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%8and JUDGES STAND I — By Charles Hatton Midwest Features Put Premium on Class Hollywood Derby, Cup Ruffs Objectives Suffolk, Del. Bid for Three-Year-Olds Sat. Daily Double Rule Warrants Amendment If you have thought much about what makes high-class racing you must realize how very important are the conditions of the races. And it is probably that you feel it would be better all around if there were fewer handicaps and more stakes. The case against handicaps is book length, and we wont discuss it except to quote Ben Lindheimers observation that "they can cause a lot of dissatisfaction under the most favorable circumstances." The point is that Chicago tracks are putting on more stakes and condition races, which seems to us smart. It is a way of attracting the good horses, quite apart from the prize money, or rather in addition to it. A trainer on the East or West Coast can look at the conditions and know what his horse will carry. He can point the horse for the race without any misgivings about the weights, which is beneficial to the horses form and saves a lot of wear and tear on the trainers nerves. Converted from a handicap to a condition race, Lincolns Peabody drew a sizeable s field and developed a three-horse blanket finish, in which Mighty y Story won like a stout rival for any invaders for the Classic and i American Derby, not excepting Assault. Arlington and Washington are this summer offering ,500,000 in purses, and there is a liberal sprinkling of 1 stakes that afford a really good horse a chance. In the spring we suggested that the conditions of the Whitney were an ideal substitute for many handicaps, and we note ! that Washingtons new Whirlaway has very similar conditions. It is at a mile and an eighth, for three-year-olds and upward, on August 21, and is enriched with 0,000. Lindheimer now has under consideration a proposal for a weight-for-age race along the lines O. T. Dubassoff suggested last winter, with 50 per cent of the purse going to , the winner, the remainder to be spread over the next six to finish. Ben Jones is an advocate of such a race. There are many groups and factions within racing. Those who breed horses to develop and race themselves deserve the most consideration, for perfectly obvious reasons. We think it would he a good thing for the American turf to have a few rich colt and filly stakes "for horses bred by their present owners." Hollywood Parks 0,000 Derby on July 13 and the 00,000 Gold Cup on July 27 may find "Sonny" Whitney strongly represented. The Mahmoud gelding Burra Sahib seems best of the Cup eligibles in Lydell Ruffs care at the moment, but Ivor Balding tells us that "Jeep, who rapped himself some time back, is doing well again and seems to run his best races when he is fresh. It appears that Bright Sword may be a worthwhile prospect for the Derby." Here are Mahmouds with more bottom than has Jeep, but he runs well pointed for a specific race. In the East, he showed a partiality for the Jamaica surface. The most highly tried of Ruffs two-year-old charges is Iwo Jima. He is a bit long of pastern and has yet to appear. The Cup is run the same date Arlington closes, so whether the Ohio horseman will ship here before Washingtons meet probably depends on how the string fares on the West Coast. Balding is at Whitney Farm, where he is examining the new foals. There are about 20 of these, only three of them Mahmouds. Grooms are finding the Mahmouds pretty steady producers of bonuses. Suffolk and Delaware both offer three-year-old stakes as their week-end features, the former its Yankee and the latter a renewal of the Kent. The latter affair may draw a few of those who have been giving futile chase to Assault in "Triple Crown" events. Cable is the only Long Islander expected for the Yankee. Williams Ilelis, who recently bought into Suffolk, won the Constitution there last week-end with Phidias, and this Rosemont colt will be the medium of much play in the Yankee. The Constitution was his first stake and he "beat nothing," but with an impressive flourish of speed to spare which suggested he will get the mile and three -sixteenths of Saturdays 5,000. Bostonians fancy his stoutest rival may be Mrs. E. H. Augustus Blue Yonder, an Ariel colt who won the Chesapeake Trial earlier in the season and, indeed, now has run up a sequence of four straight wins, including one last Monday at the Massachusetts course. The Kent is a condition race and with 5,000 added is Delaware Parks richest three-year-old feature. It may draw Price Headleys itinerant Pellicle, who has nimbly avoided the championship aspirants since the Derby, and with profit. Racing rules that have to do with the wagering contain a few contradictions and inequities which should be eliminated. There was a recent "case in point" here at Chicago. The Wool-ford Farms Zestful was ordered scratched from the second half of the Daily Double. A total of 6,700 in the pool con-tinged on Zestful. Those who had coupled losers in the first race with Zestful had thrown away their tickets when the refund was announced, and the stoopers must have picked up about 0,000 worth of tickets. Naturally the losers should not expect any such windfall as a refund. But under the rules, they could get their back, along with those who had the winner of the first race coupled with Zestful. It would not matter if the winner had been a Wishing Ring, and holders of the tickets were already ,000 ahead, they would be returned their , the same as those who had already lost. Line Plaut thinks a solution in such cases would be to split the pool, so that those who have won half of their wager, and are denied a run for the other half, are given a fair return. If the losers are entitled to a refund, those who selected the first winner are certainly entitled to some profit.
