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Weighing In By EVAN SHIPMAN SHIPMANBELMONT BELMONT PARK Elmont L I N Y April 30 Gray skies dimmed the sparkle of Belmont for the opening but the charm of this beautiful park was no less evident for being a trifle subdued in tone The young green of spring foliage blended harmoniously with banked flowers transplanted from the tracks hothouses and in this superb setting both the thoroughbreds and their patrons ap ¬ peared fresh and viva ¬ cious for the start of a new season A newcomer named Dark Peter was particularly lively to celebrate his introduction to this charming environ ¬ ment This colt up from Kentucky where he had run second in his last start to Calu ¬ mets Hill Gail was never headed as he scampered the six furlongs of the Tobog ¬ gan in near record time for the stake hold ¬ ing the favorite Crafty Admiral in the drive and quite outfooting the consistent game old TeaMaker Dark Peter lightly campaigned last season was generously treated by the handicapper getting into the Toboggan with the feather of 108 pounds but from now on the Harborvale Stables son of Piping Rock Dark Maid ¬ ens form must be respected His run down the Widener chute was clocked in 109 over a strip that could be described only as good Even with the advantage of a favoring wind that is keen speed but this fellows pedigree on both sides of the house is assurance enough that he was bred to run runInterest Interest in the Toboggan may have been somewhat dwarfed by a consuming anxiety concerning the fate or various Derby candidates in the Trial at Church ¬ ill Downs but local horsemen had to wait until the late afternoon to learn that Hill Gail had won eased up by half a dozen lengths setting a new track record for the mile in the process This per formance was the morj impressive to v stayathomes bscause we had just seen Dark Peters fine six furlongs and we knew that Hill Gail had recently given the older colt 10 pounds of actual weight and scads of weight on the scale when defeating him in Keenelands Phoenix Handicap Ben Jones charge naturally convinced the Kentuckians yesterday of his condition and if there had been any doubts as to his class the running of the Trial will have removed them Of course a victory in the Trial is not a victory in the Derby and for the in ¬ augural running of this preparatory race The Chief ran the initial distance in 135 within two ticks of Hill Gails time and then was beaten on the big day Comparisons based on The Chief however are dubious at best For all his speed and intrinsic class this was one of the most notional thoroughbreds of recent years Who could ever tell what this Indian would do on any particular day dayTen Ten days ago when Hill Gail was nosed out by Cold Command in a sevenfurlong race following the Phoenix at Keeneland there was a disposition on the part of some turf followers to say that Calumets husky Bull Lea colt had been overrated and that Santa Anita form might once more prove deceptive in May Although we were not on hand for the Lexington race we never shared that skepticism It was enough to remember what a difficult colt Hill Gail has always been to handle during the theContinued Continued from Page ThirtyFour WEIGHING IN INBy By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Five Fivecourse course of a race and then to see that he was mounted for that defeat by an appren ¬ tice lad Young Bonald Bevine has shown a lot of promise and Ben Jones is under ¬ standably high on him but that is not to say he fits a tough youngster like Hill Gail with the same authority and assurance of Atkinson or Arcaro Hill Gail we re ¬ call takes a lot of strength to control It is nothing against Calumets apprentice that he was beaten on the stables top colt but we are certain that the change to Arcaro made all the difference yester ¬ day dayAlain Alain Du Breil a French horseman who always has a keen eye for a pros ¬ pect tells us that Montpeliers Pintor may well prove a far better colt than he has yet shown in competition Although Pintor has gone to the front in both of his metropolitan circuit starts thisspring easing off slightly in the second edition of the Experimental and in the Wood when it came to the drive Du Breil re ¬ marks that this large and rather coarse son of Goya II is not built on sprinting lines that he seems to be the kind who is slow coming to himself Pintor re ¬ minds him of Greek Song another that Du Breil spotted early as a distance run ¬ ner of quality and it was not until after the Belmont Stakes that Greek Song really rose to prominence As we saw it Pinters race in the Wood was far su ¬ perior to his earlier effort in the Experi ¬ mental and we fully agree that it is much too early to condemn him for not staying Such a judgment must always be a matter of strict impression and any critic can only go by a recollection of individuals he has watched in the past pastThe The Acorn this Saturday will be the first of this seasons true classics to be disputed its running here at Belmont preceding that of the Berby by a few hours Frankly we do not anticipate a very high class field for this renewal of the filly stake which is the American equivalent of the One Thousand Guineas and the French Poule dEssai des Pouliches Rose Jet Landmark and Star Enfin may have been the best of the gen ¬ eration last season and Maine Chances Rose Jet was certainly an appealing miss catching the eye in the paddock and verify ¬ ing that favorable impression in competi ¬ tion but the others have hardly lived up to early promise The roster of Acorn win ¬ ners since Baba Kenney captured the in ¬ augural in 1931 includes many of the best of the sex and the race has proven of great value to breeders as a yardstick of class Remember that the season is still young and we may be in for an agreeable surprise
