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Friday June 23 1944 REFLECTIONS By Nelsjon Dunstan DunstanRacing Racing Brandon Prince at 15 Kurinec Protests Comeback Drinking Water at Ten Cents Distinguishing Class of Horses HorsesNEW NEW YORK N Y June 22 During our recent rounds of some Vir ¬ ginia farms quite a bit of interesting mail accumulated One letter said Dear Sir Being a horseman I have a favor to ask of you I think you can help such a situation as mine in the very near future Just three years ago I had a horse un ¬ der my care named Brandon Prince He was 12 years old then now he is 15 I took a lot of abuse from the public for racing him in his old age at that time in fact they even barred him every place I tried to race him after I made the claim So the man from whom I claimed him came to me and said that as the horse was barred he would take him off my hands and turn him out for the rest of his life He said he would give me 100 I did intend to destroy the horse but anyway I let Dan J Sullivan have him Sullivan then shipped him to Maryland and did turn him out But to ¬ day three years later I noticed his entry in the eighth race at Delaware running in the name of Elsie Morris How this party got this horse I dont know but the under ¬ standing between Sullivan and myself was that this horse was never again to race See if you can put a stop to such abuse of a grand thoroughbred as Brandon Prince Yours truly Frank A Kurinec trainer at Suffolk Downs Boston BostonWe We are thoroughly in accord with Frank Kurinec in this letter to us At the end of 1941 Brandon Prince had raced 275 tunes starting in 1931 as a two year old He did hot race in 1942 or 1943 and why anyone would bring him back as a 15year old to race in 1944 is beyond under ¬ standing We do not know Elsie Morris nor under the rules can we condemn her for bringing this horse back when he should have been re ¬ tired But we can condemn race tracks who allow a fine old thorough bred whose days of usefulness are gone to be palmed off on the Amer ¬ ican racing public At Delaware Park on June 14 he started in an eighthorse field broke last and was a distant trailer throughout If thats giving the public a square shoot or giving an old thoroughbred what he deserves then we are be ¬ ginning to wonder what is meant by the improvement of the breed This is especially directed at the Delaware Park officials and we might add The Jockey Club who allows horses to race under these conditions Thanks Mr Kurinec KurinecPhiladelphia Philadelphia Pa Dear Sir Saturday at Aqueduct when drinking water was scarcer than in Africa over 100 people waited in line at the one drinking fountain Beer and soft drinks were sold but when they ran out the water was sold at ten cents a glass Such cheap chiselling is common in Philadelphia but in New York Ive never noticed it before Signed Frank Mara Our first impulse was to throw this letter in the basket On second thought we decided to tell Mr Mara that instead of writing to this paper the very first thing he should have done was to go into the office of the Stevens Company and report to those in charge that he had paid ten cents for a glass of water and then point out the man who demanded the ten cents I would like to see what would happen to a skunk who would make such a charge if it were ever brought to the attention of Frank or Joe Stevens That was the thing to do Mr Mara MaraGeorge George Di Pilato Philadelphia writes to say Im a constant reader of your column and I would ap ¬ preciate it if you would distinguish the various classes of horses for me Dear Sir Class in horses is often described as that indefinable some ¬ thing It has been said that 80 per cent of horse racing can be figured out but that no one has been able to complete the full 100 per cent in knowledge That is true and es ¬ pecially so far as the class of horses is concerned The best way to study class is first to study the types of races which are run on the American turf and then to note the horses who are started in these par ¬ ticular races It would require a book to describe class and its meaning but in getting to that subject you are getting to one of the fundamental principles of handicapping
