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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan International Match May Be Run in Fall Prince Chevalier Sought at Belmont Lindheimer Bid 00,000 for English Star No Planes Available for Atlantic Flight NEW YORK, N. Y., June 28. Lets all hope that Maj. Tom McCreery and G. H. Fairhurst are successful in bringing about the invasion of the French champion three-year-old, Prince Chevalier for a series of racea against the best three-year-olds in this country at Belmont Park in the fall. While as a match race, the Zev-Papyrus affair was more a spectable than a contest, the invasion of Epinard for three International Specials in this country created such great interest back in 1924 that a duplicate series would certainly be welcomed this year. It seems strange to us that, on the very day this announcement appeared in our newspapers, that Ben Lindheimer, executive director at Arlington and Washington Parks finally gave up his two .months effort to bring about an international race between an English and an American champion among older horses. There were two provisos to the international race one being that it was to ba staged at Washington Park in Chicago for 00,000 and, secondly, that the horse be flown from England to this country. That all sounds very simple on paper, but Lindheimer soon found that there were many obstacles in bringing about a race between a horse of the older ranks from England and the best handicap performer in this country. When Langton Abbot won the Lincolnshire Handicap in England and then won the Rosebery Stakes, English papers declared he was the best handicap performer in the tight little isle. Lindheimer cabled Clive Graham, turf writer of the London Daily Express, authorizing him to propose to Tom Best, owner of Langton Abbot, a match race against Armed, the acknowledged champion of the handicap ranks of this country Warren Wright and Ben Jones, on behalf of Armed, promptly agreed to the match. Tom Best agreed, but refused to stop racing his horse in England before the time for him to be flown to this country. The agreement was that if Langton Abbot was defeated, the match would be called off. Tom Best finally decided to start Langton Abbot in the Winston Churchill Stakes, a race in which he was asked to give 16 to 40 pounds to his opponents at one mile. Just before the race was run, rain fell in torrents, making the track fetlock deep in mud. Langton Abbot was thoroughly beaten, finishing ninth. In a later race, he gave gobs of weight away and once again was beaten a neck. With two defeats, it was deemed inadvisable to bring him to this country to meet Armed. After the defeat of Langton Abbot for the second time, Lindheimer promtply cabled Australia in an attempt to bring Bernborough, the wonder horse, to this country to meet Armed. His owners cabled back they would not be interested in such a race this year. Still hoping to bring a match about, Lindheimer cabled back to England offering the owner of the Ascot Gold Cup winner an opportunity to bring his horse to this country to meet Armed. That could not be brought about either, but, even had any of these horses been brought to this country, they would have had to come over here by boat for, as we related in this column just a few days back, it is virtually impossible at this time to get any aviation company, large or small, to ship a horse across the Atlantic ocean by plane. The large aviation companies have their planes booked right through October, and the smaller companies do not have ships that are equipped to carry a horse over the ocean. In saying this, we are speaking only of English and American companies. If Major McCreery and Fairhurst are successful in their negotiations to bring this French champion to this country, we advise they start early to make arrangements to have the horse brought here. It appears as if Beaugay is well on her way to recovering the form that she displayed as a two-year-old in 1945. And now, the eyes of the turf world are on Busher, the grand Louis B. Mayer filly who was declared "Horse of the Year" last season. The Mayer contingent has used extra caution in bringing Busher up to her training for a comeback. She has had two speed trials to date and we have word from the coast that she came out of them without a sign of weakness in the leg that was injured last year. It may be that she will start in the 100,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 27, although this is not a certainty at the moment. From California, she will undoubtedly move to Chicago for there are quite a few races at the Washington Park meeting in which she could enhance both her prestige and her earnings. Somewhere along the line, it is hoped that she will hook up with W. L. Branns grand filly, Gallorette, who has defeated high class horses of the opposite sex in both the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Handicaps. If these two fillies meet, it should develop into one of the most interesting and colorful races of the season. We had expected to see the name of Pericles among the entries on tomorrows Empire City program at Jamaica, but the race failed to fill. The costly Helis colorbearer would have used the event to determine if he was to be shipped to Suffolk Downs for the 0,000 Massachusetts Handicap on July 4. Pericles won the first start of his career and his owner hopes that before he is retired to stud duty at Helis Farm, at Jobstown, New Jersey, he will be able to prove his class and speed by winning one or i two stakes events. It is a foregone conclusion, regardless of his racing record, that Pericles will be retired to join Attention and the other stallions now stading at the farm in New Jersey. It will not be a very difficult job to fill his book for recently Helis told us that he has had many letters asking for a service to the well-known horse in the 1947 season. Pericles is not only one of the best bred horses racing in this country, but, in appearance, he is a typical "picture book" horse.
