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tJm ""i #SS|! »1 "** JUDGES STAND *y charles hatton ARLINGTON PARK. Arlington Heights, 111., June 27. — Racing secretaries arent going to like this, and perhaps it isnt entirely their fault, but collectively they seem to be carding an unusual number of claimers, even though this is supposed to be the height of the season. Last Saturday day seven seven major major race race tracks tracks program- day seven seven major major race race tracks tracks program- programmed 59 races, and of this total 37 were for selling platers. One would think that if little Keeneland, operating in the spring and fall, can offer less than one-third claiming races for its entire meeting, surely these tracks can do as well on Saturdays and holidays. Needless to say, racings popularity is not developed by offering the largest crowds a lot of races among the worst horses, and the fact there are 12 of them to the race doesnt make them any more attractive. A racegoer can feel that he may be watching a horse that has a future when he is offered an allowance race or even a maiden race. But a plater is a horse that is proven to be deficient in class. Giving credit where credit is due, it ought to be noted that Monmouth, Aqueduct and Delaware managed to have comparatively few claimers. Each had eight races, and only three of Monmouths were claimers, four of the other two tracks. It also ought to be noted that Delaware lets a lot of races having five or six horses go when they promise good contests among decent horses. Now that so many tracks have nine or ten pools in a single day, more of them can afford to be more altruistic and sporting in these matters. It will help their business in the long run. AAA Since Lou Smiths secret is out, we suppose it is per-missable to mention here that he plans to introduce a walkup starting gate at Rockingham Park. It was demonstrated on the Coast, where approximately 100 horses that had been barred from competition because of misbehaving in the gate were broken from it without incident. And it is said Del Mar wanted to introduce it, but the backers Big Percentage of Claimers on Week-End Cards Lou Smith to Introduce New Walkup Gate New Castle Promises Race Within a Race* Hall of Fame Changes Tactics to Win Kent felt it might better be shown first in the more crowded east. Smith tells us that Ben Jones and others who saw it in action were favorably impressed and he plans a demonstration at the Salem course some Sunday previous to the opening of the meeting on July 30. Theres no doubt walkup starts are less wearing on horses running gear than standing starts, and racing men have for decades experimented with various walkup machines. As we understand it, Smiths gate looks like any other starting gate, except that it has a single wheel on one end and is pulled by a tractor on the other. Billy Mills assembled it out west. Jockey Ronnie Nash observes that usually horses will handle easier and break better whan they are in motion than when they are forced to stand. For the same psychological reason they ship better when they are loose than when they are tied in a narrow compartment. AAA Delawarians will see a race within a race, so to speak, when How and Kiss Me Kate meet in Saturdays 0,000 New Castle of a mile and a quarter. There is almost as much speculation about whether How will beat Kiss Me Kate or vice versa as there is concerning who will win the race. Gil Haus makes somewhat less difference in the weights than J. B. Campbell did, observing, "Kiss Me Kate is a good filly. Shes almost as good as How right off the form." You wont hear it from Walter Jeffords, but Kiss Me Kate broke rather badly in the Coaching Club and went from eleventh to second in the first quarter. Arlington naturally has a rooting interest in How in the race, for she is engaged here, whereas the Count Fleet filly is not. Thus the local filly stakes could have somewhat more significance as a result of the outcome. Hows rather showy record has enhanced the values of a couple of yearlings that are to be marketed this season, for Doug Davis plans to offer her brother at Keeneland, and Jack Skinner has a Stymie colt from a mare of her immediate family at the Spa. AAA Greentree makes Belmont its headquarters, but Johnny Gavers trainees have more luck on the road. Within the past two weeks, we saw One Hitter win Suffolks Massachusetts Handicap, and Hall of Fame, another of the get of Shut Out, win the Kent Stakes at Delaware Park. The Kent was hardly anything to make people forget the 1920 renewal of the Dwyer Stakes, nor even to start Counterpoint stall-walking nervously at the sight of- Hall of Fame. But this gelding does very well for a horse who almost tore his legs off in a fence as a yearling and was lucky to get to the races at all. Ted Atkinson rode him a bit differently from usual in the Kent. Hall of Fame had been expiring on the pace, but came from behind in this mile and a sixteenth. He is in Saturdays Shevlin Stakes at the same route, the 0,000 Dwyer on July 7, and may come here for the Classic if he continues to progress. AAA Turf ana: Delaware boasts 65 acres of parking lots, the largest space east of the Rockies. A 25-cent parking charge eliminates the tipping evil, provides free wrecking car and flat tire service and fire insurance protection . . . Aunt Jinny, who has yet this season to quite run her race, is a candidate for Saturdays 0,000 Modesty Handicap . . .Arlington doesnt appear to have any outstanding bug rider. There isnt one on the list of 12 leaders who are paced by Harold "Red" Keene . .William Goetz Your Hostess, winning two-year-old sister to Your Host, is a candidate for the Princess Pat Stakes at Washington, while Calumet Farm has Unbelievable, a brother of Citation, in the Arlington Futurity.
