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JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton Interest Sustained in Belmont Abandon Supplementary Closing HPBA Suggests More N Y Races More Unity Needed Down East EastNEW NEW YORK N Y May 30 Now that Belmonts War Relief Day proved so successful we can all stop hold ¬ ing our breath and amuse ourselves ex perting Saturdays Bel ¬ mont Stakes A rather curious circumstance evolves on the running of the three classics which comprise the Triple Crown this spring Whereas Pen ¬ sive already has cap ¬ tured two of these baur bles none of the three has been attended by Fleets sequence of virtual walkovers in the 1943 Triple Crown You may recall that the Hertz horse was the shortest priced Derby favorite ever and ended up a 120 shot in the Belmont The three yearold situation was as disorganized as a grooms strike when Pensive took charge at Louisville He won the Derby convinc ¬ ingly enough but Platter was a conspicuous absentee from that field and the Preakness poses a question if Pensive could subdue him The answer was in the affirmative Rather than handing him the title on a platter however racegoers now wonder if Pensive can dust off both that colt and his stablemate Who Goes There Jack Campbells Peter Pan weights say Pensive is pounds superior to the latter It is an expectation that Platter will come from behind Pensive for a change which lends the Belmont its fascination for the cus ¬ tomers By the way this will be the last renewal of the Belmont that attaches the supplementary closing clause George Wld ener is the clubs prexy and his Platter would be ineligible for the ensuing Belmont only for the supplemental closing It never ¬ theless will be abandoned in 1945 Instead of closing for yearlings the first ante re ¬ quired will be for twoyearolds in the fall fallHerbert Herbert Bayard Swope head of the New York iurf solons is enter tainingr a suggestion from the HBPA that State tracks be permitted eight races daily regardless of whether one of them is a steeplechase Maj Tom McCreeryf of the Horsemens Be ¬ nevolent and Protective Association estimates conservatively that if eightrace cards are sanctioned they will yield the State 1500000 more revenue annually Nor does the HBPA pretend to be actuated solely by benevolence toward the State for eight races daily mean more oppor ¬ tunities for horsemen Benevolence begins at home of course courseThere There are 430 acres in Belmont Park but we can think of greener pastures for platers Only 21 per cent of the races de ¬ cided at the meeting are claimers Whether or not you regard this as an occasion for fandango in the streets depends on your prejudices We have a notion Jack Camp ¬ bell was correct when he declared that all horses of a value up to 5000 should run in claimers In order to achieve this re ¬ duction in the percentage of claimers most tracks substitute graded handicaps oftener than is beneficial to racing There are so many other alternatives including com ¬ bination races in which horsemen may or may not enter their horses to be claimed as they choose In combination races those animals running without prices on their heads carry a few pounds extra This type of contest once was in vogue throughout the West WestNew New England horsemen could wish there were more unity among the three tracks comprising the circuit there Many have shipped to one or another of these parks only to discover belatedly they could not obtain stabling accommodations at the neighboring meets In one as ¬ pect New England crowds are a good deal like Kentuckys One often sees entire families at the races So many such tiny tots become lost at Suf ¬ folk Downs indeed that the man ¬ agement is perforce barring those under 15 and admitting minors only when they are accompanied by a guardianHarry guardian Harry Isenbergs reelection to the presi ¬ dency of the California Breeders Associa tion is tremendously popular with West Coast bloodstock growers as he is an inde fatigable worker in the interest of improV ing the states thoroughbred Isenberg also is chairman of the California Breeder Foundation which will be a source of assistance to the Commonwealths less pre tentious thoroughbred nurseries The nej proceeds from one days racing at each of the California tracks is to be donated 6 the Foundation for its fund
