view raw text
, ■ Select Field of Five Named For International Steeplechase Meeting of Trough Hill and t His Boots Features Running Of 0,000 Belmont Stake BELMONT PARK. Elmont, L. I., N. Y.. May 10.— The first steeplechase stake of the New York season heads tomorrows program -at the Hempstead Turnpike course. This is the ,500 International Handicap at about two miles and .has attracted a small, but select field of five. Mrs. Stephen C. Clarks Trough Hill, who was voted the Steeplechaser of 1949 in a close contest, gleaning a few more ballots than Brookmeade Stables His Boots and Mrs. Corliss Sullivans The Heir, heads the International field with 154 pounds. Trough Hill made his seasonal debut in this race last year and fell, his only fall of the year, though he parted company with his rider in the Indian River Steeplechase at Delaware Park. He won the Corinthian and Brook Chases at Belmont and the Battleship at Pimlico. Tommy Field will be in the saddle. His Boots, who earned more money and won one more stake than Trough Hill last year, but usually received large weight concessions from that jumper, gets in the International with 150. The highest impost he carried last year when he was a four-year-old, was 145 pounds. Danny Marzani will ride. The Heir and Navigate Coupled The Heir, who will be coupled with Rigan McKinneys Navigate, is also in the International. McKinney, who trains both horses, is .Mrs. Sullivans son, as well as being one of the best amateur riders of this century. The Heir finished third in the 1948 edition of the International and won the Jervis Spencer Steeplechase Handicap at Pimlico a year ago. Navigate won the Charles L. Apple ton Chase here last May, but is a rather uncertain jumper. The International field is completed by Happy Hill Farms Adaptable, who won the Grand National in 1947, but never regained that form. His recent return to action on Monday was promising, however, as he had more dash than at any time last season. He has only 143 to carry tdmorrow. Incidentally, Rigan McKinney won the International two years in a row, when riding as Mr. McKinney, guiding Amagan-sett in 1935 and 1936. The best of the flat races on tomorrows card is the six-furlong Slide Rule Purse, an event for three-year-olds. Belair Studs Hyphasis and Lykos looms -short-priced choices in this test, in which they are opposed by C. T. Chenerys Bakersf ield, Mrs. G. D. Wideners Set Aside, J. S. Kroeses" Luring and A. G. Vanderbilts Home Free.
