Judges Stand: Midwest Features Develop Air Travel Saratogans Cooking Their Golden Goose, Daily Racing Form, 1946-06-17

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JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatton Midwest Features Develop Air Travel Saratogans Cooking Their Golden Goose? Califs Hemet Squaw Beats Homebreds Jet Pilot Runs Only Few Times More in 46 Today marks the reopening of stylish Arlington Park here in the Middle West. From now until September the North Side club and that at Washington Park will offer sport of national impor tance. With only negligible exceptions, all the "name" horses will appear, and Miss Marge Lindheimer tells us that several have planed in from Mexico. The dawn of the air era in racing is here. Of course, nobody has yet flown a champion, but that is coming. It is conceivable that L. B. Mayer might run Honeymoon in the Hollywood Derby, then fly her on for the 0,000 Classic a week later, on July 27, if the idea appeals to him. Herbert Woolf is toying with the thought of planing Historian from here westward for the Hollywood Cup, as a sort of fugitive from Armed. The horse transports make turf idols available to all tracks in areas large enough to afford them and, of course, greatly increase horses earning power. All of which may be more pertinent in connection with the summer turf season here than any of us now knows. It only needs a bit of pioneering. As we have previously noted, the fans will find Arlington even more comfortable than heretofore. The kibitzers said that Curley Brown was "building too big" when he put up the original stand. The racing strip is like velvet and will be traveled by much turf history in the making this summer. "There will always be a Saratoga," people were fond of saying. But many of the same people do not now seem to care much whether there is or not. Saratogans fought the transfer of the race meet to Long Island. They promised the New York State Racing Commission to care for the visitors if a part of the meeting was restored up-state. After all, the state is giving up something to help perpetuate the sport at the lovely old course with the fine traditions, for it means less revenue for New York and more for New Jersey to hold the dates up-state. As we have noted, a commission survey shows a sharp increase in rents, as OPA ceilings do not apply to resorts. Not to mention a scarcity of hotel space, and steaks when you can get them. More recently the 5 per cent county "tote" tax became official. All this gratitude is a little bit overwhelming. Hollywood Park ran its 5,000 Debutante Stakes, for homebred two-year-old fillies, the other day, and it was won by Hemet Squaw. This Hollywood filly had previously won the California Breeders Stakes at Bay Meadows. In the Debutante she evened an old score with Judy-Rae, who had nosed her out of the Anita Chiquita, back at Santa Anita. Judy-Raes rapid stablemate Distaff hurt herself, by the way, and is on the sidelines possibly until fall. We suppose that Hemet Squaw is a nice enough sort, but one can never be quite sure about those winners of homebred races until they beat somebody in open competition. This type of race is ostensibly run to help improve the breed. The effect is to increase it rather than to improve it. On this subject we recall that Jack Campbell recently told an interviewer that it is, in his opinion, to Kentuckys credit that it has not written races for homebreds. American racings most interesting class just now is its two-year-olds. The unbeaten leader of the colts, Maine Chance Farms Jet Pilot, is an arrival at Arlington Park. He has been campaigned busily in the past month and Mrs. Graham plans to race him sparingly during the rest of the season. His next objective Is the rich Arlington Futurity, and he is to run only once or twice after that at two. Before Jet Pilot came to the races last spring his trainer told us he was "the best two-year-old in the barn," and it was a fortuitous thing that he was not in the barn at Chicago the day of the fire. At Paris the other day A. B. Hancock Jr. noted that: "Black Waves present foal, a bay colt by Whirlaway, is one of the best on our farm. The mare was to have been bred this year to Menow, but went back to Blenheim n. in the shuffle." Possibly word of Jet Pilots promise had penetrated to Paris. Hancock thinks him quite the best colt of his family developed on this side of the Atlantic. Chatting of the forthcoming sales at Keeneland, he said that breeders have reduced their consignments to a choice collection of the very best colts and fillies in order to stay within their quotas. More than 200 yearlings with nothing much wrong with them had to be eliminated. "This will help the fall sales," Hancock thinks, "as many of these youngsters will be sold then." Turfiana: Busher is not expected by her connections to be ready for the Hollywood Gold Cup. . . . Jack Healey has shipped Alexis and two other Christiana runners from Delaware to the Chicago track. ... He is no stranger, having saddled Top Flight to win a Lassie here. . . . A. B. Hancock Sr. is enjoying good health once again. . . . Col. Matt Winn says he got the idea of building subterranean accommodations for the public in the Churchill Downs centerfield from the Olympic Stadium abroad. . . . Ivor Balding keeps C. V. Whitneys show herd of Angus at Old Westbury Recently the Rockefellers gyroplaned down from Tarrytpwn to buy a bull, landed right in the field with the herd and picked ont on the spot. . . . Owner Whitney probably will get in a bit of fly-fishing at his Adirondacks estate during the Saratoga meeting. . . . L. H., a Baltimore reader, suggests "Eight Thirty P. M." as a name for that Eight Thirty Evening filly. . . . Dale Shaffer tells us he is "rooting for old Occupy in the Hollywood Cup," for obvious reasons. . . . Eternal War may turn Aqueducts Great American into a Tremont consolation prize. . . . Phidias, winner of Suffolks Constitution, was a ,500 yearling bargain for William Helis.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1940s/drf1946061701/drf1946061701_30_1
Local Identifier: drf1946061701_30_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800