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REFLECTIONS *y NELS0N dunstan NEW YORK, N. Y.f June 6.— Belmont Park is now in the last week of its spring meeting and, after the Top Flight Handicap, Wednesday, then the Meadow Brook Steeplechase on Thursday, the eighty-first running of the 5,000 Belmont Stakes will bring the meeting to a close on Saturday. After the running of the Peter Pan Handicap last week-end, there is hardly a doubt that the Calumet Farms Ponder, who upset the calculations in the Kentucky Derby, will go to the post as favorite. If ever a race was made to order for Ponder, it was the Peter Pan, in which he closed with such a terrific burst of speed that he was close to a length in front of Colonel Mike, with the favorite, Capot, in the beaten field. Anyone who thought that Ponders victory in the Kentucky Derby was a fluke had reason to change their mind, as the Calumet horse picked off the seven horses who were in front of him at the head of the stretch. Rare, indeed, have Belmont racegoers seen such fractional times in a race at one and one-eighth miles, for they were clocked in :22%, :45%, 1:09% and at the mile pole in 1:36%. Something had to give, and that "something" was Capot, who was carrying 128 pounds and who tired badly in the last quarter mile of the race, although he did go on to work out a mile and a quarter in 2:07. Ponders time for the one and one-eighth miles was 1:49%, which was just one and a fifth seconds behind the track record. AAA Three-year-olds will also be featured at Delaware Park and at Detroit on the week-end, for the 5,000 Kent will be run at the Wilmington course, and the 0,000 Motor City at the Fair Grounds in Detroit. The Kent is at a mile and a sixteenth, and it is only natural that this race is a magnet to Fred Hoopers Olympia, ; who is probably the fastest three-year-old in the country, but demonstrated in both the Kentucky Derby and the Jersey Stakes that one and one-quarter miles is beyond his capabilities. The Motor City is also at one and one-sixteenth miles and, while ther is a question as to which of the eastern colts will go to Detroit for this event, it is safe to say that Johns Joy and Lextown will be in the line-up. Although the three-year-old division has Belmont Final Event at Elmont Course Three-Year-Olds Featured at Delaware, Detroit Meadow Brook Attracts Chasers Thursday .Narragansett Opens 18-Day Meet at Pawtucket definitely shaped itself, there are still many rich events for its members on the June and July schedules. Just four days after the running of the Belmont Stakes, Aqueduct will stage the 0,000 Shevlin at one and one-sixteenth miles and, then, on the twenty-fifth of June, the 0,000 Dwyer, which is at one and one-quarter miles. On July 2, the three-year-olds will usher in the month with the Leonard Richard Stakes at Delaware, the Cavalcade at Detroit, and the Cinema Handicap at Hollywood Park. AAA Steeplechase fans will be out in force at Belmont on Thursday to see the thirty-fourth running of the Meadow Brook Steeplechase Handicap, which is for four-year-olds and older jumpers, and has 0,000 in added money. This is the last of the important steeplechase races of the Belmont meeting and, at two miles and a half, it is one of the events which go far in pointing out the jumping champion of the year. The race closed with 37 nominations and the highweights of the field are Trough Hill and War Battle, both of whom have been assigned 151 pounds. Trough Hill is in splendid shape, as he demonstrated by winning the Corinthian Steeplechase Handicap from Elkridge just a week ago. But it is safe to say that, in Thursdays race, the sentiment of the throng will favor Elkridge, one of the most popular jumpers on the American turf since the days of Jolly Roger and Fairmount. Kent Millers gelding is now 11 years old and, although he has had close to 100 races, he has fallen only once in his entire career, and that was at Laurel last October. Adaptable, winner of last years renewal of the Meadow Brook, has been assigned 148 pounds, but he will have to improve over his showing in the Corinthian to be a factor in Thursdays longer race. AAA The very foundation of the British turf would have been shaken had Swallow Tail won the Epsom Derby on the week-end, for, days before the race, Englishmen were shaking their heads at the fact that this horse, who ran third to Nimbus and Amour Drake, would wear blinkers in Englands No. 1 race Jor three-year-olds. Writing in this newspaper on Saturday morning, Vernon Morgan stated: "Normally, blinkers are only put on wayward horses and it would be a record for a horse wearing such equipment to win the biggest prize of the British turf." It is strange how customs change with the years. It was not so long ago in this country that blinkers were regarded as "the badge of the rogue," but today such equipment is regularly used. In the Peter Pan Handicap, on Saturday, seven of the nine starters wore blinkers— the only two exceptions being Ponder and Curandero. In the first race of the day, no less than 10 of the 12 starters were so equipped. The English are much slower than we are to change the customs that are handed down from generation to generation, and this is true not only in the equipment used on a horse, , but in the many gadgets that have become an accepted part of our racing set-up. AAA The racing map will take on a new look during the remaining days of June. Up in New England, Suffolk Downs closes tomorrow and, on Wednesday, Narragansett Park at Pawtucket will open its 28-day meeting. Next Monday, Aqueduct will start its 18-day meeting with the running of the 0,000 Queens County Handicap and, on the twentieth, Monmouth Park will continue the New Jersey sport with a 45-day meeting that will run until August 10. On the eighteenth, Lincoln Fields will bring its meeting to a close, and Arlington Park will open on the twentieth for a 36-day meeting that will immediately be followed by one at Washington Park, which will be in action for- 31 days. The first stake event at Narragansett will be the 5,000 Roger Williams Handicap, which will be run this Saturday, by three-year-olds and older horses, at a mile and three-sixteenths. This is the first of the six stake events which will be offered during the meeting at the Pawtucket track. Many of the top handicap horses who are now in the East were nominated for the Roger Williams, and a good field should go to the post.
