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REFLECTIONS By NELSON DUNSTAN NEW YORK, N. Y., May 20. Within a week or ten days it will be announced that the owner of an important breeding farm in Kentucky is selling some acreage to two prominent breeders. . . . Mrs. Vera Braggs promising filly, Post-Deb, will ue riuueu uy uaoii oauica in nci engagements at Aqueduct, Monmouth and Saratoga. . . . Seabiscuit, who died Saturday night, was insured for 00,000 by Charles S. Howard years ago. Sefton Tranter sold him the policy. . . . Wagers are being made that Faultless will not be beaten again this year, providing he is not raced against older horses. . . . English journals are predicting that Tudor Minstrel, winner of the Two Thousand Guineas, will be one of the shortest-priced Epsom Derby starters of all time. . . . Assault will return to Chicago for the Arlington Park meeting. . . . We are pleased to acknowledge a check for 12 from the jockeys and valets at Churchill Downs for the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund. AAA The aftermath of the Withers Stakes at Belmont was a growing conviction that this years three-year-old group is below par. There was one thing that struck us and that was the number of people who were so delighted that Earl Sandes Stage Kid ran third to Faultless and Bra-bancon. There are few men on the American turf held in higher esteem than the "Handy Guy" who. ranked with the finest race riders ever developed in this country. Today, Sande is a quiet, modest little gentleman who is a credit to both the riding and training professions in this country. Since he won the Santa Anita Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap back in 1938, Sande has had his good years and bad ones, but he took it all in its stride. It was back in Jamaica on April 19 that Stage Kid ran eleventh in an 11-horse division of the Wood Memorial that was won by I Will, with Stepfather : Stage Kid Makes Hit With Belmont Fans Syndicate Now Offers 00,000 for Alibhai L B. Mayer Asks ,475,000 for Broodmares Atlantic City, Delaware Ready for Openings second. Since then, however, he has shown vast improvement and three days before the running of the Withers, this chestnut colt by Stagehand won so impressively that Sande decided to start him in the big week-end race. At the half-mile, he was dead last, but he was fairly running over horses in the stretch, and behind him was such a trio as Jet Pilot, Blue Border and Owners Choice. - AAA Just a few days ago, we stated that Louis B. Mayer had decided not to sell his yearlings at Saratoga. Although the matter has not been definitely settled, there is a strong possibility they will be offered some time during the Hollywood Park meeting, or held over until they are two-year-olds in 1948. Recently, the breeding journals carried a story that the Mayer interests have turned down an offer of 00,000 by a Kentucky syndicate to purchase Alibhai, the sire of On Trust. Since that time, an offer of 00,000 has been made, and it is understood the same group offered to buy 40 of the broodmares now at the Mayer Farm in Perris, Calif. This information came to us from one of the men who is very close to the MGM executive in dispersing his thoroughbred stock. It is known by this writer that when Mayer was asked to place a price on his entire broodmare band, which numbers 68, he asked ,475,000. If the mares should be sold, there will be no "sale this fall, as originally planned. AAA Both Atlantic City and Delaware Park are in readiness for the meetings that open next week. Atlantic City has improved its plant considerably, and although no book of stake nominations has reached our desk, we do know that they have a fine schedule with many of the best horses in the East eligible for the most important races. The Atlantic City meeting will open next Monday and will be followed by Delaware Park on Thursday, the 29th. Not since its inaugural meeting has the Wilmington track drawn such fine .nominations for its attractive stake events. In the Diamond State Stakes, which is for three-year-olds, and to be run on Saturday, June 21, Faultless, Brabancon, Stage Kid, Liberty Road, Cosmic Bomb, Donor, I Will, Jet Pilot, Bullet Proof and other leaders of the division have been named. For the Sussex Handicap, a race for three-year-olds and older, horses at a mile and a quarter, the eligibility list includes the outstanding trio of Armed, Assault and Stymie. AAA In the short space of one day, the papers reported the deaths of three stallions, namely, Seabiscuit, St. Germans and Grand Time. The colorful career of Sea-biscuit was given in detail in this paper. We have often wondered what effect St. Germans great son, Twenty Grand, would have had upon our breeding structure had he not proven to be impotent when retired to the farm. Twenty Grand was, undoubtedly, one of the best race horses of the past quarter-century. Even though Twenty Grand was of little value to him as a sire, St. Germans has left a fine record as a representative of the Swynford line in this country. He begot Bold Venture, who won the Kentucky Derby in 1936, and then, when sent to stud, was the sire of Assault, a winner of the "Triple Crown" and one of the leading handicap performers of this season. St. Germans was 26 years of age, so his span of usefulness was just about at an end. Grand Time had no such record as Seabiscuit or St. Germans, but he was the sire of the dam of Grand Admiral, whom the Brookmeade Stable had to retire this season as a three-year-old, due to an injury.
