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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Rain, Mud, Marred Queens Plate Renewal Accidents Kept Field at Post Half Hour Ontario Sportsmen to Build New Race Track Taylor Heads Project for Modern Course NEW YORK, N. Y., May 26. To say that Woodbine track was "sloppy" for the running of the Queens Plate on the week-end would be the understatement of the year. There is no term on the turf which would fully de scribe the conditions under which this race was run. Old Jupiter Pluvius simply collected all the rain from Alabama to Alaska and poured it over the city of Toronto and the track. This writer can recall only one day that equaled it for rain and mud and that was when Challedon turned the tables on Johnstown in the Preakness, after the latter had won the Kentucky Derby by eight lengths. At Woodbine Park only the walking sticks of those with the gray toppers refused to wilt and if the owners had stayed for another race or two the sticks would have been worked into the shape of an Irish shillelagh. Still, some 30,000 Canadians and, we might add, many Americans were on hand for the ninety-third renewal of the Canadian classic. Everything seemed to go wrong. The track crew had trouble joining the two starting gates and for almost half an hour the jockeys walked their mounts in a circle. Just when everything seemed set, E. P. Taylors Acadian cast himself in the open stall and, for a spell, many thought the heavily played favorite had dropped dead. Finally, the horse was brought to his feet and the field of 21 went away to a good start. The winner was the. Three V Stables Epigram, a son of Flares, who might have been disqualified by the stewards under more normal conditions. During the stretch run he lugged in and bumped the second horse under exactly the same conditions for which Intent was disqualified in the 00,000 Santa Anita Handicap last March. While in Toronto we learned that next year, or possibly the year after, the Queens. Plate will be transferred to a course that will be one of the newest and most modern on the American continent. E. P. Taylor and some 20 of the leading businessmen and sportsmen of Ontario have joined together for the purpose of constructing a new track in the vicinity of Toronto. They have already acquired controlling interest in Woodbine and plan to purchase other tracks in Ontario. The new plant, which will cost 5,000,-000 or more, is much needed and the progressive men who are the backbone of racing in the eastern part of the Dominion plan 56 days of racing, 28 in the spring and 28 in the fall. While no definite plans have been mapped put, one of the interested parties told us that eventually they hope to offer purses which will serve to entice top American horses as in the old days, when Exterminator, Display and others went to Canada for the Toronto Cup and the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes. Taylor is the man behind this effort to elevate Ontario racing to a higher plane and to give the turf fans of the province a track consistent with their enthusiasm. Taylor has been called "Mr. Canada" on occasions because of his vast interests in gigantic Canadian business projects. He is a man of great vitality and know-how and has shown at his own Windfields Farm at York Hills and the National Stud Farm, Ltd., at Oshawa, that he has a deep interest in the breeding of the horse and in racing. He maintains the largest string of horses in the land of the maple leaf and his Windfields Farm is one of the best equipped on the North American continent. Behind Taylor are members of such old racing families as the Seagrams and Hendries and it is known that Frank Conklinj one of Canadas foremost breeders, is as enthusiastic as Taylor in the new track and Canadian racing. Taylor has raced many of his horses here in the United States. He went to 8,000 to obtain Bull Page, who was voted the Canadian "Horse of the Year," and was honored at a big dinner given by the publisher of this paper in Toronto last Friday night. The horse, with Windfields, is now standing at Windfields. Farm. At the National Stud, Taylor maintains the stallions Fenelon, Firethorn, Fairaris, Uluminable, Teddy Wrack and Tournoi, a son of .the famous French stallion, Tourbillon. While the dinner honoring Bull Page was in progress, the news reached Toronto that Real Delight, the crack Calumet filly, was slated to go postward in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park a prohibitive favorite on the morrow. Bull Page is by Bull Lea, out of , Our Page, a daughter of Blue Larkspur, while Real Delight is a bay filly by Bull Lea, out of Blue Delight, by Blue Larkspur. It is a coincidence that the most powerful stable in this country and in Canada should have a colt and a filly of the same bloodlines. In one of his recent columns, Frank Armstrong, columnist for the Canadian edition of Daily Racing Form, stressed that Taylor had no desire to dominate the sport in his country and for that reason had asked the prominent men of Toronto to join with him in his endeavors to improve both racing and breeding. The smaller horsemen will eventually benefit from a new track as they will be able to compete for much higher purses than is the case today. The Queens Plate, for instance, had a purse of 6,875 to the winner. While this event is a classic comparable to our own Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, its value is not one-fifth that of the Derby or Belmont and far under the 5,000 which is added to the Preakness. In Canada, the Epsom Derby immediately becomes the subject hi speculation after the Queens Plate is history. While those in the land of the maple leaf depend mainly on the United States for their breeding stock, stallions and mares imported from England have played highly important parts in. our own breeding structure. The horses who cross the channel from France are a serious threat in the one hundred and seventy-fourth running of the Derby at Epsom on Wednesday. The three favorites for what is probably the best known race in the world are Paul DuBoscos Silnet, Eugene Constants Thunderhead n, and Marcel Boussacs Argur, all of whom were bred in France. America has two entries, Robert S. Clarks Fiery Torch and Ralph Strass-burgers Worden H. Englands main hope is the Aga Khans Tulyar, but word from the other side is that the dark horse of the race is Boussacs Argur, who has not raced often, but who has been especially pointed for the Derby. Much interest in Canada is in the mount of Gordon Richards, who has ridden close to 4,500 winners, but has never visited the winners circle after the Derby running. In this years renewal he is riding the , long shot, Monarch More, and a large majority of the half mil- lion expected to see the race will be rooting for him.
