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Constitution Will Be Strictly Local Affair No Out-of-Town Eligible? Likely To Ship In for Suffolk Feature SUFFOLK DOWNS, East Boston, Mass., May 25. — Thirty-eight eligibles for the fourteenth running of the Constitution Handicap have been weighted by racing secretary John P. Turner,- Sr., but come Saturday, the day the mile and one-sixteenth test is to be run, a field of 10 or less is expected to start. Contrary to previous editions of the Suffolk Downs fixture, this years contest appears to be strictly a local affair. In 1946, William Helis Phidias invaded the East Boston track to take back the top honors in the Constitution. The following two runnings were also won by invaders from the New Jersey and New York circuits. Rarco Stables Atomic Power won in 1947 and last year C. V. Whitneys Quarter Pole was successful. Only eight of this years line-up are out-of-towners and to date, none have been considered as possibilities for the Constitution. Those being definitely pointed for the ,500 stake should provide a very interesting race inasmuch as hone of the top contenders have established sensational form this spring. A. P. Cotters Petey Cotter has been assigned the top impost of 122 pounds, three more than given to Mort Stuarts Best Doings. Marlet Stables Sneak is rated five pounds less than the highweight, while Murray Hill Farms Boo Boo Shoo gets in the Constitution with 115 pounds, as does C. E. Tuttles Double Brandy. Other probable candidates and their weights are L. W. Johnsons Var, 114; Mr. and Mrs. L. G. Bed-, wells Bearing Clear, 113, and D. A. Rosen-baums American Glory, 109 pounds. Of the above group only two, Petey Cotter and Sneak, have been successful in stakes competition. Petey Cotter won a division of the Bay State Kindergarten Stakes at this track last year and Sneak scored his triumph, in the Rockingham Juvenile at the New Hampshire track last fall. The Cotter colt went wrong after his Kindergarten triumph and did not get back to the races until Christmas Day at New Orleans. On that occasion, the Saint Andrews colt scored impressively in a sprint. On the strength of his progress at the Louisiana track, Petey Cotter was pointed for this years Kentucky Derby but ran himself out of the opportunity when he chased Olympia in the Derby Trial for six furlongs, then weakened. Saturdays engagement should decide if Petey Cotter is capable of carrying his weight over the middle distance and be a candidate for the 5,000 Yankee Handicap to be run a week later. Sneak finished a length and a half back of Olympia in the Flamingo, top three-year-old event in Florida this spring, but has shown nothing alarming since that race. During his juvenile season, the son of Bimelech impressed many as a coming star over a distance of ground but has failed so far this season when asked to travel over six furlongs. Best Doings acquitted himself in his last after failing in a previous route event.- The son of Best Seller has started three times at the current meeting, winning the first at six furlongs, then could do no better than finish second to Var at a mile and one-sixteenth. Meeting better opposition last week, the Stuart colt negotiated a heavy racing strip and scored easily over opponents he will be meeting in the Constitution. Best Doings was three lengths to the good at the end of the mile and a sixteenth test that found Boo Boo Shoo, Sneak and Double Brandy finishing in that order. Prior to shipping here, Double Brandy has been meeting top opposition in four starts in Maryland this spring. This Questionnaire colt may have needed that last local start and prove a stubborn opponent on Saturday.
