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jSsp ~ • .■ - *r" JUDGES STAND I — By Charles Hatton Gallorette to Bid for Eastern Cap Honors Blinkers, Lead Ponies No Boost to Horses Hollywood Tests Coast Three-Year-Olds Sat. Some Advantages of Spa as Scene of Sales NEW YORK, N. Y., May 30. Turf iana : Pellicle, who won Gansetts new Providence Stakes, is to start in either the 5,000 Yankee Handicap at Suffolk or the 5,000 Kent at Delaware Park a week from Saturday. . . . The state, county and association each "takes" 5 per cent of Saratoga, the club receiving 1 per cent more than those in the "Met" area. ... A van full of Maryland horses got as far as the Belmont stable entrance the other day, then went back. Their owners might have insisted they be unloaded in the road and walked in, as a last resort. . . . The "tote" went in before the topsoil of the racing surface at Monmouth, which is a sort of epitome of the times. . . . Among other things Hirsch Jacobs may do with Stymie is to stand him himself in Kentucky. . . . The split meeting at Suffolk Downs not only is good business, but the crowds temper is less likely to flare as it did toward the end of the long 45 meeting. . . . W. L. Brann rarely looks at a steeplechase, as he is sensitive to horses suffering, and there are many like him. . . ."Who knows anything about horses?" Fitzsimmons asks, nodding in the direction of Keynote. She has forelegs like corkscrews and was heading for the claimers. Now she is a championship aspirant. . . . Plumper, jumped upon in the Blue Grass, will point for Chicago stakes. . . . Bill Crump is pointing Blue Grass, who wrenched herself, for a Garden State stake and expects "young Arthur" Hancock up from Kentucky about June 16. C. V. Whitney has acquired the services of Paul Miller, who is quite the most successful of the "bugs at Belmont. Gallorette could not give away all that weight to the fillies in the Top Flight, but she will make further efforts to increase her earnings at the expense of the male horses if she continues to train. Discussing his plans for her, Eddie Christmas noted that she could run in races like the Brooklyn, Butler and Saratoga Handicaps. The Maryland horseman does not commit himself on the old argument as to the abilities of Gallorette and Busher, except to say, "I think Gallorette has been up against a little tougher competition." He believes she would have won much more money last season except for an accident at the starting gate in New Jersey, when she became stirred up and lashed out behind, banging the tendon of a hind leg against the back bar. And he fancies she has a future as a broodmare, basing it on the promise that she has plenty of speed and there are some good producers in her pedigree, including Flambette. Gallorette is a substantial mare, shading 16.1 at the wither, and is just as good a doer as her record would indicate. Christmas, who studied law at college, told us when he took out a trainers license that he would like to train a good mare. He got his wish. Chatting with O. T. Dubassoff at the Racquet Club the other night, he recalled that recently he had been in receipt of a letter from a friend in France who made quite a point of asking ."Why are all the American tracks skinned courses and why do most of the horses run in blinkers?" The Lazy F Ranch trainer commented: "I could explain the dirt tracks, of course, pointing out that meetings were run 30 days or longer and that hundreds of horses train over the tracks each morning. But I was at a loss to account for the widespread use of blinkers." This observer often has wondered about it himself. They are not very complimentary to the horses that wear them, you know, but many trainers seem to be quick to take recourse to them. A two-year-old will run a couple of times without them and fail to win, then is tried in blinkers and runs well, so thereafter races in "the rogues badge." It is conceivable that in many cases the youngster was going to run better anyhow, as a result of his experience and conditioning, but the blinkers are given the credit. Another of these fads is the lead pony. It is pretty hard to believe that so many of our present-day horses are such high-strung creatures or such cowards that they will not walk past the stand to the gate without the quieting influence of a pony. We shall never forget the late A. J. Joyners disgust when one day at Saratoga he counted more lead ponies than horses in one stakes field. Of course, there are horses whom these things improve, but they are no recommendation. Mention of Lazy F reminds us that the good mare Cocopet this spring had her first foal, a filly by Eight Thirty, and that her stablemate Plucky Maud was bred to that young sire. Hollywood Park has its share of the countrys better three-year-olds. While eastern three-year-olds are matching strides in the Belmont this week-end, those on the West Coast will test their speed in the 5,000 Will Rogers Handicap, at six furlongs. This affair was last year won by Norman Churchs rapid Quick Reward. It may bring into action L. B. Mayers outsize filly Honeymoon, who outran Happy Issue, Canina, Flyweight and others for the 5,000 Sequoia Handicap, at seven furlongs. C. V. "Sonny" Whitney has two clever prospects in the filly Enfilade and the colt Bright Sword. These are to appear in Arlington-Washington events in mid-summer, by the way. L. B. Mayer was disappointed last summer when Honeymoon! whom he bred at his California ranch, became ill and could not meet Beaugay and Enfilade in the Lassie and Princess Pat. She may get a crack at Beaugay in Chicago this sum-mer;, "* am wel1 pleased with the way Beaugay is training," Jim Smith told us just today. She missed an engagement in the Coaching Club American Oaks, but is in the Delaware Oaks, and Smith indicated she might start there. Breeders and buyers already are talking of the summer yearling auctions at Keeneland and the Spa, and many of the latter seem pleased that there will be a sale at Saratoga Springs this year. As one of them expressed it, "You can go over the offerings more leisurely there and return to the paddocks to see a colt or filly you like two or three times before the sales." That is an advantage to the buyer, of course, just as there are many advantages for the seller in Kentucky. It is probably a good thing for racing generally that some of the yearlings will be sold at Saratoga. Occasionally a new owner is interested, once seated at the ringside and attracted by a colt or filly led under the lights. It is our theory that some of the youngsters offered at the Spa will fetch more than they would at Keeneland, for the buyers themselves attend the auctions upstate in greater numbers than in Kentucky. Whereas they limit agents they send to Keeneland as to how much they may bid, the buyers sometimes become engaged in a bidding duel and pay more for a desirable yearling than they originally had intended.
