Reflections: Handicap Ranks Will Thin Out in June Not Enough Older Stars for All Courses Tahitian King Impressive in Stallion Polynesian Babes, Daily Racing Form, 1952-05-31

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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Handicap Ranks Will Thin Out in June Not Enough Older Stars for All Courses Tahitian King Impressive in Stallion Polynesian Babes Will Be in High Demand NEW YORK, N. Y., May 30. Three-Dot Shorts: In the Aga Khans yearling consignment to Saratoga is a colt by Tehran, sire of the Epsom Derby winner, Tulyar. . . . Reports have it that Eddie Arcaro really bought a dairy in Florida. A prize awaits the photographer who gets the first picture of him milking a cow. . . . Ex-champ Jack Dempsey still refuses to allow his name to be used as an endorsement of beer, cigarettes or whiskey. . . . Racing will lose a fine owner in William Goetz, but at least we will know what horses are owned by his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer. ... In Australia, stewards are paid ,400 a pear, with 50 allowed for travel. . . . Gambling, says Walter Winchell, may be legalized in Florida, meaning, of course, off -track betting. . . . Mrs. E. Ellison the former Mrs. Willis Sharpe Kilmer plans to retire Sun Bahram, stake winner, to stud in Kentucky. . . . Racing now has events with the horses given names of presidential candidates, fashion shows, best-dressed women contests, girl jockey races, barrel races for male riders and other fol-de-rol, but what it really needs is more good horses. . . . During the past 25 years, no Kehtuckian has seen a steeplechase at a running track in his own state. . . . Canada has the best Olympic equestrian team it has ever sent to the Games. ... No horse has ever duplicated Carbines feat of carrying 145 pounds to beat 38 horses in the Melbourne Cup at two miles. With the coming of June there is certain to Te a thinning of the handicap ranks of name liorses for important races at various tracks. Intent and Miche have remained on the West Coast for the rich Hollywood Park events and Spartan Valor, the eastern sensation, will journey to Chicago, where he has at least two 190,000 plums and others ranging from 5,000 to 0,000 with which to increase his earnings this season. With so many sectors in operation, there is bound to be conflict, such as the 5,000 Massachusetts Handicap being run at Suffolk Downs on June 11 and the 0,000 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct the following day. The racing set-up is entirely different from what it was a quarter of a century ago, for . not only has the turf map enlarged, but it is now a year-round sport with valuable events summer and winter. With each succeeding year, it has become more difficult to graduate horses from the three-year-old ranks into the older division. We are producing more horses today than ever before, but in any given number there are only so many who have the class and quality. This writer cannot recall a season when there were so few handicap stars in training at the various racing centers. - Another potential two-year-old of real class came on the scene when Ben Whitakers Tahitian King won the colt division of the National Stallion Stakes at Belmont the other day. Having won his first two starts, the Whitaker colt, under a well-judged ride by Arcaro, was engaging in his first stake and his showing prompted the thought that he will be testing County Claire and Native Dancer before many weeks have passed. This is one of the years when severe coughing has kept youngsters in the barn and that was. the chief reason why only five answered the j bugle for the National Stallion. The Stallion was the last two-year-old stake at Belmont Park, and up to this point the spring racing has developed a trio of good colts and some fair fillies for the long season ahead. Around the country, some seven stakes for two-year-old colts and fillies will be run in June and in July the 0,000 added Arlington Futurity and the 0,000 Arlington Lassie will, as in every year, give some inkling as to what youngsters will be developed in the Midwest. At Aqueduct in June, the Astoria, on June 16, and the Tremont on June 25, both races at five and a half furlongs, will be renewed. Tahitian King is a brown colt by Polynesian, out of Carolyn A., the daughter of Questionnaire, who was named for Eddie Arcaros little daughter, and who, in the Whitaker colors won the Correction Handicap and Firenze Handicap at Jamaica, and later in that year of 1948 defeated Miss Grillo and Mother in the Diana Handicap at Saratoga. The National Stallion winner is a well-bred colt on both sides, for he is by Polynesian, who now begins to shape up as a first-class stallion. Polynesians first crop were two-year-olds in 1951 and in that group were That-away, Hadnt Orter and Tonga, who performed well at tracks on the West Coast. A high-class winner of 20 races and over 00,000, Polynesian is by Unbreakable, out of Black Polly, by Polymelian. Last year, Alfred G. Vander-bilt went to 0,000 to obtain his chestnut colt out of Ap-piah Via. Native Dancer, who has performed well this year, is a Vanderbilt homebred, but this youngster is also by Polynesian. So, it seems likely that breeders with his yearlings to offer at Keeneland and Saratoga this year should receive good prices. Rare indeed, at this time of the year, is one sire represented by two of jthe three outstanding colts. Polynesian is not the only sire who will get a big boost from the early racing this year. With Tom Fool and Hill Gail on the sidelines, Blue Man is very much in the picture prior to the running of the Belmont Stakes next-Saturday. As stated in this1 column after his Preakness victory, Blue Man is as American as apple pie, for he is by Blue Swords, a son of Blue Larkspur, out of Poppycock, a daughter of Identify, who was a son of Man o War. When sent to stud this colt will be a splendid outcross for mares of foreign blood, but so far as the 1952 yearling sales are concerned, his sire will be very much in the limelight at Keeneland and Saratoga. The mare, Poppycock, has a yearling full brother to Blue Man that will be sold at Keeneland, but several other breeders have colts and fillies by Blue Swords to sell this season. Last year, a filly by Blue Swords brought 0,000 at Keeneland, and it would not be surprising if his youngsters offered this season brought high prices. One three-year-old, such as Blue Man, can center much attention on his sire, although it must be added that Blue Swords sent the stake winners Blue Dart,.Blue Lancer, Blue Kay and Blue Grip to the races in former years.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800