Between Races: MacLeod Okays Alibhais Fertility; Climate Delays Trip to Lexington; Departure Saddens Local Syndicate; Look to New Studs to Fill the Void, Daily Racing Form, 1948-06-24

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BETWEEN RACES j By Oscar Otis MacLeod Okays Alibhais Fertility Climate Delays Trip to Lexington Departure Saddens Local Syndicate Look to New Studs to Fill the Void VoidHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif June 23 Dr John MacLeod assistant pro ¬ fessor of anatomy at Cornell Medical Col ¬ lege in New York has made known the re ¬ sults of his exhaustive research into the po ¬ tency of Alibhai and his report stripped of its scientific and tech ¬ nical language is to the effect that the horse is absolutely grade A in fertility Dr MacLeod who has delved into the thor ¬ oughbred field as a hobby for the last sev ¬ eral years is recognized as one of the worlds experts on human fertility winning the Lasker Award in 1945 for his funda ¬ mental research on the subject Scottish born Dr MacLeod long has been an ad ¬ mirer of the thoroughbred but it wasnt until he was asked by friends to take a look at Twenty Grand and Boojum that he became active in the testing and re ¬ search of thoroughbred fertility The doc ¬ tor was flown here from New York to make the tests with Alibhai particularly in view of the fact that there had been a good deal of gossip in the East that the horse was a shy breeder although the number of Alibhais around the West Coast would seem to put that line of thought into the limbo It was quite natural however that in a deal involving half a million dollars the purchasers should want to know and in turn let the world know the results of the research of such an outstanding doctor as MacLeod I am convinced the horse is quite satis ¬ factory Dr MacLeod told the writer be ¬ fore departing for Chicago to deliver a research paper to the American Medical Society before continuing on to New York Aside from the fine showing in the fertil ¬ ity tests I am quite taken with Alibhai as an individual He looks a great deal like Hyperion is somewhat larger I would say In fact the resemblance between Alibhai and Hyperion whom I saw in England last year is somewhat striking Incidentally Dr MacLeod concurred in the opinion that it would be advisable to keep Alibhai in California until along in September Alib ¬ hai stands in what is termed semidesert or arid land in the valley near Perris Riverside county The Mayer acreage is surrounded on all sides and in the not too far distance with rugged mountains In the main they are treeless But the valley cradled among these mountains is high and while it gets warm in the summer it is by no means the desert heat of the true deserts out this way like the Mojave or Imperial Valley Moreover it always is cool at night By shipping in September Alib ¬ hai will make the change from California to Kentucky with the least possible climatic change changeA A A A ALest Lest anyone get the idea that the Mayer Farm is arid we will quickly disillusion them The farm is verdant in permanent pasture and crops trees and flowers grow in profusion In fact the entire valley is fabulously rich in soil and mineral content But like all farms in southern California irrigation is necessary There is a school of thought which holds that the Riverside areas are the most desirable in California for the raising of fine thoroughbreds and usually a true Golden Stater adds the world in making any such comparisons They insist and with perhaps a good fun ¬ damental basis that the thoroughbred as we know him today is a development of Arabia and they point out that Arabia es ¬ sentially is an arid country countryA A A A ACalifornians Californians are blaming themselves for letting Alibhai get out of the state There was some talk about the California syndi ¬ cate organized to buy Alibhai and which was about seven members short when the sale of the Hyperion stallion to Leslie Combs n and others was announced of putting the money already pledged into a fund to bring a stallion of world promin ¬ ence to this state to at least in part fill the void to be left by his departure But we rather doubt if anything will come of it Syndicate members were quite discouraged at the failure of their efforts to keep Alib ¬ hai in the state Besides they havent any specific stallion in mind to acquire even if the big bankroll was kept intact Louis B Mayer breds have all hut dominated the stakes program here to date if any doubt be held as to the enormity of the loss first of Beau Pere now by Alibhai Mayer breds for instance ran one two three in the Cinema Handicap last Saturday Alibhais On Trust proved an easy winner of the Golden State Breeders Handicap and Beau Peres Flying Rythm was a surprise winner of the Hollywood Oaks a couple of weeks ago agoA A A A AAt At the moment Californians are pinning their hopes for future development of some of the newer studs starting out coupled of course with the proven production of some of the more established sires Among the new studs looked upon with hope are Count Speed doing right well at Amarillo Farm Reading n and Bull Reigh whose get are beginning to show advantage in their first crops outings this season Khaled and Kharimkian at Rex Ellsworths Farm Old English at E B Johnstons Texas Sand ¬ man at Earl Sorrels place near Modesto Ajax and Fast and Fair at Charlie How ards and Viscounty at Bill Stremmels In addition it is noteworthy that a growing number of breeders are defying the obvious advantage of a Californiabred a status which requires the foal to be conceived as well as dropped in the state by shipping mares to Kentucky Maryland and Virginia in an ever increasing volume Insofar as the Hyperion line is concerned Alibhai will be represented in the stud by his sons and daughters in the not too distant future Perhaps the first Alibhai of note to reach the stud will be Cover Up whose chances of a comeback to the racing wars are about 5050 If he does not stand training he will be at stud next season at the farm Andy Crevolin an Alhambra car dealer is devel ¬ oping at Oakridge Covina


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800