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JUDGES STAND 1 By CTores Hatton Hill Gail Was the Best Horse Derby Day Preakness Renewal Already Worth 105770 Pimlicos Racing Surface Much Improved Hazel Park Plans to Resume Route Series SeriesPIMLICO PIMLICO Baltimore Md May 5 5What What of the Derby Pimlicos secretary Jack Needles asked on our arrival here It looked like a good show on TV It was indeed a horse race and promised another in the Preakness here a week from Saturday Hill Gail was the best horse Derby day and is the logical Preakness favorite But he beat Sub Fleet by the hardest and the Dixiana colts fol ¬ lowers hopefully expect him to appreciate the seasoning Both have speed and the comparatively short Pimlico stretch and tight radius of the turns are peculiarly suited to speed horses There is some little cynicism about the class of those who chased Hill Gail and Sub Fleet based on the margins It is pointed out that the fact Blue Man who was third was beaten nine lengths is a commentary on their calibre But then the Abbott colt must have run six lengths farther than Hill Gail We thought Woody Stephens had him in magnificent condition and in fact he outlooked the winner though he could not out ¬ run him Saturday The Blue Swords colt is shorter backed has more quarters and a better hind leg The Belmont should suit him perfectly The Derby was a well run race in the sense It was free of any very palpable foul We did not see any of the field encounter enough trouble to excuse him Master Fiddle and Gushing Oil were checked but early in the race when they were not moving anyway There now is a disposition in some quarters to categorize Hannibal and Pintor along with Tom Fool as bril ¬ liant milers at best Tom Fool incidentally will not be a Preak ¬ ness starter Perhaps as Jack Campbell surmised the cough bug was working on him in the Wood Some 12000 stayed on after the races at Pimlico Saturday to see the Derby on TV and so much local interest suggests a bumper Preakness attendance Funny enough My Old Kentucky Home came through with great clarity on horns heretofore devoted exclusively to Mary ¬ land My Maryland Gave Pimlico tub thumper Dave Woods quite a turn Publicists of the Triple Crown events take a Gimbels Macys view you know Marylanders agree with Ogden Nash who concedes the Derby is a handsome race with Aristocratic sleek ¬ ness but confesses that The Preakness is my weakness weaknessThe The Preakness this spring has 75000 added and a cur ¬ rent gross value of 105770 This will be increased by 750 for each starter Quite apart from the academic ques ¬ tion of whether it is fair and advisable to have supple ¬ mentary entries in futurity events from the point of view of the original nominators this Preakness just could be a better race because of it For Arroz Handsome Teddy and Jampol are among those who developed classic aspirations since the original closing on September 15 in 1950 and who have been made eligible at a fee of 2250 They can hardly have excited much enthusiasm as yearlings Pintor Master Fiddle Hannibal Eternal Moon and Happy Go Lucky incidentally were starters in last weekends Derby who are not in the Preakness And if it helps owner M Kahlbaums morale his Jampol is a Virginian and the last two winners of the Preakness Hill Prince and Bold originated in the Old Dominion Challedon is the only Marylander who has won the race since Sly Fox in 1898 but Maryland claims Handsome Teddy who was bred by Bayard Tuckerman Jr JrPimlicos Pimlicos directorate includes horsemen in E Barry Ryan Alfred Vanderbilt and others and the club is more conscien ¬ tious about the condition of its racing strip than are some others we can think of The Hilltop going once was quite deep but in late years the Maryland Jockey Club has spent an estimated 150000 on it and this shows in the times and the horses run ¬ ning gear It is firmer and less shifty than formerly And the club has eliminated the sand pit which created a hole at the end of the backstretch This last was quite an engineering feat having for years frustrated track superintendents who tried to cope with it We think that Vanderbilt expressed the M J Cs policy on the care and condition of racing strips last winter when he commented that safety rather than speed should be emphasized though he was not speaking as a Pimlico stock ¬ holder Pimlicos track is like Churchill Downs and Saratogas very old As you might guessthis does not make keeping them in featheredge condition any easier for the soil tends to lose its life and resiliency and holes develop in the base unless they are given almost constant attention This applies also to tracks like Keeneland which is comparatively new but is open to horses virtually the year round and thus is subjected to extraordinary wear and tear tearTurfana Turfana Hialeah will reopen its stable area next month to house 268 horses being shipped to Miami by the Mounted Patrols of 11 Shrine Temples for the Imperial Council Sessions W L Jones Jr lost a wellbred broodmare prospect when Challorette was fatally injured in the nightcap recently at Churchill Downs Horace Wade advises that Hazel Park purses will be graduated from 2000 to 5000 in the distance race series Several horsemen last winter claimed routers with a view of cam ¬ paigning them in these events Dick Connell a Derby visitor said of Hazels meet We are giving away more than 17000 daily and this insures better horses than ever Naturally we will wait and see what happens at the MRA meet before making any announced decisions on distribution Florida tracks are considering sharply increased stakes next winter and jockey Eddie Arcaro whose home is there says that if one of them puts on a 100000 event he would be active at Miami tracks Jimmy Bonn is thinking of some such attraction one hears Monmouth will have 250 additional stalls this season And members of the fourth estate will be pleased to learn the press box has been air conditioned E Barry Ryan will race a division of his Normandy Farm string at this meeting Johnny Adams 18 years after beginning his saddle career at Riverside Park in Kansas City was never riding in better form Began at 95 pounds has gained a pound a year Tony Ferraiuolos contract sold a year or so back for 10000 on the advice of Eddie Arcaro Alfred Vanderbilt is inclined to eventually breed some mares to Cousin My Auntie dam of Cousin The Doge Johns Joy and Carolina Queen was 150 fall sales yearling
