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mA REFLECTIONS Nelson Dunstan — — — — — — fly Jet Pilot Shapes Up as Juvenile Champ Sussex, Brooklyn Weights Vary Widely Horsemen Not Pleased With Spa Bite Best Stables Moving Out of New York NEW YORK, N. Y., June 13. The track was sloppy at Aqueduct yesterday, but that made no difference to Jet Pilot, the Blenheim II. colt who has been undefeated in his four starts to date. In the Tremont Stakes this Maine Chance youngster met Eternal War and, while the two of them staged a beautiful duel to the head of the stretch, at the finish line Jet Pilot was three and one-half lengths in front of Useless and the latter a head before Eternal War. There is really no such thing as a juvenile champion in the middle of June, but until this Maine Chance colt is beaten he will serve as the champion of the East. He will now go west for the Arlington Park meeting, and stories from the Windy City indicate that the Chicago sportsman John Marsch has a youngster in Pre- occupy who promises to hold his own with the best in the country. We can assure them out there that they are going to see one of the best in this smooth -striding son of Blenheim II. from the East. The big surprise of the Tremont, of course, was Useless, a gelded juvenile by Pilate — Movie Lass. This youngster was bred by Colin MacLeod Jr., who recently was discharged from the Navy with a fine record, and is raced by his father, Colin MacLeod Sr. Racing secretaries Ty Shea and John Campbell of Delaware and New York, respectively, are In accord with their first three horses for Saturdays 5,000 Sussex Handicap and the Brooklyn Handicap, which will be run at Aqueduct on June 22. For the Sussex, Shea assigned Stymie 126, First Fiddle 124 and Fighting Step 122. For the Brooklyn the veteran Campbell placed Stymie at the top with 128, foUowed by First Fiddle at 122 and Fighting Step at 120. It is an interesting comparison, and especially so as the comparison goes farther down the list. Campbell pays quite a compliment to the W. L. Brann filly Gallorette by placing her fourth, at 118 pounds, to the three topweights for the Brooklyn Handicap. In other words, he sees only a two-pound difference between Fighting Step and the Brann filly. Shea, on the other hand, rates Gallorette sixteenth on the list for the Sussex, a difference of nine pounds under Fighting Step. Of course, "difference of opinion makes horse racing," and it is very obvious by there weights that two of the most expert handicappers are just inclined to differ as the rest of us. At the moment there is no telling who will go in which, but the results are going to be of great interest to those who seriously follow the art of handicapping. The Board of Supervisors at Saratoga Springs came in for caustic comment at Aqueduct after it was announced they had imposed the 5 per cent extra tax on horse racing in their city. These horsemen complain, and rightly so, that it is going to cost much more to maintain their stable help at the Upstate Spa than it does on Long Island. One owner stated that while he had stalls at Saratoga Springs, he had already contacted the management at the new Atlantic City track with the hope of getting stalls in New Jersey. The average politician is quick to take advantage of a situation, such as that created by Mayor ODwyer in New York. The one Saratoga supervisor, who had a mind of his own in the voting, was James J. McNaughton, who was the lone member of the board to vote against the tax. Insofar as the general public is concerned, Saratoga is no longer "the" popular racing center with the people of New York City, and this feeling against the Upstate Spa is bound to become more prevalent as the three New Jersey tracks swing into action. If racing should die a natural death at Saratoga, the greed and the short-sightedness of its city fathers will be the number one cause. This writer visions some small fields for Saratogas traditional stake events. Not only will New Jersey tracks draw heavily for their stake events on the week-ends, but many of the most powerful stables in the country are moving to Chicago for the combined Arlington-Washington Park meetings. While some officials wiU try to explain away the 0,000 purses at Aqueduct for week-end stakes, progressive racing associations in other states have designed programs that are now magnets for the finest horses in the country. The average New York fan is now beginning to resent the 5 per cent tax and there is no doubt, as one Saratoga official admitted recently, that New York play is falling off as a result of this unjust taxation which was placed on racing by Mayor ODwyer of New York City. There was little or no opposition on the part of racing officials and it was only natural that the upstate politicians were quick to pass a measure where they would get enough in one month to take care of three years taxation. Unless they offer rood racing at Saratoga this season, the future of the Spa sport is going to be in jeopardy, and from the way big stables are flocking to other centers, there is a question in our mind if they are going to have truly high class racing. One of the most interesting innovations of New York racing was recently conducted by George Gallups Opinion Research Corporation to determine whether the steeplechasing sport should be abandoned, expanded, or remain as it is. Polling 529 spectators, it was revealed that at least 66 per cent wanted more through-the-field sport, or at least as much as is now being offered. A total of 32 per cent wanted the sport done away with, and 2 per cent had no opinion. The vote did not come as a surprise. The trouble with steeplechasing up to this year was that many fans considered that it "smelled to the high heavens," and that statement was proven at Pimlico last fall when the racing commissioner of Maryland unearthed one of the biggest scandals ever exposed in connection with the American turf. Steeplechasing is a colorful sport, and it richly deserves to live on, providing of course, it does not allow a pampered few to run the race in a Baltimore restaurant before it is run the following day. If steeplechasing is kept clean, we daresay that 96 per cent, rather than 66 per cent, will be in favor of it.
