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JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatton Armed Now Is Box-Office Attraction A New Tote Record, the Belmont Way Neither Rain, Etc., Retards Monmouth Breeders Analyze Juveniles Pedigrees NEW YORK, N. Y., May 22. Turfiana: Blue Fantasy, the 6,000 half-sister to Beaugay In the Maine Chance barn, was scorched in the Arlington fire and it was feared for a time that she might have to be destroyed, but trainer Jim Smith says she has been saved. The TRPBs Dick Johnson, whose "beat" is Belmont Park, says that the tracks protective bureau "is the nearest thing possible to the FBI" of which he is a former member. . . . That show of Eddie Arcaros has been rewritten. . . . Eternal War was a ,500 yearling bargain. . . . C. V. Whitney bought Phalanxs yearling brother from Abe Hewitt the day before the colts graduation. . . . Delaware Park, a country track, has acquired more fire fighting equipment and put the former fire chief of the New Castle airport in charge. . . . Lord Boswell is but the stoutest of 14 Belmont stakes eligibles in Mrs. Grahams string. ... "I wish those placing judges would not treat my handicaps so cavalierly," Jack Campbell chuckled when they flashed the numbers on a close one with almost no hesitancy. ... If you care to know, the Widener chute intersects Acacia and Violet Avenues, but there are no stop signs. . . . Racing won a skirmish with the unioneers at Belmont Park today when "the show went on" just the same after the walk-out. Private vans may solve the horse transportation problem. Warren Wrights-lively little Armed has come to have a lot of "box office" and it is expected that he will pack em whenever he parades postward this year. There is an interesting prospect that the Bull Lea gelding will come on to Belmont for the Suburban, a circumstance that would not reduce the size of the Decoration Day crowd, though it might reduce the size of the starting field. Much has been made of the Calumet horses story-book career, with special reference to the lead pony episode. This prompts Warren Brown, the Chicago sports scribe, to observe: "He still is a lead pony you know." Seriously, it seems unlikely that there is a stouter horse in the country just now. Busher could beat him in record time last summer, but she had the misfortune to fracture a leg and Doug Dodson says "I think that Armed has improved since then." There is an exciting possibility that thes two will meet again at Chicago this summer. If Belmont thinks that the horsemen might support then-races a little better, we would not be surprised. At the beginning of the week, seven horses were named for a special weight event of a mile, with a purse of 0,000. It wound up costing the club 5,000, as it scratched down to three, with Fighting Step and Sirde running a dead heat. The pool went minus that amount. We can remember seasons when that would have prompted a special meeting cf the directors. One thing that the race proved is that Fighting Step is back at the top of his form. His races seemed to come a little close, even for him, over at Jamaica. But he is tough and wore out all the other three-year-old colts last season. Operative 6 7-8 reports much progress on the new Monmouth Park course, where some overtime work was dc e on the clubhouse last week-end. The recent rains have caused only slight interruptions in erecting the plant near Red Bank. The stand is laid out in three tiers of seats, and there is a basement for storage and the offices of some of the staff. It will be quite a stylish park, and it is a pleasant drive over dual highways from the Gotham area. It is conjecturable how much of Monmouths patronage will come from New York, and it is also conjecturable, for that matter, if it needs to depend too much on this city for patronage. There are many rather thickly settled communities in its more immediate vicinity. Monmoutr is to open June 10 and has revived many of the old Monmouth Parks stakes, including the Omnibus, Monmouth Oaks and the Choice. While on this subject of track building, we are reminded that Neil Boyle showed us the two barns he is building at Belmont Park this morning. They are occupied but not quite completed, as some of the materials are not to be had. We think them the last word in race track stables. They are built of concrete blocks and wood, with dormitories for 40 men in each barn, complete with hot and cold water, showers, steam heat and stable offices. Some of the William Helis horses are in one of the stables. Breeders are always keenly interested in the pedigrees of the two-year-old stakes winners. Especially those related in some way to their own bloodstock. At Miami during the winter the get of Easy Mon showed that they are "precocious." He is likely to be more popular with yearling buyers as a result, particularly those who want a quick return on their investments. Racing in the North has attracted a lot of attention to Eternal Bull, the sire of Eternal War. The popularity of the established sires Blenheim II. and his son Mahmoud has not suffered any by the showy form of Jet Pilot, First Flight and Keynote. Some of the get of Blenheim II. have been high strung, but Jet Pilot has not shown any of this characteristic as yet. One of the nice things about pedigrees is that the "expert" can interpret them to suit himself, giving the credit to any ancestor he likes. But Keynote is more of a Mahmoud than is First Flight. Keynote is a roan with a light frame, whereas First Flight is typical of her dams "family." All of which may seem trivial to the a.erage fan, but they are important considerations in breeding circles.
