view raw text
REFLECTIONS by nelson dunstan NEW YORK, N. Y., June 26.— On the week-end, eight stakes will be staged. In the Chicago area, the Modesty Handicap for fillies and mares will share the program with the Hyde Park Stakes for two-year-olds. Here in the East, most of the interest will center in the 0,000 New New Castle Castle Handicap Handicap for for fillies fillies and and New New Castle Castle Handicap Handicap for for fillies fillies and and mares, three years old and older, at one and one-quarter miles. A. G. Vanderbilts Next Move, champion filly of 1950, would have been the highweight of the field had she started. But last week, she popped an osselet and as a result will be out of the running until the fall. Bu-sanda, the much-improved filly from the stable of Ogden Phipps and the winner of the Suburban and Top Flight Handicaps, has been assigned 126 pounds and is asked to give gobs of weight to her opponents. Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords Adile is second on the list at 118, and she is followed by Hal Price Headleys five-year-old mare, Lithe. Then come five who have been assigned 115 pounds, and in this group is Herman B. Delmans How, a miss who has won the Kentucky Oaks and Coaching Club American Oaks, and at this point has a clear claim to the three-year-old title of the year. How likes a distance of ground and she is perfectly suited in this race. Kiss Me Kate, who ran second to How in the Coaching Club and later won the Delaware Oaks at a mile and a furlong, has been assigned 113 pounds. Both have Busanda to beat, but they will again be fighting it out for the championship of their age and sex. This is truly the race of the week. AAA Here in New York the Shevlin Stakes for three-year-olds at a mile and a sixteenth will be the feature. It will not be a championship event, but it does shape up as a Eight Stake Events Contested on Week-End New Castle Handicap Feature at Delaware Aqueduct Draws Three-Year-Olds in Shevlin Dover Stakes Promises to Be Juvenile Duel really fine horse race, even though Counterpoint, who scored decisively over Battlefield in the Peter Pan Handicap and Belmont Stakes will not be a starter for the simple reason that he was not nominated Battlefield will go to the post for, as his owner, George D. Widener, recently stated to this writer, "He will start in the Shevlin and then the Dwyer. We will await the outcome of these two races before we decide on his future campaign." Among the other eligibles is Jack Amiels Count Turf, but whether this Kentucky Derby winner will start is not certain for his showing in the Belmont Stakes suggested that he might need a few weeks layoff. There is another absentee in Uncle Miltie, who in all probability will make his first appearance in New York since the running of the Wood Memorial, in the Dwyer Stakes on July 7 at Aqueduct. There are three-year-olds, however, who may now be reaching the top of their form, and one of these could be the Greentree Stables Hall of Fame, winner of the Kent Stakes last week-end and a likely starter in the Shevlin. While, as we said before, it is not a championship, the Shevlin could be a top horse race. AAA Down at Oceanport, N. J., Monmouth Park is getting under way with a stake schedule that includes many of the most important events in the East this summer. The ever-increasing popularity of this track has been one of the highlights of eastern racing in the past two years. Tomorrow the Regret Handicap for fillies and mares at six furlongs will be run, and on the week-end the feature will be the 0,000 Long Branch Handicap for three-year-olds and older horses at a mile and a sixteenth. A representative field has been named, with Cochise the top weight at 124 pounds. These days, it is little more than guessing as to what horses will be starters, but suffice it to say that County Delight is in with 121 and Ferd and Sheilas Reward are next on the list at 118 each. Sheilas Reward demonstrated in the Queens County Handicap last Saturday that a mile and a sixteenth is not beyond his capabilities and now that his connections know that, it will be interesting to note how he fares in such events as the Long Branch and later races, which are at more than a mile. AAA One of the most significant two-year-old events of the juvenile season to date is likely to be the Dover Stakes which, at five and a half furlongs, will be run at Delaware Park next Monday. For some time, racing fans in the East have been awaiting a meeting between Jet Master and The Pimpernel, who set a worlds record at Belmont and then missed the Delaware track mark in the Christiana Stakes by one-fifth of a second. Last Friday, the racing throng at Aqueduct made Jet Master a one-to-four favorite for the Tremont Stakes, and the race resulted in one of the biggest upsets of the season when the Montpeliers Pintor, a colt by Goya n., defeated the Marlboro Stud Farms son of Jet Pilot, who was being hailed as a potential champion of the current season. When the Dover entries closed, no less than 176 youngsters were nominated and on the list is The Pimpernel, Jet Master, Pintor, Primate and Jet Jewel, to say nothing of other juveniles who could break into the picture with Continued on Page Thirty-Five 5 3 a a i 7 REFLECTIONS I By NELSON DUNSTAN Continued from Page Forty-Four the running of this race. After the victory r of Pintor in the Tremont we pointed out I that he was by the French importation, Goya n. On Saturday, at Aqueduct, A. G. Vanderbilts juvenile colt, Cousin, was the : winner of the fourth race by four lengths. This colt is nicely bred also, for he is by r Priam II., who came to this country as a i traveling companion to Goya II., both i being brought here by the Almahurst t breeder, Henry H. Knight. Cousin is also an eligible for the Dover Stakes. AAA We note in Jim Murphys column, "Arlington . Park Note Book," that the stewards s at the Chicagoland course have barred upward . of 50 horses who have not won a x creditable race, in a couple of years. In i these days when many owners cannot t obtain stalls at a track, a movement such i as this is certain to be commended. While g the seasoned racegoer will not play such a I horse, there are many people who will be 5 attracted by the long price. Yesterday at t Aqueduct, they staged a maiden race in ! which there were horses who ran anywhere e from six to ten times and had never been in the money. There must be maiden races, !f of course, but it would seem to us that the e racing authorities could frame a rule which i would adequately deal with a way in which ! to remove these horses from competition i and thus create a change in the stall condition . which is, today, one of the serious s problems of racing. Ben Lindheimer, • executive director at Arlington and Washington _ Parks, is in accord with the stewards, _ and, so, too, are many «ther racing executives we have talked with. There has s probably never been a period in American Q racing when stall space is at such a pre-- mium, and the condition will most likely y get worse as time goes on. The only solu-e _ tion, in the final analysis, is to weed out t those who obviously lack the ability to win n a race. They not only cost the owner money to maintain, but are the poorest kind of a risk for a certain portion of the wagering public.
