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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Huge Throngs at Tracks Today New York Records May Be Broken Meadow Brook Chase Wednesday Death of Jimmy Loftus a Shock ShockNEW NEW YORK N Y May 29 Beside Belmont record throngs are ex ¬ pected at Suffolk Downs Delaware Lin ¬ coln Fields and Detroit tomorrow It seems sale to say at least 40000 will turn out for the Suburban running While it is a handicap and a sur ¬ prise winner is always possible it would ap ¬ pear that the top weights Devil Diver Diver at 130 and Sun Again at 128 will be fighting it out for the honors at the finish This raca is but the first of five days of outstanding sport at the Long Island track The Top Flight on Thursday will prob ¬ ably draw one of the biggest weekday throngs of the meeting but it would not be surprising if the Saturday crowd will equal that of tomorrow For both the Belmont Stakes and the National Stallion shape up as two of the most interesting races of the entire season One event that has been overshadowed by the others is the Meadow Brook Steeplechase at about two and a half miles and which will be run on Wednesday With Brother Jones top weight at 161 followed by Rouge Dra ¬ gon at 160 and Iron Shot at 159 the Meadow Brook is one of the spring events which will have a bearing on the steeple ¬ chase championship of the season seasonSurprisingly Surprisingly enough the only threeyearold nominated for the Su ¬ burban was Appleknocker at 102 pounds This lias not been a race in which the threeyearolds have had much success against older horses In fact we have to go back to 1926 to find the threeyearold Crusader with 104 pounds a win ¬ ner over the fouryearold American Flasr who carried 124 inaugurated in 1884 when it was won by the six yearold General Monroe the Su ¬ burban has one of the mightiest winning beadrolls in the history of the American turf A glance at the roster reveals champions of their years Crusader obtained a head start when he won as a threeyear old for he came back as a four yearold in 1927 to be the only horse who won two renewals in succession The mighty Equipoise won in 1933 but could do no better than second to Ladysman in the renewal of 1934 Market Wise performed quite a feat when he defeated Whirlaway and Attention in 2 01 in 1942 but in 1943 Don Bingo ran one of the fast ¬ est one and onequarter miles of all time when he defeated Attention in 201Twilight 201 Twilight Tear did the expected when she annexed the Coaching Club American Oaks for her seventh straight victory on Satur ¬ day There is little chance that Ben Jones will send her out for the Top Flight Hand ¬ icap to be run on Thursday We have an idea that the Calumet trainer will saddle MarKell for this event Anthemion de ¬ feated the Calumet mare by a whisker in their last start and another meeting be ¬ tween these two will be the highlight of a race that may draw some of the best fillies and mares of the present season to the post Twilight Tear will be given a shorl rest and while she is not being referrec to as the Queen she must defeat Dur azna generally regarded as the champion juvenile filly of 1943 before her title will be absolutely clear Durazna is training steadily and the pair will probably mee some time during the Arlington and Wash ¬ ington Park meetings which get under way on June 19 When they come together i will be one of these naturals we read so much about aboutThe The death of Jimmy Loftus came as a great shock to us Before leav ing for Toronto last Thursday we spent quite a few hours with him at the Harkness Pavillion and he was in the very best of spirits even though he had gone through a trying opera ¬ tion His doctors warned him to take things easy but Jimmy was never one to do that In Florida this past winter we were walking with him in the paddock when he had a very serious heart attack and only quick treatment on the part of the doctor saved his life Jimmy had been a sports writer for 20 years He went to school in Toronto Canada and served his apprenticeship 011 Can ¬ adian newspapers He handled pub ¬ licity at Belmont Park Hialeali Arlington Park and at Garden State Park since the day the Camden track opened For some time he was with the Steve Hannigan publicity organ ¬ ization He was conservative in his publicity and worked on the theory that sound news makes sound friends lie was one of the best liked men in the turf writing pro ¬ fession and no man could have had a truer friend He will be missed by every one who had the good fortune to know him himIn In Canada they call a Daily Double a duet Shepperton the best horse in Canada will be shipped down for the Gar ¬ den State Park meeting The pech eron stallion Olivet recently purchased by the British Pecheron Society is the first of that breed to be shipped from this coun ¬ try since we entered the war He was one of the 10 best pecheron stallions to stand in this country Lt Walter Chrysler gave a showing of his yearlings at North Wales Stud on Saturday Bill Finnegan is winning his share of races with the Chrysler horses Harness racing has returned to Westbury and will be staged nightly until July 15 Both the Ar ¬ lington and Washington Park futurities will gross about 70000 and have drawn about the best babes in the land Well here is that Suburban Day with its possi ¬ bility of a 4000000 mutuel play En ¬ tries for the 50000 Massachusetts Handi ¬ cap and other irnportarn Suffolk Downs stakes will close on Thursday June 1
