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EARL SANDE-r-His five winning rides in the Belmont Stakes took place in a ten-year period. ► Belmont Tougher Race to Win Today Sande Says Only One of His Five Winners, Mad Play, Had To Step to Gain Laurels By EVAN SHIPMAN BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., June 6. — Earl Sande holds the modern record for winning Belmont Stakes — they add up to five, and the names of the horses, to make things simple from the beginning, Grey Lag, Zev, Mad Play, Chance Shot and Gallant Fox. Talking over that remarkable series of victories with the great ex-jockey in the paddock at Belmont, he told us: "Everyone of those colts was a top colt, and would be a top colt today, but the truth is that the Belmont was not as hard a race to win during the 20s as it is now. • With the exception of Mad Play, who almost got caught by Mr. Mutt, all my Belmont winners had a fairly easy time, and I do not take much credit to myself for winning. Believe me, there were many other races a lot tougher to win in those days, or even to get close. No Belmont in which I ever rode presented the problem I had to get Osmand second in Whiskerys Kentucky Derby in 1927. "Grey Lag," Sande continued, "was an outstanding colt, and, later, an outstanding handicap horse. He did not have much to beat in the Belmont. Nor did Zev. Zevs chief rival, of course, was Admiral Graysons My Own, and he was racing in the West at that time. Zev beat the Whitney team, Chickvale and Rialto, with little or no trouble, and perhaps that race cinched our international match with the English Derby winner, Papyrus." Mr. Mutt Just "My hardest Belmont was the next season," Sande told us. "I was riding Mad Play as an entry for Rancocas, and La-verne Fator was up on the other colt. Fator got off on top, but my mount was very rank and had to run. I called to Fator to let me by, and he did, and I sailed along on top for most of the trip. "Then, in the stretch, we got pretty late and I just did last to hold Bud Fishers Mr. Mutt. He was closing on us fast, and you can believe that I was glad the wire was there. Oh, maybe Mad Play had a length at the finish, but he was a tired colt, and that was the closest call I ever had in a Belmont. Mad Play was a full brother to Mad Hatter, and he may have been cut out to be nearly as good, but the trouble was he didnt last as long. "Chance Shot, three years after Mad Play in 27, was one of the best thoroughbreds I ever rode. He could outsprint Osmand, and he was a great cup horse. That will give you an idea of how versatile Chance Shot was. I can talk to you about a lot of his races, but the Belmont Stakes, ■when he beat Bois de Rose and Flambino, Omahas dam, was not one of the hard ones. What I remember about that renewal is that Chance Shot had gone off form a week or so before and run an inexplicably bad race, but he was himself again on Belmont day. "My last Belmont was aboard Gallant Fox. He beat Whichone and Questionnaire, much better colts than any I had met in the previous renewal. Questionnaire, it is true, was not as good that spring as he became that same fall, when Gallant Fox * beat him again in about as tough a Lawrence Realization as I remember, but Whichone, who had just won the Withers easily, was razor sharp, and Mr. Whitney was convinced he could beat us. Crowd Cheers for Gallant Fox "When we came on the track to parade to the post," Sande reminisced, "the crowd broke into cheers for Gallant Fox, who had just come back to Long Island after win- • ning the Derby and Preakness, and the noise thoroughly upset him. Gallant Fox was ordinarily a cold kind of colt, one who did just what he had to do and no more. I was often glad when his races were over. "Once I had Gallant Fox settled," Sande concluded, "I raced every quarter about alike — a steady pace, ticking them off at a 25 -second clip. Whichone lay back of me, waiting to make his move, and he came on at the head of the stretch. I just let out another wrap, and moved away. Maybe I didnt even increase the pace. I guess Whichone was just not a mile and a half horse. If hed made that bid in a mile and a quarter race, who can say? It might have been different. But, as it was, we just sailed on to win easily, but it still didnt convince Mr. Whitney. He still thought he could beat us, and thought so the day Jim Dandy beat us both in the Travers at Saratoga. "Whichone, despite all the Whitney hopes, was a miler. That was his best distance. And I have never seen a miler win the Belmont Stakes. This is a race that requires a true stayer. There have been times when a miler has been able to sneak* a Derby or a Preakness, but I never knew an instance when a horse without real bottom won the Belmont."
