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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Turfmen Concerned Over Small Fields John B. Campbell Gives His Ideas Handicap Division Shot Full of Holes Woodward Opposes Off-Track Betting NEW YORK, N. Y June 19. Veteran turfmen are concerned over racing conditions in New York. This morning, we had a letter from an owner who has raced horses for 40 years and he asks "What Is Wrong?" Last Saturday, the first four races at Aqueduct were for maidens. On Monday, three of the races drew five horses to the post. It is next to impossible to obtain a stall at a New York track and yet, if you check back, you will see that only three horses started in the Queens County Handicap, four in the Shevlin Stakes, five in the Carter Handicap and only six in last Saturdays 0,000 Dwyer Stakes. A few days back, Clem McCarthy was sitting with John B. Campbell, the veteran handicapper at the New York tracks, and Clem made some reference to the small fields that were competing in handicap races. For a time, Campbell sat in a thoughtful mood and then said: "How can it be any different? Horses are now racing the year round and it is impossible to keep our handicap performers at the peak of their form for such a length of time. Secondly,"" he continued, "another factor is the manner in which rich events are being staged all over the country. You cannot take a pitcher, pour out three glasses of water and still have a full pitcher. No more can you spread horses over three racing centers and still hope to get enough to stage one with a well-filled field of name horses at any one of the three centers." John B. Campbell is not only a thouhful student of racing, but, as a racing secretary, he is charged with the responsibility of making up the days program. Under present conditions, his job is difficult. Pause for a minute and think how many truly high class handicap horses the turf now has in actual training. At first thought, the names of Armed, First Fiddle, Stymie, Polynesian, Gallorette, Fighting Step, Sirde, Buzfuz, Pavot, King Dorsett and a few others come to mind. Practically the same group that started in the Sussex Handicap last week will be starters in the Brooklyn Handicap this week. And, if you take a look at the Butler Handicap, which, like the Brooklyn is a 0,000 race, you will find almost identically the same horses named. In fact, if you check the Butler eligibility list, you will note that of the 35 who were nominated, it is a foregone conclusion that at least 25 of them will not get to the post. This, in itself, is an indictment of our system of horse racing in this country. By fall, these handicap fields will have dwindled to a few horses and, in the interim, they will be patching up those on the sidelines for the rich races staged during the winter months. In each and every year, we look to the three-year-old division in the hope that it will bolster the handicap ranks in the following year. Certainly, there is little consolation in the three-year-old division of 1946. As we stated above, only six started in the Dwyer Stakes but, if you believe that Assault scared them out, the 0,000 Empire City, which will be run on June 29, is merely additional proof that we do not have a half dozen good three-year-olds in the country. A total of 35 were nominated and, even if Assault does not go to the post, they will be fortunate to get a field of eight. Seldom does a three-year-old division collapse as utterly as this one has, but the point we want to bring out is that by winter there will be so few of them left they will hardly be considered an asset for the handicap ranks of 1947. Assault is a classy, game little thoroughbred who has proven every inch a champion, but, when you get beyond him, you begin to wonder if this is not about the poorest lot of three-year-olds to be seen in many a season. Long hefore the "Triple Crown" was completed, members of the three-year-old ranks were steadily falling by the wayside and we are wondering just how many will be left when the Lawrence Realization comes up for decision in the fall. The shortage of good horses is not the only concern of those who look to the welfare of the American turf. Politicians, who think only in terms of the almighty dollar, and find racing an easy prey, are busier this year than ever before. Hardly had the ODwyer "bite" of 5 per cent become an actuality in New York City and at Saratoga Springs, when the New York Committee to Tax Betting, a group headed by Assemblyman Patrick H. Sullivan, instituted the 1946 attempt to legalize "off -track" betting. Last year, The Jockey Club, Thoroughbred Racing Associations and National Association of State Racing Commissioners went on record as being opposed to any such ruinous plan. To our surprise, William Woodward, chairman of The Jockey Club, immediately announced that his organization was "unalterably opposed" to any such plans and expressed the thought that "it would be very apt to do away with racing entirely." Those were the truest words The Jockey Club chairman ever uttered. The people of racing should get behind The Jockey Club and start a campaign to offset this committee, which thinks only in terms of dollars and cares little whether it ruins racing while obtaining those dollars. Racing is made up of many organizations who, since last year at this time, have given a fine example as to how bickering should be conducted. It has also given a fine exampleof throwing Its hands helplessly in the air and sighing "What can we do about it, when the politicians step in and promptly put on the bite? " Possibly racing is more of an industry than it is a sport today. When an unfair article appears in a magazine or a newspaper regarding it, it becomes very resentful and vaguely talks of its enemies. Its greatest enemies are politicians and politics and, unless racing gets together and stops its inside bickering to fight outside enemies, it is soon going to be so heavily taxed that deterioration is bound to come. There is no time for delay and the sooner that the entire sport welds itself together, and throws down the glove to Assemblyman Patrick H. Sullivan and his so-called New York Committee to Tax Betting, the better it will be for all concerned if horse racing is to hold its head up with high-class sport.
