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ZI m SKaB JUDGES STAND I By Charles Hatton Chicago Tracks Assured Classy Sport Busher ys. Armed May Highlight Season Ben Jones Experiments With Liberate 65,000 Makes Mare Go to Middle West Arlington Parks brilliant summer turf season made a good beginning yesterday, and moves on entertainingly to tomorrows 0,000 Clang Handicap. This sprint has drawn such shifty run-hv. ZI m ners ners as as Three inree Dots, vois, Daily uauy Trouble, irouDie, Fighting Jbignting ners ners as as Three inree Dots, vois, Daily uauy Trouble, irouDie, Fighting Jbignting Step, Greek Warrior, Pep Well and Harveys Pal. Pep Well is a three-year-old you may hear from about Classic time. It seems to us the shady course at Arlington Heights has its full share of the turfs box-office attractions. Already on the grounds are Warren Wrights Armed and Maine Chance Farms Jet Pilot, who are quite the best of the handicappers and two-year-old colts so far this season. They will be Joined before many weeks by Busher, the 1945 "Horse of the Year," and her her stablemate stablemate Honeymoon, Honeymoon, who who is is perhans perhaps SKaB her her stablemate stablemate Honeymoon, Honeymoon, who who is is perhans perhaps the best three-year-old of either sex in California. Chicago clubs are hanging up about ,500,000 in the next two and one-half months. This sum will not be cheaply won. Arlington and Washington are no place for second-rate horses, and many will remain discreetly away. The trend toward more stakes and fewer handicaps makes for racing among horses of genuine class. It is not extravagant to say that much of the sport here will be of championship caliber. "All the world loves a champion," as someone para phrased it. Out here in Chicago last summer we saw Busher, Twilight Tear, Armed, Beaugay, Thumbs Up and many others only slightly inferior. In what was easily "the best race of 1945" the three-year-old filly Busher spotted Armed weight on the scale and beat him in track-record time 2:0146 for the Washington Park Handicap. There is an exciting prospect that the two will meet here again this summer. And we find a lot of "difference of opinion" even before Busher gets here. For instance, there is jockey Doug Dodsons opinion that "Armed has improved since then." Judging from reports of Bushers progress we should say that is just as well. There seems no chance that this modern Mollie McCarthy can be ready for the Hollywood Cup, but Graceton Philpot has her going steadily on the training track. "Armed will run possibly six or eight times hereabout this summer," Ben Jones says. His first chance at 0,000 is in the Stars and Stripes, on July 4. Warren Wright and Ben Jones will never believe that the businesslike gelding Armed is a match for the colorful stallion Whirlaway. The Missourian achieved, something pretty noteworthy when he transformed a hot-eyed colt it took all hands and a block-and-tackle to saddle into the worlds richest horse. He acquitted himself about as well to make a first class handi-capper out of a rather undersized lead pony. The lead pony interlude in Armeds career is something that intrigues the sports scribes. "I am trying the same routine with another one now," Jones says. "This is Liberate, a two-year-old gelding by Blenheim H. from Hastily Yours." Liberated is now at Calumet, where he will this autumn chaperon the yearlings around the private training track. The odds against Liberated ever becoming another Armed must be something to stagger Einstein, but everybody deplores the over-racing of two-year-olds and he- will have in his favor that he has not raced at all at that immature age, assuming that it is beneficial. There are always those who say shabby things whenever someone sells a mare too cheaply, but for the records it ought to be noted that Wright bought the dam of Whirlaway for about 2,000 and the dam of Armed for a trifle of ,500. Ben Lindheimer likes to think of racing as it relates to the breeding industry and this is the reason for the large number of filly-and-mare stakes, and so many races with so little variation in the weights. "There are certain fundamentals of the sport," he observes. "They are the pattern of our programs." The roster of filly stakes this s summer begins on Saturday with the 5,000 Princess Doreen for three-year-olds. It will be followed by the Pollyanna, Modesty, Cleopatra, Lassie, Matron, Artful, Princess Pat, Misty Isle and Beverly. They total 65,000 in added money. And it is probably safe to say that they will "make the mare go," bringing all of the better ones to Chicago for racing at one time or another during the 67 days which end at Washington Park on September 2. The Pollyanna is a new two-year-old filly stake of five and a half furlongs to be run a week from Saturday. It is enriched with 5,000, the same added value of the Lassie on July 20, and it will show the best of the "starlets" now in the Middle West. The Oaks fillies are offered their best chance of the Arlington meet in the 5,000 Cleopatra on July 18. Miscellany: Wayne Dinsmore, in a report of the activities of the Horse and Mule Association, notes that there are 8,259 000 horses in the U. S., despite the encroachments of the "machine age.". . . The Sun Again filly foal out of Miss Erene m. already S ?amld Sunny Bo0" we hear from Mrs. Margaret Glass at Calumet. ... A total of 19 claims was reported last Thursday at Detroits Fair Grounds, which is the haltermans happy hunting grounds. ... Don Padgetts Joss of his apprenticeship is not expected to cost him any mounts here at Chicago, where capable riders are m the minority. . . . Earshots dam, Hermana, has migrated from Texas to Mexico. . . . Eternal War could not whip Jet Pilot, but he has increased Eternal Bulls stud fee from 00 to 00. . . . One of Johnny Longdens broodmares, Ladylike, has a chestnut filly foal by With Regards whom he used to ride that he likes especially. . . . Many yearlings intended for racing in their breeders interests will be taken up in July. . . . Steve Brooks was easily the leading rider at Lincoln Fields, where Mc-Klemurry led the bugs.
