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JUDGES STAND *y charles hatton The Lincoln Fields Club was compensated for a great deal of inclement weather when 38,640 turned out in a summer sun and wagered ,710,197 on nine races Memorial Day. Of course, this was a bit less than the ,925,145 that 43,053 wagered a year ago, but it is easily the best play and attendance so far in the Illinois turf season. "Our business is a little off compared to last years," Pete ODonnell observes, "but, after all, what isnt? Its this season that concerns us, and we are very pleased with public response to our cards." The Peabody Memorial developed a hammer-and-tongs finish from which the Lexbrook Stables Lextown emerged the winner. It seemed to us he deserved that share of the 5,000 stake, for he made nearly all the running, and went six furlongs in 1:11, a mile in 1:36% around two turns. At this point, he was beginning to tire and appeared beaten, but his rivals had tired chasing him and he won with a final furlong in :14. Perhaps you know that the Lexbrook Stable is the nom de course of M. A. Kern, local insurance man and sportsman. Theres a really delightful story about how he came to buy Lex-town. It seems he was motoring back to Chicago from the Derby several years ago, stopped at L. R. Mearas Indiana farm rather late at night, was shown Lextown by flashlight as a foal in his stall and bought him quite reasonably on the spot. We dont suppose many horsemen have picked one with a flashlight who was destined for the spotlight. t AAA Lincolns 0,000 Miss America is the first of the many two-year-old filly stakes to be offered in the Chicago area this summer. The Debutante winner, Aunt Jayne Z.r seems to be the nimblest of those that have been shown up to now, but she will find competition is sharper as the season progresses. The local owner, Joe Kroeck, has a nice prospecti in Miss Stephanie, a little item he picked up for ,300 at the Keeneland Fall Lextown Shines, Even by Flashlight Miss Stephanie Is Miss America Prospect Increased Turf Course Racing in Midwest Chicagoans to See Coaltown, Citation Sales. This one has an interesting pedigree. She is by Requested, and neither her first nor second dam ever started. Miss Stephanie was reared by Lad Simpson, a youthful Lexington breeder, and is out of Lads Gal, a Count Gallahad mare he rode to hounds. The second dam was a Cynic mare who also was a hunter, it is said, and she traces to Lady Colonist, who was by Africander and won in England. Africanders name is rare in modern pedigrees. Kroeck races the capable Blue Helen, who is pointing for filly and mare stakes at Arlington-Washington, and he hopes that Miss Stephanie will turn out as well. AAA Tuff course racing is becoming less a novelty here in the Middlewest. The Detroit club recently offered the first of a series of four stakes on the grass, something called the Michigan Mile, won by O. F. Woodwards eight-year-old Sir Sprite. This affair will be followed on June 15 by the Wolverine Stakes, and on June 29 by the St. Clair Stakes, each a run of a mile and a sixteenth having ,500 added. The climax of the series is the 0,000 Belle Isle Handicap at a mile and a half on July 30. Arlington and Washington have turf courses and plan to card about four races weekly on them. Lincoln now has an occasional race on the Washington turf course. Probably Sir Sprite, Pellicle, Frere Jacques and other turf racers at Detroit will commute for Arlingtons 0,000 Grassland Handicap of a mile and three-sixteenths on Judy 14. Washington offers the 0,000 Meadowland at the same route on August 25. The Hawthorne meet follows Washingtons and Detroits, and this club now has a grass track, so that horses with action particularly suited to this sort of racing can campaign through the field four months in this area. Turf course events add color to the programs and appear to be popular with the public. AAA Chicagoans almost certainly will see Coaltown in. action during the month just ahead at Arlington, and theres a good chance also that Citation will appear at the North Side meet. Coaltown has attained such stature among the handicap horses that he was weighted at 138 pounds for the Suburban. He did not accept it, however. Perhaps the best race in recent years was Assaults Butler in 1947, in which he carried 135 pounds and, beat Stymie at 126 and Gallorette with 117. Assault seems to be training well for a comeback and if he stands up it hardly will be necessary for the Calumets to carry a lot of hardware. For that matter, there is an arbitrary 130-pound maximum at Arlington and Washington. Bob Kleberg shipped Assault out here both as a three- and four-year-old, and if he returns this summer to oppose either of the Calumets, they will achieve more for "Racings Public Relations" than all of the turfs initialed bodies. Arlington s- most attractive races for three-year-olds and up are the 0,000 Stars and Stripes on July 4 and the 0,000 Arlington Handicap on July 23. AAA Turfana: The noted Nydrie Stud producer Heloise celebrated Danny Van Cliefs third wedding anniversary by producing a nice Flushing II. colt. ... A spectrophotometer is available for Illinois saliva tests. . . . Second choices win approximately the same percentage of Detroit and Chicago claimers as do favorites. . . . Green -trees promising Androcles won from allowance horses in his debut. This is the colt who beat Ferd, unofficially, at the Aiken Trials. . . . Illinois has 56 breeding farms. . . . Were assured it is merely a coincidence that the Illinois Breeders Association offices are at the Stock Yards. . . . There were 509 photo finishes at-Ghicago tracks in 48, 20 of them dead heats.
