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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Racing Hits Its Highest Peak Today Total of 16 Race Tracks in Operation Peter Pan Below Past Standards Jimmy Donn Backs Talk With Dollars NEW YORK, N. Y., May 29. Racing tomorrow hits a peak iri one respect. There are still many dates to come off the calendar, and there are numerous important stakes ahead, but. in point of attendance, May 30 is the biggest day of the turf year. The reason is not difficult to find. Unlike the Fourth of July and Labor Day, Memorial Day comes before the vacation period. This year, the date permits a long holiday week-end, but still it is too early in the season, and too cool, for a flight in force to the countryside or seaside. So the race tracks are the gainers. As a rule, Memorial Day attendances materially top those on the- other two summer holidays. In view of the ever-increasing popularity of the sport, particularly emphasized this year by daily average crowds, it would not be surprising if new records were made at several points. In the United States, 16 race tracks will be in operation. Since.January 1, only five tracks have failed to report a gain at the gate. Two held their own as against 1951, and at the other three, the decline was insignificant, from one to six per cent. At some 25 tracks, the increase ranged from two per cent, to as much as 59 per cent. At 20 tracks it exceeded 10 per cent. This warrants the expectations of new high marks tomorrow provided, of course, Old Sol is in a glowing mood and Jupiter Pluvius squeezed the skies dry and completely dehydrated himself during the recent deluges. Tomorrows Suburban was marred slightly by the withdrawal of Spartan Valor. Unfortunately, some divisions this year have not much to offer in the way of outstanding horses. Following the running of the Coaching Club American Oaks, horsemen were in agreement that without the Calumet filly, Real Delight, the members of that age and sex are far below the par of former years. On the week-end, the Jersey Stakes at Garden State Park and the Peter Pan at Belmont will be run. While the Peter Pan closed on March 15 with 84 nominations, no less than 19 were declared, and that is probably a record. Tom Fpol, Hill Gail and Blue Man will await later events, so, while the Peter Pan will see some good horses at the post, the event is as lacking in championship aspects as the Suburban. Master Fiddle will probably be the topweight of the Peter Pan, at 126 pounds, and, regardless of its lack of championship proportions, the race will serve as a tightener for many of those pointing for the -00,000 Belmont Stakes a week from Saturday. Races of 00,000 are no longer a novelty for three-year-olds, but we certainly admire the little Scot, Jimmy Donn, for raising the Florida Derby to that value. In Florida last winter, this writer visited Donn in his Gulfstream Park office, and he was highly indignant then that the Tropical and Hialeah officials did not show more fight in stemming the westward winter rush of the best horses and jockeys in the East. "Florida racing is at its lowest ebb," he said, "anduhless we do something about it now, it is going to get worse. It is all very well to become enthusiastic about ,000,000 plays in the mutuels, but the day must soon come when we will have to realize that progressive groups in California are stealing our stuff. I propose to do something about it." What he did was to increase the value of the Florida Derby of 1953 to 00,000 and the next move is now up to Tropical and Hialeah officials. This year, Hialeah had one of the best meetings since the track opened. While it is true that the association puts much of the profits into the improvement of the plant, it is also true that it must follow Donns lead if it is to keep eastern horses on this seaboard next winter. In this column the other day, we pulled a boner that was unfair to pur friend, Jimmy Jones, the Calumet trainer. And, we are hastening to correct it. Writing about Citation, the horse we have often and, will continue to compare with Man o War, we said, "From the Chesapeake Stakes on, Ben Jones performed one of the greatest training feats of the era, for, in 20 races, Citation raced on nine different tracks, from Hialeah in Florida to Tanforan in California." It was a great feat, but the man who performed it was Jimmy Jones and not his dad, Ben. Time and again, we have reviewed the three-year-old career of the great Calumet horse and on each occasion we have marvelled how Jimmy kept the champion at his peak, but more particularly brought him back to win the Hollywood Gold Cup and thus become the first horse in history to garner more than a million dollars. We realize that Jimmy Jones wants his dad to have all the credit coming to him in his wonderful training career, but we would be derelict if we did not correct our error and give to the son the credit we gave to the father. We hope Jimmy Jones, whom we have always regarded as. one of the finest young men in racing, sees this column so he will know we had no intention of slighting him. His handling of Citation will go down in turf history as one of the most remarkable training feats of all time. When "Happy" Chandler applied the gag rule in baseball, it failed to stop Larry MacPhail from sounding off. And now that he is in racing, no one can stop the ex-baseball magnate from shouting at, or criticising others on the slightest provocation. His recent act in resigning from the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, because it would not allow him to win with a Kentucky-bred yearling in a Maryland-bred yearling show, is amusing to anyone who has watched his antics over a period of years. He says he resigned from the breeders association because of some remarks made about Charlie Kenney, who went to Maryland from Kentucky to do a good turn by judging the yearling show. We do not know all the facts, but we do know that Kenney has been one of the finest men in racing for the past quarter century and, for complete sportsmanship, he needs no defense by anyone. We admire MacPhail for the fine way in which he has gone about producing well-bred yearlings in the state of Maryland. In this rhubbarb, Walter A. Edgar, president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, said that no criticism was aimed at Kenney, and, in our book, Edgar is a man of his word and a fine sportsman to boot. If anyone made unwarranted statements about Kenney, MacPhail should, have made them public and not use the Kentuckians name as an excuse to resign from the Maryland Horse Breeders Association-
