view raw text
REFLECTIONS I — By Nelson Dunstan Blue Man-One to Beat in Belmont Stakes As Many as Twelve May Face Starter Olympic Improving Fast on Dirt Tracks Sun Bahram Will Go to Kentucky Stud NEW YORK, N. Y., June 2. The Belmont Stakes on the week-end now shapes up like Blue Man against the field. Probably 10 or 11 will oppose the Preakness winner, and Armageddons showing in the Peter Pan last Saturday injected considerable interest in the race. This son of Alsab definitely likes the Belmont racing strip, for, after winning the Champagne Stakes last fall, in which he badly injured an eye in which he eventually lost the sight, he came back this year to run dead last in the Preakness, but won both the Withers and Peter Pan impressively at the Long Island course. Sub Fleet was another performer last Saturday who adds interest to the Belmont renewal. Though beaten by Heap Big Chief at seven furlongs, he was coming fast enough to warrant the thought that the one and one-half miles of the Belmont will be to his liking. In the Preakness, the Dixiana colt ran fifth and, after the race, his trainer, Jack Hodgins, said the track was not to his liking. Apparently Blue Man, who undoubtedly will go to the post the Belmont favorite, can run on any kind of a track, for he was just as much at home at Churchill Downs and Pimlico as he was at Jamaica earlier in the §eason. The Belmont winner will have to meet Hill Gail and Tom Fool in a later race before championship honors can be bestowed. Should Blue Man be returned the winner, however, he will have first claim to the title as the New York season heads toward July. On occasion, we find horses who are better known to the public than the owner, and one in this category is Blue Man. His owner, Arthur W. Abbott, of Rye, New York, has been trying to obtain a good horse for many years and it now appears as if his search is ended. After Abbott was offered §100,000 for Blue Man in Florida, there were many inquiries as to whether he was a new man in the sport, and what horses had he owned previously. He paid ?9,000 for Blue Man and apparently did not think he had a top performer as the son of Blue Swords twice appeared in claiming races as a two -year-old. After his victory in the Preakness it was found out that Abbott is a manufacturer of ice cream and the man responsible for the discovery of the delicacy known as frozen custard. In college, he was a baseball player, and later played professional ball and following that was a coach of the national pastime. He managed a large dairy farm for quite a spell and then entered the ice cream business, in which he has been very successful. He inherited his love for horses from his grandfather. While he has not owned many, he has been a turf follower for a number of years. Mrs. Abbott shares his enthusiasm and was actually the one who selected the colt, Blue Man. Shes not a bad picker. One horse who will bear watching is Fred Hoopers Olympic, who ran fourth in the Peter Pan. This three-year-old was fourteenth behind Windy City II. in the English three-year-old Free Handicap this year. Windy City n. was at the top with 133 pounds, Olympic was rated at 120, while the Age Khans Tulyar, winner of the Epsom Derby, was far down on the list at 113 pounds. A son of Big Game, Olympic has been brought along slowly, but in his two starts made such an impression that the throng wagered heavily on him in the Peter Pan. At the end of last season, British turf authorities were of the opinion that he would prove a good stayer. While he failed to respond when Atkinson called on him in the Peter Pan, he may yet prove a horse of staying qualities over a fast, rather than the sloppy, track that was the case for Saturdays race. In the Peter Pan he was beaten some six and a half lengths, but judgment of his staying qualities had best be reserved for later races. His sire was a son of the undefeated Bahram, said by many to be Englands best race horse of the past quarter of a century. Brought here, Bahram was later sold to a syndicate in the Argentine and there has sired some good horses. Big Game was unbeaten as a two-year-old and was winner of the Two Thousand Guineas and Championship Stakes. / Speaking of Bahram, the last horse to win Englands "Triple Crown," his son, Sun Bahram, was scratched from the Brandywine Handicap at Delaware Park Saturday and in all probability has been retired from racing. Mrs. Eben Ellison, the former Mrs. Willis Sharpe Kilmer, recently wrote us that she intended to retire Sun Bahram and would send her manager, "Pete" Curran, to Kentucky to make arrangements for the horse to be placed in stud there. Sun Bahram is out of Suntica, who was one of the fastest daughters of Sun Briar and who was a winner of the Kentucky Oaks, Illinois Oaks, Latonia Oaks and Test Stakes at Saratoga. During his career, Sun Bahram won 10 races and was at his best as a three-year-old in 1949, when he won the Leonard Richards Stakes and Saranac Handicap. In the Leonard Richards, he defeated Cochise and Capot, and after running third in the Travers at Saratoga, he was injured and placed on the shelf for quite a spell. A horse with high speed, he also ran well over a distance of ground. With his sire, Bahram, now in the Argentine, and the latters son, Big Game, a successful sire in England, Sun Bahram impresses us as a horse who should be given an opportunity for stud duty in this country. The mid-week feature at Belmont is the 0,000 Top Flight Handicap, a one and one-sixteenth miles event for which handi-capper John B. Campbell assigned the Vanderbilt filly, Next Move, the highweight of 129 pounds. Next Move is a doubtful starter and in the event of her absence, Walter Jeffords Kiss Me Kate will be the highweight of the field at 121 pounds. This hard-hitting daughter of Count Fleet was voted the best three-year-old filly last season, and, last Friday, she gave a good account of herself to finish fourth to One Hitter Crafty Admiral and Mameluke in the Suburban Handicap. We expect Kiss Me Kate to win the Top Flight, even though she is asked to give the older Busanda five pounds. Busanda, who won the Suburban last year, was a starter again last Friday, but after racing for-wardly for six furlongs she tired and it was obvious she needed the race. Herman B. Delmans How, 116 also, returned to training some three weeks ago after a letup following her disappointing campaign on the West Coast. She will not start in Wednesdays race, but some of the more lightly-weighted fillies and mares will oppose Kiss Me Kate, Busanda, Marta and Thelma Berger, who has been asked to carry 112 pounds.
