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1 ■ REFLECTIONS B* NELS0N DTAN NEW YORK, N. Y., May 26.— " Three-Dot Shorts:. Many two-year-olds and young junipers at the Long Island tracks are coughing. . . . Dogs are now barred from all Illinois track enclosures. . . . Trainer L. J. Wilson, who is under suspension in Illinois, has many friends and good neighbors who keep writing us to say that he is the head of a fine family and a respected man in his community. . . . More than 1,100 owners won ,000 or more in purses during 1948. . . . Horace Wade has turned out one of the finest booklets we have read in recent years — on the cover is "Monmouth Park, 1870-1949," and it contains numerous interesting items about the lovely New Jersey track. . . . The AU-American Palomino show will be held at Eaton, Ohio, on June 11 and 12. . . . Johnny Daniels is the man in line for the job of mid-western representative of the Jockeys Guild. . . . "From Here to the Bugle," the new authorized biography of Arthur B. Hancock, will soon be ready for delivery, and it will be an absorbing story of one of the worlds greatest thoroughbred breeders. . . . There are 22 generations represented in Man o Wars pedigree. . . . Mere-worth Farm will again offer the largest group of yearlings at the Keeneland Sales, but with the quantity will go quality. AAA Three-year-olds will hold the spotlight at Belmont, Garden State Park, Detroit and Suffolk Downs Saturday, but at Delaware Park, the opening-day feature will be the 0,000 Wilmington Handicap for three-year-olds and older horses, while the Steger Handicap will be the Lincoln Fields feature event in Chicago and, out at Santa Anita, Hollywood will feature the 5,000 Will iTV-Rogers Handicap, for three-year-olds and older horses at six furlongs. The Wilmington Handicap, which is at six furlongs, seems ideally suited for William Helis crack sprinter, Rippey, who is the topweight of the field at 130 pounds. Papa Redbird is second on the list at 123, while Saggy and Natchez are next with 120. Older horses will also have their innings at Delaware Park on Monday when the 0,000 Brandywine Handicap will be con- Three-Year -Olds in Action Tomorrow Wilmington Cap Delaware Park Feature With Coaltown Out, Suburban Open Race What Happened to National Stallion tested at one and one-sixteenth miles. Double Jay will be the topweight of the field at 126 pounds, with Pilaster second on the list and Helis once again represented by Salmagundi who, with Mount Marcy, has been asked to tote 120. Loser Weeper, who has won his last three races, is in the Brandywine with 113 pounds, and appears well placed that way weighted. There is a question as to whether the Vanderbit contingent will send him in this event, or in the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park on the same day. AAA With an assignment of 138 pounds, Jimmy Jones has listed Coaltown as a "doubtful" starter in the Suburban. It is a foregone conclusion that the Calumet speedster will be in his stall when the race is run. Coaltowns assignment represents 11 pounds over the scale for four-year-olds going a mile and a quarter in May. This is quite a chunk of weight but, in view of the fact that Coaltown has won seven straight races this season, it is difficult to see how John B. Campbell could have treated him otherwise. In the Gallant Fox Handicap, Coaltown carried 130 pounds, and he simply toyed with his opposition from start to finish. While it is true that no Suburban winner has carried more than the 135 with which Grey Lag won in 1934, it is the opinion of handicappers that any less weight would make the 0,000 race little more than a gift for the Calumet champion. While there are other handicap races in New York for which Coaltown is eligible, in all probability he will be shipped to Chicago for the Arlington Park meeting, which opens on June 20, for Jimmy Jones has already stated that Citation will not be back in action until mid-summer. AAA With Coaltown out of the line-up, a good-sized field should answer the Suburban bugle. Bill Knapp, the trainer of Three Rings, who is in with 110 pounds, stated recently that he would not start his horse in another race against the Calumet speedster. There is, naturally, a wide gap between the 138 for Coaltown and the 125 for Shy Guy, who is second on the list. Then comes Vulcans Forge, at 124, and he is followed by Double Jay at 121, and then Better Self and Conniver, each at 120. Thereaare many farther down on the list, however, who could "prove troublesome at the weights assigned them. Faultless has not been going too well lately, but he is in this event with 114 pounds, while Loser Weeper, who has been going exceptionally well recently, is in with 112, just two more than he carried when he won the Valley Forge Handicap at Garden State Park last Saturday. A lightly-weighted horse who will bear watching is Flying Missel, colorbearer for the King Ranch and who is in with a feather of 108 pounds. On Tuesday, this Equestrian colt, who is trained by Max Hirsch, defeated a good handicap field at one and one-eighth miles, carrying 114 pounds. There are still others farther down on the list who could be a surprise in this holiday race. AAA This was supposedly a season when many of the horses were ready for early competition, including the two-year-olds. Watching some of the large fields coming down the Widener course would lend strength to that belief, so, how can you account for the fact that 248 were nominated for the filly division of the National Stallion Stakes and only four went to the post. There "were quite a few juveniles of the weaker sex who appeared ready for this event, but they were in the barns yesterday. The colt division of the National Stallion will be run as a secondary feature to the Peter Pan Handicap on June 4, and unless the coughing epidemic is more widespread than we have been led to believe, a much larger field of colts and geldings should answer the bugle. It is a bit early, of course, to expect the best colts and fillies of the juvenile division to becompeting in any great number, but it is hard to understand how any race with so many nominated could attract only four. That is the smallest field to go to the post in the National Stallion Stakes since the event was inaugurated at Morris Park in 1898.
