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REFLECTIONS I By Nelson Dunstan Delaware Park Opens Meeting Tomorrow Fine Stake Schedule for Wilmington Fans Many Rich Three-Year-Old Races Ahead Battlefield Now Highweight in Suburban NEW YORK, N. Y., May 27. On Thursday, Delaware Park will open its gates for a 33-day meeting that will give Eastern racing and steeplechase fans the same type of turf sport that has been seen at this non-profit course since the track opened m 1937. Starting with the Wilmington Handicap on opening day, there will be 10 stakes on the flat and four for steeplechasers, and many of the finest horses campaigning in the East are expected to be seen in one or more of the events. Three-year-olds will have their opportunity at the Wilmington course, as at other tracks, and three fixtures for members of that division are the 5,000. Kent Stakes at one and one-sixteenth miles on June 14, the 7,500 Delaware Oaks for fillies at one and one-eighth miles on June 21, and the 7,500 Leonard Richards Stakes at one and one-eighth miles on June 28; The Kent has always attracted top sophomores, and this year 81 were named, including Blue Man, Jampol, Charlie McAdam, Master Fiddle, Primate and Armageddon. Last year, Hall of Fame won the Kent and Leonard Richards and then went on to finish the season as runner-up to Counterpoint for three-year-old honors. It is problematical what candidates will answer the bugle for the Kent this year, for the coming weeks are busy ones, with the Jersey Stakes and Peter Pan Handicap being scheduled for this week-end and the 00,000 Belmont Stakes on June 7. Since early April, scarcely a week has gone by that the three-year-olds have not competed for a rich purse. After the winter months, only Hill Gail and Blue Man have been winners of the more important events and, of course, they were the Kentucky Derby, which went to HiU Gail, and the Preakness, which was the prize of the White Oaks colorbearer. Although no championship can be decided until Tom Fool and Hill Gail are back in action a victory for Blue Man in the Belmont would give him as good a claim to the honors as any three-year-old now active. Should Blue Man score, we imagine "Woody" Stephens would give him a short rest before the Dwyer at Aqueduct on July 5. This will give other three-year-olds an opportunity to compete for the long end of the purse in such events as the Jersey, Peter Pan Handicap, both on May 31; the Kent on June 14, Yankee Handicap on June 17, Warren Wright Memorial on June 21, and then the Leonard Richards Handicap on June 28. These events alone total 70,000 in value, and when we consider the races that are to come in July and August, it is apparent that never before have our three-year-olds been able to shoot for such a fortune within their own division. Few three-year-olds, indeed, can compete in all the top races of a season, and that gives many of the lesser lights an opportunity to profit. This year the values of three-year-old events are higher than they have ever been in this or any other country. While the current season has some good, if not great three-year-olds, it again stresses that a horse with the class of Citation is a rarity in racing. It is not our intention here to reopen the debate of "Mar o War versus Citation," although we are stubborn enough to hold to our claim that the Calumet champion is entitled to ranking on the same pedestal with "Big Red" as a three-year-old. Starting at Hialeah in the Ground Hog Purse on February 2, Citation raced throughout the 1948 season to December 11, when he won the Tanforan Handicap by five lengths. During that season, he started 20 times to win 19, his only defeat being by Saggy in the Chesapeake Trial. But, just as Man o War later trounced his conqueror, Upset, so did Citation in his very next -start, the Chesapeake Stakes, let Saggy know who was the boss of their division. From that race on, Ben Jones performed one of the great training feats of the era, for Citation raced on nine different tracks from Hialeah in Florida to Tanforan in California. He earned, in that one season, 09,47,0 and while "records are made to be broken," it is going to take one of the great three-year-olds of -all time to come close, to say nothing of topping it. Even though there are three 00,000 races and many at 0,000 still to be run, it is extremely doubtful whether any sophomore of the current year will approach Citations total. Frank Catrones decision to keep Spartan Valor in the barn on Memorial Day takes much of the speculation from what shaped up as a highly interesting renewal of the Suburban. The Helis champion, a winner of his last seven races, has caught the imagination of American racegoers and, while it is too early to be talking of "Horse of the Year" honors, a Suburban victory, under 132 pounds, would have made him a difficult horse to top when voting days come around in the fall. The withdrawal of Spartan Valor places George D. Wideners Battlefield at the top of the handicap, with 124 pounds. Greek Ship is second at 117 and he is followed by Mameluke and Sunglow at 116, with Alerted, Bryan G. and Crafty Admiral at HZ each. Although beaten by Mameluke in the Metropolitan at one mile, it is .this writers impression Battlefield will be a much sharper horse at the longer distance on Friday and also that he would have tested Spartan Valor to the last ounce. Altered scored over Crafty Admiral and Mameluke in the Thomas J. Healey Handicap at Garden State Park last week-end and, as the Hampton Stables consistent colorbearer drops three pounds in the longer Suburban, he is one of those that could give trouble to Battlefield. With the exception of Spartan Valor, the best campaigners now in training will probably line up for the holiday feature, which has 0,000 added. Through the years the Suburban has always been the great magnet for race fans, especially sinceit has been the Memorial Day feature at Belmont. While not as rich as some other handicaps, it is one of the most important of the season in pointing out the champion in the older ranks. Last year, the Ogden Phipps filly, Busanda, scored a distinct surprise in scoring over 10 of the best handicap horses of the opposite sex then campaigning. A crowd of 53,824 turned out to wager ,478,034. Were Spartan Valor to start this year, these figures undoubted Continued on Page Thirty-Seven
