view raw text
Conversion Has Arrived1 In Western Turf Circles Annexes Golden State Breeders; Princess Lygia Beaten by Tonga • By W. A. WILLIG Staff Correspondent HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., May 19. — That Mrs. Connie Rings Conversion has "arrived" as a threat for western handicap honors was further emphasized when he raced to victory in the Golden State Breeders Handicap here last Saturday. He followed up two thirds- in the Forty-Niners Handicap and the Golden Gate Handicap in the North with this latest success and now will set his sights on the 0,000 Argonaut on May 30 and other events leading up to the 00,000 Hollywood Gold Cup. Mrs. Ring also appears to have a capable handicap star in Joystick, who surprised by finishing second in the Golden State. Conversion assumed command turning for home and Joystick was still a long way back in the pack, but by the time the former reached the end of the mile and a sixteenth the less favored half of the entry had made up a sufficient amount of ground to be beaten only a neck. H. H. Helbushs Mucho Hosso finished third and the Walkinay Farms Boomerang Boy fourth, as King and Luellwitz Moonrush, last years winner of the Golden State, hauled home fifth. The Golden State Breeders Handicap was one of two major attractions to which nearly 42,000 Hollywood Park patrons were treated last week-end. The other was the Sea Breeze Stakes, six-furlong spin for three-year-old fillies, in which the Yolo Stables Tonga upset the calculations of most by winning in 1:09%, just a fifth of a second off the track record. In accomplishing this feat Tonga beat such more highly esteemed fillies as L. B. Mayers Princess Lygia, who was making her first start since her brilliant Chicago campaign of last summer, Calumet Farms A Gleam, who gave Princess Lygia her only defeat of 1951, and Clifford Mooers* Last Greetings, who entered last Saturdays event with an unbeaten record in four starts. Tonga came from last place in a field of seven in the final quarter to beat Princess Lygia a head. Sharing the spotlight with Conversion and Tonga during the first week of the Hollywood meeting was Jones and Sons Warcos, a three-year-old, who beat a field of older horses in the six-furlong Premiere Handicap. The win was the fourth in a row for the son of Lycos, and he became the first horse of his age ever to win the Hollywood inaugural.