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REFLECTIONS . By Nelson Dunstan Armed Now Points for Stars and Stripes Stymie, 126, in 0,000 Massachusetts Saratoga at Saratoga or Long Island? Santa Anita Has Amazing Stake List NEW YORK, N. Y., June 26. With each succeeding handicap event, it becomes more evident that the racing secretaries give Armed the highest credentials. For the Massachusetts Handicap, the Calumet star was was assigned assigned 134 134 pounds pounds and and was was followed followed u-, - - --- v, i was was assigned assigned 134 134 pounds pounds and and was was followed followed by Stymie, 126; First Fiddle, 123; Sirde, 121; Assault and Pavot, 120; and Gallorette and Snow Boots, 119 each. Armed will not be a starter as he is slated to go to the post in the 0,000 Stars and Stripes at Arlington Park on the same day, July 4. Assault will hardly be a starter for Max Hirsch is reluctant to send his three-year-old champion against older horses so early in the season. He has just stated he will not start his star in the Empire City this Saturday, and and is is undecided undecided as as yet yet when when or or where where the the u-, - - --- v, i HHflBjHHH and and is is undecided undecided as as yet yet when when or or where where the the HHflBjHHH "Triple Crown" winner will appear next. There is a question as to which of the topweights will answer the bugle for the 0,000 race at Suffolk Downs on the holiday, but, should Stymie, First Fiddle, Pavot and Gallorette go to the post, it should develop into a fine contest. Gallorette would undoubtedly be "box office" attraction in New England for, after winning the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Handicaps, she is now one of the truly "Name" horses of the 1946 turf. Although, on Tuesday, Saratoga officials emphasized that the upstate meeting would be carried through as planned, rumors persisted that the entire meeting would be conducted on Long Island. Personally we believe the Saratoga officials will go through with their plans to conduct the August meeting at the Union Avenue course. We also believe, along with almost every one we have talked with, that the drop in play will be even more pronounced up there than it has been on Long Island to date. It has been many a day since we can recall the small throng that attended the Empire City meeting yesterday. Whether the socalled "levelling off process" is actually under way, we do not pretend to know, but we do know that for the past few weeks there has been a gradual decrease in the play at New York tracks. Last Saturday, at Aqueduct, Mayor ODwyer told a racing official that he thought "racing had been kicked around." It struck us as a very peculiar remark from a man who Instituted the 5 per cent city tax that is the biggest factor in the dropping of the play at New York tracks. Saratoga officials have the right to conduct their meeting upstate, but we shudder to think what will happen to the mutuel play there. All this talk of retrenchment has had no effect on Dr. Charles H. Strub and his associates at Santa Anita. Undoubtedly you noticed in this paper yesterday the scheduled" stakes that will be offered during the winter meeting at the beautiful Arcadia course. Both the Santa Anita Handicap and the Santa Anita Derby will again have 00,000 in added money, but even more surprising is the fact that not one stake event on the entire program will have less than 0,000 in added money. There has never been a stakes program in the history of racing throughout the world that compares with this one. In a few short years, California has become one of the major racing centers of this country. The present meeting at Hollywood Park bears us out in this statement, and just as Chicago has now drawn most of the champion horses of the land, due to its fine stakes program, so will California be a magnet to "Name" horses, when winter days roll around. There is a tendency in New York to offer small purses for stakes on holidays, the supposition being that the people will attend anyhow so, why give more? In Chicago and California, they take a broader view, giving horsemen a chance to compete for a good sum in added money and the people a chance to see the best horses that money will attract. In recent weeks, there has been considerable news in the papers about horses being flown from New York to California, and later, others flown from Mexico City to Chicago. Although little or nothing was said about it, negotiations have been going on for the past two months to have an English champion handicap horse flown in to this country for a match race with an American champion of the older ranks. Negotiations were going along fine until those interested endeavored to secure a plane that would bring a horse across the ocean. Not one aviation company in England has a plane that is available for such a trip. Those interested then turned to Pan-American Airways and other prominent aviation concerns in the United States. Not one of them were equipped with a plane that could be used for flying a horse across the Atlantic. The American Air Express, who handled the shipment of the horses from Roosevelt Field to Hollywood Park, then became interested in the project, but finally they had to cancel negotiations as they could not reconvert plane with sufficient auxiliary tanks and still enough space to transport a horse. There may, or may not, be an international race in 1947, but you can bet your bottom dollar that you will not hear of any horse being flown from England to this country in an English or American plane during 1946. Today, a 17-year-old racer named Louis A. Miriam started in the second race at Hilltop Park. This writer has no right, whatsoever, to tell any owner what he should do with a horse regardless of age. But, if we were a steward at that track, we would bar the horse from competition. To -us, this is nothing more than cruelty to a gallant thoroughbred who has long outlived his usefulness. It is quite true that some horses are raced at 12 or even 14, but, on the whole, they have never amounted to much and why any owner would keep them in training is a mystery. A few years ago, the HBPA, would buy old horses and retire them and if they are still following that practice, we recommend that they buy Louis A. Miriam .and give the old fellow the surcease from the racing wars that he deserves. Rare, indeed, are horses who can stand up for 10 years of racing. Well do we remember in 1924 Exterminator coming out as a nine-year-old to win three of his seven starts, but the old fellow was just about at the end of his tether, and he richly deserved the retirement to a life of ease. Heaven knows, Louis A. Miriam, at 17, is entitled to retirement and heres hoping that his owner soon turns him out to rest during his remaining years.
