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■ • I REFLECTIONS by nelson dunstan NEW YORK, N. Y., May 1a.— At this season of the year no division moves along so swiftly as that of the three-year-olds. Jet Pilot won the Derby and Faultless, who tinished third at Louisville, came hack to score a solid victory in the Preak-ness. The next event for this division will be the 5,000 Withers, which will be run at Belmont Park on the week-end. Although Faultless, Phalanx, Jet Pilot and Cosmic Bomb are eligible for the Withers, this event is likely to draw quite a few of those who are more suitable to a mile than they are at the longT distances. After the running of the Withers, the distance will lengthen out once again, for the Peter Pan is to be run at a mile and a furlong, and the Belmont Stakes, which will bring the meeting to a close, will be at one and one-half miles. During the month of June, there will still be many rich races for members of the three-year-old ranks, including the Shevlin, Yankee, Kent and also the Dwyer, which will be run at Aqueduct on June 14 and has 0,000 in added money as a magnet. AAA For the first time in many years, this writer had to forego seeing the Preakness and listen to the radio broadcast of the race. A regrettable note was Injected into the proceedings when Clem McCarthy suddenly stopped and, in a low voice, said, "Ladies and gentlemen— I have made a terrible mistake. The horse I was calling as Jet Pilot was really Faultless." In all the years we have admired Clem for his outstanding ability to vividly describe the running of an important race, our respect for him rose to new heights wen he immediately admitted his error. That he was crestfallen was apparent, but by his error he simply proved to thousands of racing fans that, like all the rest of we humans, he, too, could make a mistake. His task of calling a race is a trying one, and it is Three-Year-Olds Division Goes On and On Clem Made Mistake— Well, Who Hasnt Royal Blood Regarded as Juvenile Champ Phar Mon May Be Real Western Threat surprising that he has not made more errors in his many years of radio work. Good old Bill Stern, after explaining to the radio audience that Clem had confused the colors of the silks, made a mistake himself when he said, "During the Civil War, the Woodlawn vase was buried here at Pimlico." The Woodlawn vase, during the Civil War, was buried under a tree with the rest of the Alexanders family silver at the famous Wooburn Farm in Kentucky. This ornate racing vase did not become the perpetual Preakness trophy until 1910. Both Clem McCarthy and Bill Stern can look back upon the uundreds of fine broadcasts they have given to racing fans, rather than feel chagrined by a couple of very human mistakes. AAA Although the season is a very young one for two-year-olds, there are some who have displayed exceptional promise in the racing to date. At Belmont last Tuesday, the Maine Chance Farms Royal Blood won by five lengths and, ever since then, Long Island fans have been referring to this Coldstream colt as one of the potential champions of the season. He was followed by Quickset, Curvaceous and Fleet Boss. On Saturday, at Belmont, Eternal Lark was a convincing winner over 22 other youngsters, many of them being amongst the most expensive yearlings of the 1946 sales. This coming Saturday, the companion event to the Withers will be the seventy-first running of the Juvenile Stakes, at five furlongs, over the Widener course. Among the eligibles are Norman W. Churchs Speculation, who cost 5,000; Royal Blood, Back Drop, Eternal Lark, Word of Honor and King Rhymer, the youngster who created a worlds record for three furlongs at Santa Anita during the winter. AAA It could be that Churchill Downs fans on Saturday witnessed in Phar Mon one of the best two-year-olds of the season. In winning the Bashford Manor Stakes, this colt by Easy Mon — Penroyal, by Royal Minstrel, won his fourth of five starts this season. On the one occasion when he was defeated, he lost by a head, to Andys Glory but, in his next two starts, he turned the tables on him in convincing fashion. When we were in Kentucky, his trainer, Bill Douglass, told us "He is the fastest colt we have ever developed." In winning the Bashford Manor, he centers attention on his lire, Easy Mon, whose first foals were two-year-olds in 1945. Last year, Tweets Boy, who is by Easy Mon, was the winner of the Bashford Manor over Colonel OF and Black Knave. AAA Tudor Minstrel, who recently won the Two Thousand Guineas, is having encomiums heaped upon him, but which he may have quite a time living up to in the months ahead. In their cabled report, Reuters said, "Those privileged to watch John Dewars great three-year-old, Tudor Minstrel, believe they saw the finest horse bred in Britain, and possibly the world, in the last half-century." The usually conservative British have gone all-out by placing this horse above Isinglass, Hyperion, Gay Crusader, Gainsborough, Bahrain and others who not only won the English Triple Crown, but have been idols down through the years. In all this welter of talk about international races, here is one who, we believe, would be a great drawing card if brought to this country to meet our top three-year-olds in a match race or in a race which was open to the leading three-year-olds of all nations.
