view raw text
JUDGES STAND -By Charles Hatton Point Dixie Flyer at Detroit for N. Y. Stakes . Prep Stirred Interest in Fridays Peabody Probables Include 2 Winners of 3 Derbys . ITBA Holds Annual Election Meeting June 10 DETROIT, Mich., May 27. Perne L. Grissom, a director in the Detroit Race Course, has augmented his string here with a genuinely first-rate race mare in Dixie Flyer. The Motor City owner and breeder is said to have acquired her from Mrs. George White of Nashville for something in the neighborhood of 5,000, which is, indeed a nice neighborhood. jGrissom plans to enter racing on a more ambitious scale, and he may purchase other mares he considers suitably high class for his Duntreath Farm, which is on Lexingtons famed Paris Pike, the Times Square of the nations bloodstock industry. Grissom has decided not to be a "consignor to the yearling sales this season, but to retain and race the produce of his stud, according to farm manager Pete Williams. Dixie Flyer, winner of the opening-day feature here oyer Sickles Image, is to be pointed for New York filly and mare stakes. Long a Detroit favorite, she was raced in New Jersey last autumn, and once was placed behind Bed o Roses. The Michigan Racing Associations directorate, incidentally, is made up almost entirely of racing men and breeders. Among them, in addition to Grissom, are I. J. Collins, Leslie Combs II., George Hag-garty, Otto C. Neumann, Henry H. Knight, A. F. Wall, E. E. Dale Shaffer, William T. Markey and Theodore D. Buhl. We think it a very healthy thing when a tracks backers include so many who are directly interested in the operation of stables and studs. They have a first hand knowledge of the problems which confront owners and breeders. Haggerty and Neumann are newcomers to the ranks of owners and breeders. Shaffer has dispersed his successful Coldstream Stud, but Mrs. Shaffer retains a few mares and a racing string, which now is active at the MRA course. The Peabody Prep, back at Hawthorne, drew a small field, owing to the wet track, but it sparked up interest in this Fridays 5,000 Peabody Memorial, first of the Chicago seasons three-year-olds stakes. It will be surprising if the crowd and play do not exceed the 25,407 who wagered ,755,060 on Decoration Day last season, with any luck in the weather. Even though Lincoln then was the guest of Washington Park, which is somewhat more spacious than is Hawthorne. The holiday was on Wednesday in 51 and the date this year makes for a really large week-end of sport at all tracks, with a possibility of some new attendance and handle marks. Gushing Oil, Sandtop, Marcadpr, Happy Go Lucky, Stuyvesant, Eeternal Moon, f Red Charger, Whirla Lea and Smoke Screen are among the prospects for Lincolns mile and a furlong. Though the Kentucky Derby winner Hill Gail is an absentee, and is not going to race anywhere for many weeks to all indications, the Peabody eligibles include two winners of smaller Derbys in Gushing Oil, who won the Louisiana and Arkansas models, and Marcador, who won the Golden Gate Derby. There is a dim suspicion in some quarters that the three-year-old colts have little, if anything, on the fillies, Real Delight and Whirla Lea, and the latter is very much in the Peabody. She beat Sub Fleet going a mile last fall. The Peabody is, incidentally, a memorial to Illinois Board chairman Stuyvesant Peabodys father and grandfather, both of whom were interested in the Lincoln Fields club. A stake of negligible value until 1946, it was that year written exclusively for three-year-olds and enriched with 5,000. Mighty Story, King Bay, Billings, Lextown, Lot O Luck and Pur Sang have won it under its present conditions. The progressive Illinois Thoroughbred Breeders Association of 100 members will hold its annual election meeting at Hawthorne on June 10. Frank Butzow was drafted to serve a second term as president last year, Clyde Troutt and J. H. Dunn are vice-presidents, D. E. Jordan, the secretary, treasurer and registrar. Though Illinois bloodstock industry has no illusions of ever rivalling Kentuckys, the ITBA has been a force for good in Prairie State racing, Butzow opposing the stall bill last summer. He, incidentally, has a stud of three mares in as many states, with Bird O Gold visiting Equif ox in Kentucky, Woodford Belle bred to Rey El Rio in South Dakota, and a daughter of Rey "El Rio going to Count Domino here. Illinois does not have homebred races, but when one wins in open competition he earns a breeders award of 10 per cent of the winners share of the purse. And the ITBA does not think it so fantastic the homebred False is winning Chicago stakes. Perhaps the most accomplished race horse now at stud is The Dude, who won a Classic and stands at Pat-Kay Farm. His first crop are yearlings. Preoccupy, a brother to Marylands Occupy, and Virginias Occupation, also has some yearlings here. Turf ana: One hears that Saul Silberman and Ralph DeChiaro will introduce turf course racing at Randall the grass course having undergone a year and a half of preparation. . . . William Almy, Jr., will serve in the stewards stand at the Cleveland course. ... It is becoming so that Johnny Adams does not look quite natural outside the winners circle. . . . Whirla Leas second dam is Nellie Flag, dam of Mar-Kell and Nellie L. . . . Whirling Dough and Volcanic hold records on both the main track and turf course at Hawthorne. Few mile races are carded oh the loam surface, owing to the short run to the first turn, and Volcanics 1:35 on the turf is considerably better t than the 1:37 of Actuary and Hopeless on the main track. . . . Joe Kroeck has a small string of three for racing hereabout this season. . . . Nearly all horses like sugar, but none we know eats it like the stallion Shannon n., who holds it under his tongue and sucks it like a lollipop. . . . Lincolns 0,000 Miss America Stakes for two-year-old fillies on June 7 will be closed on May 29. . . . Mrs. H. J. Damms Burg-el-Arab filly, Arab Actress, won like a nice prospect for this stake last week. . . . Randall has free parking, provides fire and theft protection. . . . The cast-offs, Seaward and Inseparable, now have won approximately 00,000. . . . Mose Lowenstein deserted the horsemens corner of Lexingtons Lafayette Hotel lobby to visit here. . . . The bottom of the Hawthorne strip withstood the rains in firm fashion, which was a factor in filling the races, many of them conditioned for valuable horses. . . . General manager Pete ODonnclI is "on the job" before seven each morning during the meeting. . . . Hawthorne plans a new pressbox when its construction is legal. ... Hawthornes stand is among the longest in the Mid- west, extending three-sixteenths of a mile. JUDGES STAND By CHARLES HATTON Continued from Page Forty would be exceeded, but even so, 50,000 or more may be on hand, weather permitting. While some winners have carried higher weight than Spartan Valor was given, the event has had some surprises, the latest having been Busandas victory under the feather of 102 pounds. This is the biggest week of spring in New York, for the Suburban will be followed on Saturday by the Peter Pan Handicap. While the Belmont Stakes a week later undoubtedly will draw the largest throng of the Belmont season, the four-stakes schedule this week makes it the top week since the meeting opened on April 29.