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eighihg In InBy By EVAN SHIPMAN BELMONT PARK Elmont L I N May 9 Jam is a good enough chaser as is evident from his successive victories in the International Steeple ¬ chase Handicap and yesterdays Charles L Appleton Memorial but he is hardly of a cali ¬ bre to trouble Mrs Ogden Phipps Oedipus when the champ re ¬ turns to competition The Impound gelding has a touch of class but whether because of Earl Phelps mount or because he is naturally a bit timid over big obstacles he does not look like any ultimate leader of this inter ¬ esting division A little luck is a great help and Jams good fortune in both stakes consisted in the fact that The Mast made costly mistakes In the International The Mast slipped as he was landing at the water jump in front of the stands and yesterday Mrs E duPont Weirs topweight had trouble at the llth fence taking off in a tangle and almost unseating Pat Smithwick At the time it looked as if The Mast had the situation well in hand and that he would have scored but for this mis ¬ take As for Jam he warmed to his work as the race progressed taking the final fences with far more assurance than he had shown in the early running Lone Fisherman who finished a good second after appearing to dominate the small field a furlong out was making his reentry and will certainly improve on this effort effortOne One of the oldest stakes on the Metro ¬ politan calendar the mile Withers fea ¬ ture of tomorrows Belmont program almost always provides a fine contest Over the years this race lias been won by our top thoroughbreds such names as Aristides Hanover Tammany Colin Sir Barton Man o War Alsab Count Fleet and Hill Prince adorning the roster and we have left out many who were con ¬ sidered great in tbeir day Two years ago Hill Prince avenged his Kentucky Derby defeat by trimming Middleground in the Withers tying the stake record held by Man o War and Snob II in the process This field at least from what we know of it in advance will hardly measure up to the great renewals Han ¬ nibal is the only starter who took part in the recent fiesta at Louisville and after running a half mile with Hill Gail he called it a day The real competition in this Withers may well come from colts who have yet to establish their position in the front rank of the generation and we have in mind such promising young ¬ sters as Mrs Walter M Jeffords One Count E B Benjamins Primate and John Clarks Charlie McAdam Last falls Champagne Stakes winner Armageddon is also a prospective starter but this one has not shown a trace of his juvenile form this season seasonPrimate Primate had the misfortune to rap him ¬ self leaving the gate in the Wood Memo ¬ rial at Jamaica last month He not only showed nothing in that race but his train ¬ ing was forcibly suspended at a time when every day was valuable as a preparation for his Derby engagement Unable to ship to Louisville Primate returned to competi ¬ tion in the Swift contested here earlier this week His race appeared to us as highly creditable although he hardly threatened the winner Charlie McAdam Primate did finish in a style that spoke well for his immediate future and he will be better suited by the mile Withers than in the sevenfurlong Swift a race that puts a premium on early foot That could have been a very useful outing tightening Pri ¬ mate for his best effort We may remind you that this was one of the best juve ¬ niles seen last season and that he made a distinct impression in the Belmont Fu turity when he finished a fastclosing sec ond to Tom Fool FoolAdmitting Admitting Primates class one might also remember that the Wood Memo ¬ rial was not the first occasion on which the colt hurt himself leaving the gate He did the same thing out at Chicago last summer and was on the shelf for some time missing many important en ¬ gagements The similarity of the acci ¬ dents suggests to us that he may not be a handy individual and we have even thought that light boots might answer his problem If Primate has a tendency to be clumsy the same criticism cer ¬ tainly cannot be applied to Charlie McAdam The Heliopolis colt is the sort who can take care of himself at all times and who has speed on tap at his jockeys demand to steer clear of jams during the running In addition to plenty of foot this colt shows the competitive instinct He looked the others in the eye when he won the recent Swift outgaming them through the stretch and that is the kind of colt it takes to win a Withers Some of us had a tendency to discount Charlie McAdam a while ago because we all un ¬ derrated his Florida form As the season seasonContinued Continued on Page ThirtySeven WEIGHING IN INBy By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Four Fourprogresses progresses we are learning thai the Hia leah stakes brought a pretty fair group of threeyearolds into action actionOne One Count raced in Florida but the rangy Count Fleet colt was a big disappointment in the Flamingo nor did he show anything in the Cherry Blossom Stakes after return ¬ ing to Maryland Day before yesterday however Mrs Jeffords homebred came out in an overnight race here at Belmont and trounced a fair field in convincing fashion Granted that One Count did not beat a whole lot in that event his action and the style in which he took complete command of proceedings could not f aU to impress and it may be added that he ran a mile and a sixteenth in very fast time One Count resembles his sire both in conformation and way of moving It is possible that he had excuses in the Flamingo and Cherry Blossom of which we are ignorant A lot can happen to a horse during a race that escapes even the most vigilant eye This running of the Withers should tell the story as far as One Count is concerned We will soon know whether he possesses real class or merely looks good when he is in against inferior competition Should he possess the quality that we suspect look out for this one in the Belmont
