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JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton See New Holiday Marks at Midwest Tracks Cranwood Executives to Build for Future Plan Modern New Plant at Thistle Down Ohio Derby Also Boasts Former Platers CRANWOOD PARK, Warrensville, Ohio, May 29. The Memorial Day date always is one of the choicest of the season, and with any luck in the weather, the fashionable sport of horse racing should surpass its 51 total attendance of 345,886, who wagered 5,853,279 at 12 tracks. Here at Cranwood, the official family is confident of a new attendance mark, though it may be short-lived, what with the revival of the historic Oho Derby scheduled for Saturdays climax of the meet at this bandbox course. Back at Detroit, there is a renewal of the Alger Memorial, which has attracted such Motor City favorites as Sickles Image, Bully Boy, Pur Sang and Dixie Flyer. Easily the richest of the midwestern turfs holiday features is Lincolns 5,000 Peabody, and Chicagoans will be eager to see Dark Count, the San Luis Rey winner, meet the emancipated plater Dance Nsing and -others in this nine fur-fongs. "Tiny" Keezek had intended starting Whirla Lea, but has postponed her Illinois debut until opening day, June 16, at Arl-ingtonVWe do not suppose it is any secret, the long rainy season interfered with the training of a number of Chicago horses. Many horsemen are extremely reluctant to run a valuable performer on courses of less than a mile in circumference, but Sickles Image arid Pur Sang have raced at Hazel Park, The Dude ran at Sportsmans, Aneroid at Charles Town, and Lou Pondfield is pleased with horsemens support of the Cranwood meet. Fred Burton has arranged a holiday card including three races for allowance horses, with the convential "Decoration Day" as the featured attraction. This race has a Cleveland favorite in Garrymark, who was third in the John T. D. Handicap and won the Shaker Heights Purse. It seems to us that Cranwoods Lou Pondfield and Randalls Saul Silberman are doing a commendable job of merchandising the thoroughbred sport in the Cleveland area, where it received a bad press several years ago and interest languished. The Memorial Day week-end here, with its revival of the Ohio Derby, will bring some pretty startling "tote" statistics, for Cranwood, with any luck in the weather. The play is averaging about 40,00.0 against 81,837 in 51. Pondfield, Cary Boshamer, et alia, of the Cranwood club are looking optimistically to the future, when the scene of their sport may be transferred from this half er to the neighboring miler, Thistle Down, which they acquired along with Cranwood. Boshamer hopes sufficient public interest may be developed among the 2,000,- 000 in this area that Thistle Down will average ,000,000 daily. The stands at Thistle Down were razed by fire, and we understand there is some notion of moving a grandstand from Indianapolis and constructing a flossy club- -house in ihe modern New Jersey manner, with a prospect of reopening the track in 53. Thistle Down once was the most successful course in the Buckeye State. It is situated, conveniently for Clevelariders, just across the fence from Randall Park. Cranwood, with less facilities, meanwhile has been setting some track records for patronage. For example, 7,022 attended in threatening weather last weekend and wagered 73,294 This bettered the previous high of 67,494, established on the preceding Saturday. Derby Day will climax the spring meet of 25 days, and the association is planning two features for its fall session. One of these is the Sub Deb for two-year-olds, the other the Erin Go Bragh for three-year-olds and up. The Ohio Derby aspirants include several who came up from the depths of the claimers, but then it is becoming so the term "ex-plater" is quite fashionable in three-year-old circles. One might also say it is a recommendation, rather than a suggestion a horse is somehow declasse. The Preakness winner and Belmont choice, Blue Man, ran for 0,000. Jampol, runner-up in the Preakness, was claimed for ,000. Gushing Oil, who has won two Derbys, ran for ,500. And the recent winner of Woodbines coveted Queens Plate, Epigram, was claimed for ,500. If this was Canadian money, we are reminded it now is worth more than our own. It is not safe this season to dismiss three-year-old platers categorically as a bad lot, that is unless one takes the position that the success of the platers proves the point. The Ohio Derby eligibles, Indchem ran for ,500 at Charles Town, Fancy Gent ,000 at New Orleans, Carters Pride ,500 at Keeneland, and Easy Ran won for ,000 at Chicago. The Derby is a stakes, it is pertinent to note, and any platers who run for it are believed by their connections to be stakes horses, or at least something more than ordinary, for, of course, the winner win be subject to penalties in future engagements. Turf ana: Cranwood in the past has been the scene of greyhound, midget auto and harness races. . . . Several of the barns at the Detroit course originated at Latonia, and were moved to Detroit Fair Grounds before being transplanted to the MRA track. . . . Somewhere in her spring maneuvers, Jimmy Collins Biddy Jane caught a stifle on a nail, but it has not interferred at all with her training. . . . Ten-race cards will boost the handle Friday and Saturday at this point. . . . Five or six Pimlico strings are active at Detroit Park. . . . The MRA has both and 0 Daily Double windows. . . . Comwood, who set the pace in the Arkanses Derby, is eligible for the Ohoi Derby. . . . Dance Nsing was fired for curby hocks before being claimed by the Buddah Stable. . . . Bob Leavitt is landscaping about the "tote" board in the Detroit innerfield, which has one artificial lake, and several natural ones, the result of recent rains. . . . C. V. Whitney may sell some horses-in-training this fall. . . . Cranwood is 90 minutes drive from Youngstown and Canton, less than 60 from Akron, 10 miles from downtown, Cleveland. . . . Andy B. W., winner of the Fleming Memorial at Hawthorne, is, like Biddy Jane, one of the get of the castoff sire, Psychic Bid, a Chance Play horse who had a high turn of speed, but sometimes neglected to change stride on the turns. . . . Fred Burton, racing secretary here, serves also at Charles Town and Keeneland. . . . Mereworth has the only Noor colt foal we have heard of up to now. . . . Lois Cook will be -a Chicago and Detroit commuter. . . . Buzfuz still wins at 10, though racing for ,500 in N. J. .... A splint near the knee kept Real Delight out of action at two, but she outworked A Gleam at Chicago before the latter beat Continued on Page Thirty-Nine I JUDGES STAND By CHARLES HATTON Continued from Page Forty-Eight Princess Lygia. . . . Tahitian King-, unbeaten winner of the National Stallion, is the first and only foal of the stakes winner, Caroyln A., who was lost in a 4mishap on the farm. The mare, often ridden by Eddie Arcaro, was named for that riders daughter, and it is appropriate he rides Tahitian King-. The colt was reared by Dr. Horace Davis, who reared "Blue Man. . :
