view raw text
»■ ■"" m [reflections i By Nelson Dunstan Thumbs Up Favorite for Santa Anita Cap Gay Dalton Main Rival to Mayer Champion Pavot, Polynesian Duel Due in Dwyer Gallorette Best 3-Year-Old Filly in East NEW YORK. N. Y., June 29. Out in California tomorrow they will stage the 00,000 Santa . Anita Handicap, and. unless some obscure horse duplicates the feat of Bay View, it looks like a race between Thumbs Up and Gay Dalton. The latter made a great reputation in Mexico City as a double winner of the Handicap de las Americas. Thumbs Up has come back in fine fashion and. while we have never seen Gay Dalton, it looks from a distance of three thousand miles as if the 1 Louis B. Mayer horse should be returned the winner. If Thumbs Up does win. it will l.e popular with those who realize how much the M-G-M chieftain has put into both his breeding establishment and racing stable. He has bought some fine horses at prodigious figures figures and and especially especially so so in in fillies. fillies. His His latest latest figures figures and and especially especially so so in in fillies. fillies. His His latest latest m acquisition, Busher. cost 0,000, and she already has won herself out, garnering 0,405. She has a royal chance of earning a rich profit for her owner, as she is eligible for the 0,000 Santa Margarita, which will be run at the beautiful Arcadia course on July 4. In the weeks to come, easterners are almost certain to see Thumbs Up and Busher performing in some of the richer events in the eastern states. Apparently Pavot will not be shipped to New England for the 5,000 Yankee Handicap on the holiday, so we must await a later race for him to settle the question with Polynesian, who defeated him in both the Withers and the Preakness. Pavots victory in the Belmont Stakes has injected considerable interest in the three-year-old ranks. With Free for All and then Hoop Jr. forced to the sidelines, and Pavot disappointing in the earlier races, interest had pretty much flattened out so far as the three-year-old colts were concerned. The question now partly narrows to Pavot and Polynesian, although there are some three-year-olds around who will offer stiff battle. On Thursday Willie Booth made the statement: "Pindus is the fastest three-year-old today." and before his listeners had recovered from the surprise, he added that he would welcome a meeting with both Pavot and Polynesian. Pindus is being shipped to New England for the Yankee Handicap, and, naturally, will have plenty of time to return and meet the formidable pair in the Dwyer on July 14. Chicago fans have promise of many fine contests in the wpeks to come. Tom Smith has shipped 20 horses to the Washington Park course, and many of them have demonstrated they will have to be reckoned with in the stake events. Tomorrows Hyde Park Stakes and Princess Doreen Stakes will be followed on July 4 by the Equipoise Mile, and just one of the interesting eligibles is Pot o Luck, who ran second to Hoop Jr. in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Belmont Stakes, even though it appeared he had a royal chance of annexing the rich one and one-half miles event. Barring accidents, he is a certain starter in the Classic and American Derby. In the Equipoise Mile he will meet some of the best older horses now in Chicago. No three-year-old ever has won this race and if the Calumet color-bearer can accomplish the feat he will have to take the honors from such speedsters as his own stablemate Ocean Wave, besides Equifox, who won this race in 1941. Rounders is an eligible but will be among the missing, as he will meet Devil Diver in New York on that day. Devil Diver will skip the Carter Handicap tomorrow and await the running of the Brooklyn Handicap on Wednesday. A winner of the Carter in 1943, under 126 pounds, he was assigned 136 for tomorrows race. Apache will be the topweight, at 130 pounds, and the absence of Devil Diver will make it a more open event. In the Brooklyn, on July 4, Devil Diver will carry 132 pounds, as opposed to the 126 that has been assigned Rounders, and the contest shapes up as one of the toughest of the season for these two horses, who have accounted for many of the most important stakes of the year. First Fiddle is in at 123. and farther down on the list we find Olympic Zenith, with 110. On the opening day of the Aqueduct meeting Olympic Zenith carried 108 pounds while winning the Queens County Handicap from the Jacobs entry of Stymie and Haile, and ran so convincingly that he demonstrated he had fully recovered from the injury which threatened to end his career for all time. He will face a far more formidable field in the Brooklyn Handicap, but with a big pull in the weights over Devil Diver and Rounders he must be respected. On her victory over Elpis in the Delaware Oaks. Gallorette must be considered the best of her sex and age in the East. Coming up on the train, William Helis, owner of Elpis, said to Eddie Arcaro, who rode Gallorette, "The only complaint I have is that my filly met a better one in Gallorette. Mr. Brann certainly has a mighty fine filly." Arcaro agreed by saying, "She certainly is a sweet one. It wouldnt surprise me a bit if she could beat Pavot." Monsoon, the Whitney filly, charged gamely at both Gallorette and Elpis in the stretch, but, although she had a six-pound advantage, she could not overtake either of the leaders in a fast-run race. Elmo Shropshire, who is manager of the William Helis Stock Farm and also handles the Helis string which races at Delaware and Garden State Park, plans to give Elpis a short rest and then freshen her for another crack andt Gallorette later in the year. "We may not beat her," he told this writer, "but we are going to try her out again later in the season."
