked. So, too. were those in New York, although one faction is dissatisfied with the manner in which it was made. These boys are making anywhere from 50 to 00 monthly, as compared to 0 and 5 for the same work 20 years ago. It can only be hoped that the public has seen the last of this bickering, for while any group of men have the right to demand what they believe their due, they certainly have no right to make the people who support racing the goat. Fortunately, the strikes of the past week did not last very long. Whenever possible these matters should be settled before the meetings open. Nothing has been heard of the horsemens protest against the levy of the use tax at Jamaica. The HBPA has not forgotten it, however, and as Major Mc-Creery stated, they will carry it to the Supreme Court. Legal men we have talked with, both on and off the race track, seem certain that it will be declared unconstitutional once it reaches the stage of a hearing in court.
