Reflections: Preakness Outcome Grips Nations Attention; Home-Made Impressive in National Stallion; Occupy Is Making Good as Sire in Maryland; Woodlawn Vase Famous American Turf Trophy, Daily Racing Form, 1952-05-16

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I REFLECTIONS . r By Nelson Dunstan Preakness Outcome Grips Nations Attention Home-Made Impressive in National Stallion Occupy Is Making Good as Sire in Maryland Wood lawn Vase Famous American Turf Trophy PIMLICO, Baltimore, Md„ May 15. Three-Dot Shorts: During 1951, the Jockeys. Guild spent 4,623.40 in medical expenses, financial aid and some donations. It cheering to read that the Guild supported jockey blUUO. JLU was W aO WV *sf.*M wwMiv ***** «v%--. blUUO. JLU was W aO WV *sf.*M wwMiv ***** «v%--. Harry Pratt, who died of tuberculosis on October 8, 1951, to the very end. When a jockey needs financial aid, the Guild gives it. . . . Recently in this column, we wrote of mares who produced more than one stake winner and quoted the late John E. Madden, who said, "Once a mare has had a good one, she will not get another, so sell her." Mrs. Walter J. Salmon, who delves deeply into breeding statistics, writes us "I find that any mare who has produced one stake winner has about one chance in three of producing two or more additional. If the mare was a stake winner and produced a stake winner, she has a 50 per cent chance of producing more than one stake winner." ... A week before Forever Yours dropped dead, she delivered a foal by Mahmoud At Saratoga in August, Henry H. Knight will sell a gray colt by Goya n., out . of Forever Yours. ... Since 1914, Hal Price Headley has homi- nated 74 three-year-olds to the Kentucky Derby, but the closest he has come was Menows fourth to Lawrin in 1938 Remember Ted Husings broadcast of that renewal, in which he ignored about every horse but Lawrin? . * . In 1917, Pan Zareta had won 76. times to earn 9,082, and through 1951 Bewitch had won 20 times to earn 62,605, a record for her sexv Hill Gail is he twentieth horse of Calumet Farm breeding to win more than 00,000 and at the farm now is the world money-winning champion, Citation, ,085,-760; the world money-winning gelding, Armed, 17,475, and the world money-winning mare, Bewitch, 62,605. ... No horse has ever won the five English three-year-old classics, but in 1902, Sceptre came close when she took the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas, Oaks and St. Leger. She failed in the Epsom Derby, running fourth. . . . Coughing epidemics put many a horse on the shelf, virus abortion is dreaded, but the most feared of all afflictions is periodic opthalmia, or "moon blindness." . . . Mereworth Farm in Kentucky has bred 86 stake winners. . . . With the one now famous horse, Spartan Valor, William Helis, Jr., plans to bolster his 1952 racing string by purchasing yearlings at Keeneland and Saratoga this summer. . . . Henry H. Knight has another whopping deal on the fire. . . . Clifford Mooers has a share in the six imported stallions, Ali-bhai, Ardan, Djeddah, Nasrullah, Nirgal and Shannon II. . . . Hollywood Park will have two winners circles this year, reserving one for feature and stake winners. ... There will be four 00,000 races in June and July, and seven at 0,000. . . . Coastal Traffics first crop will reach the salesrings this season and so will the first youngsters by Orestes DT. The Preakness is, naturally* the main topic of conversation here in Baltimore, but those in the Old Line State are also interested in Alfred G. Vanderbilts filly, Home-Made, winner of the National Stallion Stakes, filly division, yesterday. In her three starts to date, this daughter of Occupy — Plucky Maid, by Ariel, indicated that the Sagamore chieftain may have a top colt and filly in the two-year-old ranks this season, as his Native Dancer has impressed many as the youngster who will make his presence felt. This gray Polynesian colt, winner of the Youthful on April 23, will be given a sterner test in the National Stallion Stakes for colts on May 28. Native Dancer and Home-Made were bred by Vanderbilt, so their showing adds two feathers to the cap of Maryland and Sagamore Farm in the Worthington Valley. It is too early to judge whether Home-Made will follow in the footsteps of Next Move and Bed o Roses, the former being the best three-year-old filly of 1950 and the latter the best handicap filly or mare in 1951. Home-Made has a long way to go before she can be rated on a par with that pair, but she has done all that has been asked of her to date by winning two of her three starts and finishing second in the other. .Occupy, the sire of Home-Made, is proving himself a valuable young stallion for Maryland breeders. His full brother, Occupation, won the Belmont Futurity in 1942 and he followed in 1943. Between them, this pair of brothers by Bull Dog, out of Miss Bunting, went far in the naming of the Chicago sportsman, John Marsch, as "Futurity John." Purchased by a Maryland syndicate, Oc-cupys first crop went to the races in 1950 and a year ago the many victories of his colts and fillies placed him for a time at the top of the ladder of sires of two-year-old winners. At the end of the season, he was fifth, from the standpoint of number of winners, and seventh in number of races won, the figures being 14 and 26, respectively. Home-Made now looms as the best youngster he has sired to date and will aid in centering attention on his yearlings to be sold at Keeneland and Saratoga this summer. While the lists for the upstate Spa are not complete, Country Life Farm in Maryland, will offer a brown colt by him, out of Land of Nod, by Eight Thirty, and the Morven Stud, Whitney Stones Virginia farm, will sell a bay filly by Occupy, out of Blue Sheen, by Toro. Since some of the tracks have been awarding a copy of trophies, there has been a marked increased of interest by jockeys. Three trophies have been awarded to commemorate a Preakness victory in the long history of this event. The Wood-lawn Vase, which has been recognized as a symbol of Preakness victory continuously since 1917, is one of the most famous sports trophies in the world today. It was made in 1860 by Tiffany on the order of Colonel R. A. Alexander of Kentucky and was first offered as a trophy at the old Woodlawn Racing Association. During the Civil War, it was buried, with many other yaluabla pieces of silver owned by the Alexander family. In the late 1870s, this vase was again offered in competition. It changed hands several times, finally turning up at the old Coney Island track in New York. In 1904, the vase was won by Thomas Clyde, and it remained in his possession until 1917, when he offered "it to the Maryland Jockey" Club as a perpetual trophy for winners of the Preakness Stakes. The Woodlawn Vase remains the property of the Maryland Jockey Club, but the winning owner holds it for one year. Every season, the owner is given a* small copy of the vase for permanent possession. In this country, it is valued as highly as the famous Ascot Gold Cup in England,


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1952051601/drf1952051601_44_5
Local Identifier: drf1952051601_44_5
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800