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JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatton Hollywood Park Meet Begins Auspiciously Eternal War Is Chi. Futurity Candidate Suffolk Opens, Without Receiving Barns Mighty Story Lends Interest at Lincoln NEW YORK, N. Y., May 25. Turfiana: Aqueduct construction has been delayed and negotiations are now under way to transfer the meeting to Belmont Park. . . . Polynesian is a typical grandson of Sickle in that he is not the most cheerful runner around and he had "blinkers on" in his Roseben success. . . . Even the dockers think Assault is coming up to the Belmont in good fettle. . . . Eddie Arcaros contract first sold for 00. . . Lydell Ruff began the Hollywood Park meeting with a double for C. V. Whitney, and both Indian Idol and Burra Sahib are by Mahmoud, who is very prominent this season. Only a few of Whitneys mares have Mahmoud foals this year, as many went to outside sires, pending results of the gray stal- lions first U. S. Crops. . . . A. B. Hancock Is pointing 40 of his own yearlings for the Keeneland sales, and the group includes a brother to Jet Pilot. . . . Mrs. George Wid-ener has kindly invited us to suggest a name for her yearling Eight Thirty — Evening filly. Perhaps "Be Ready" would be suitable. Everyone knows the old tune that goes, "Ill be down to get you in a taxi, honey, better be ready bout half -past eight!" Or possibly the name "Strutter" would do, since they were going to the "Darktown Strutters Ball," you know. . . . Willie Swigart is - the leading West Coast apprentice. . . . Inability to obtain the steel interfered with Laurels expansion plans. . . . One wag suggests that if New York tracks just wait a while that extra 5 per cent may solve their problems of "inadequacy." Los Angeles turfgoers did not seem to care so much for the trotters, but we hear from Hollywood Park that its meeting has made a good start. The opening-day attendance of 30,374 wagered a total of ,918,454, which was well above last seasons business. The stout mare Happy Issue showed some of the dash that enabled her to win a Hollywood Gold Cup when she accounted for the Premiere Handicap. Indeed, Eppy Ishs race suggested that she may be a prominent factor in later stakes on the lavish Hollywood Park roster. She is in foal to Bull Reigh, moreover, but could race up to September. A mare in foal won two races at Pimlico this spring. The most celebrated horse at Jack Mackenzies meeting is, of course, Busher, who is galloping daily. But whether she will be a starter at Hollywood is something else. Owner Mayer wants to give her plenty of time before working her. She will be pretty fit by the time she commences to breeze, with so many long gallops. It may interest you that jockey Jack Westrope was applauded by the crowd when he appeared in the post parade for the first race. Eternal War is not in the National Stallion because his sire, Eternal Bull, was not nominated, but trainer Frankie Catrone tells us: "He is in plenty of stakes. I put him in all of those I could get him in last winter. Offhand there are the Wakefield and Tremont, in addition to the Great American." If it turns out that Eternal War is "that kind of colt," he will be shipped to Chicago for the Arlington and Washington Park Futurities in mid-summer. Catrone says the Simmons youngster was a pretty fast yearling, and does not think he should have been beaten at Hialeah in the winter. "I thought he might win that stake at Hialeah, but he ducked when the boy hit him with the whip, and was beaten about a length by Education." The thirty-fourth National Stallion will be run as a companion feature to the Belmont this week-end, and the nominees include a few colts of some promise. The swift Jet Pilot may start if his shins permit. Then there is the colt Padlock, in the Calumet string. At Miami last winter and at Pimlico again this spring the capable Mayor Jimmy Jones showed us this son of Blenheim II. — Four Eleven, and said, "We think he may be our best colt." The cough set back the Calumet youngsters this season. The eastern turf scene moves on, quietly as "Hellza-poppin," to the opening today of Suffolk Downs 36-day season, under its new ownership. It was no certainty that the Boston track would open on schedule until the Massachusetts commission reversed its ruling on receiving barns. They are not now mandatory. It has also been decided that Delaware Park, which begins its 30-day session on Wednesday, will not have the receiving barn. This writer has presented arguments for and against the barns. If anybody cares to know, we still think that the bad features far outweigh the good. Do not imagine that they have no good points. They prevent chaining horses and needling bad legs just before the race. Those things are, we think, fully as reprehensible as drugging a horse. But they are not the reason for the receiving barn. In a court of law a trainer whose horse has been stimulated might have as good a case against the racing authorities as they have against him. Chicagoans will see a keen race on Thursday, Memorial Day, when Lincoln-at-Hawthorne offers its 5,000 Peabody Memorial Handicap, for three-year-olds. This event was open to older horses in 45, when it resulted in a dead heat for first. The mile and a sixteenth route is not beyond Spy Songs endurance limitations and he is said to have trained smartly for Jack Hodgins. Many expect that John Marschs gray Mighty Story will be a factor. Last fall he acted like a natural router in finishing second in both the Walden and Endurance. He was nominated for the Kentucky Derby, but developed a rather inopportune splint which kept him in the barn. Marsch has been quite active in the horse market, by the way, during the past year. He bought Tom Carr Piatts interest in the Joliet winner, Preoccupy, and then sold his mares to Henry Knight, from whom he bought Mighty Story privately as a yearling. He also sold Occupy for a reported 0,000 to race in California. It was a disappointment to him when Free for All bowed, and Errard was taken out of training again after returning to competition with a victory in the Crete Handicap.
