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I REFLECTIONS I By Nelson Dunstan Successful Belmont Meeting Closes Today United Hunts Opens Tomorrow at Belmont Massachusetts Handicap Run on Wednesday Three-Year-Olds Continue to Be Active NEW YORK, N. Y., June 7. Monmouth Park officials have arranged with the Hudson Day Line for a boat to leave the West 42nd Street pier at 11:15 a. m. daily for the meeting that opens next Saturday. The trip combines an excursion with a day at the races... John W. Galbreath, of Darby Dan fame and now owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, has resumed his racing stable and is naming his horses after Branch Rickey, Bill Meyers and others connected with the smoky city ball club. The horse named for Bill Meyers is "Skipper Bill". . .Danny Van Clief, newly elected president of the Virginia Breeders Association and master of Nydrie Stud at Esmont, Va., has purchased a winter home at Golden Beach, Fla Speaking of homes, Eddie Arcaro is reported to have bought a dairy farm in Florida, and now we have word from the Golden State that he plans to buy a home hear Santa Anita this winter. . .One of the most beautiful yearling fillies we have seen this year is a chestnut by Alibhai — Durazna, who is at the Spendthrift Farm of Leslie Combs... Sun Bahram, who races in the colors of Mrs. Eben Ellison, Jr., will start in the Massachusetts Handicap and then be retired to stud in Kentucky. . .Mereworth Farm, the Kentucky establishment of Walter J. Salmon, has announced it will not sell its yearlings at auction this year. With more than 50 at the farm and as Salmon does not race a stable, there is considerable speculation about what will be done with them. Belmont Parks highly successful meeting comes to a close Monday and on Tuesday and Wednesday, the New York racing throngs will attend the United Hunts meeting at which the Temple Gwathmey Handicap and the New York Turf Writers Cup will be featured. Since the switch from the fall to the spring and spotting it between the Belmont and Aqueduct meetings, the United Hunts meetings have been even more popular than in former years. While the flat racing takes over at Aqueduct on Thursday, the steeplechasers will move down to Delaware Park, where through-the-field sport has always been a feature. On Thursday, the Tom Roby Steeplechase Stakes, for four-year-olds and older jumpers, will be contested at two miles. This race is a memorial to the former jockey, Tom Roby, and Bayard Sharp, for whom he rode, has presented to the Delaware Association a cup and also a replica of it which goes to the winning jockey for his permanent possession. The Tom Roby will be followed by the Georgetown Steeplechase Handicap, the Delaware Spring Maiden Steeplechase, for four-year-olds and older jumpers at about two and a half miles. The Indian River was won by Elkridge in 1942, 1945, 1948, 1949 and 1950. As a 13-year-old he ran second to Crooning Wind in 1951, and then was retired from competition. Aqueduct will conduct a 27-day meeting that will carry through July 12. The opening day stake event will be the Queens County Handicap and 10 other stakes will follow, with the 0,000 Brooklyn Handicap run on closing day. While Spartan Valor has been named, he will be an absentee from the initial fixture as he is being shipped to Chicago with many other Helis horses. One other race has 0,000 added, and this is the Dwyer, for three-year-olds at one and one-quarter miles, and will be run on July 5. Forty-nine were named and they include many of the foremost in the division, including Cousin, Charlie McAdam, Tom Fool and Primate, all of whom are now on the sidelines. Prior to the Dwyer, three-year-olds will have an opportunity in the 0,000 Sheylin, at one and one-sixteenth miles. This is regarded as a prep for the richer race later in the meeting. The stake schedule is well balanced, although three-year-olds and older horses will have the greater opportunities with the Queens County Handicap, Edgemere Handicap, Carter Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap and the 5,000 Vagrancy Handicap, for fillies and mares three-year-old and over, at one and one-sixteenth miles on June 28. One of the biggest events of the week will be the 5,000 Massachusetts Handicap, to be run at Suffolk Downs on Wednesday. Spartan Valor was declared late last week, and, as a result, secretary "Eb" Pons assigned Battlefield and County Delight 122 pounds, with Arise 120, Greek Ship 117 and Mameluke and One Hitter 116 each. That group will be threatened by many at the weights they have been assigned. The Massachusetts was inaugurated in 1935 and through the years has been won by many of the best handicap performers. In former years, winners were assigned much higher weights than is the case this season. Seabiscuit and Whirlaway won with 130 pounds. A year ago, the five-year-old One Hitter was the winner over Lights Up in 2:02, but, the year before, Cohcise ran the fastest Massachusetts since the distance has been one and one-quarter miles, for he was timed in 2:01%. A week from Tuesday, Suffolk Downs will offer the §50,000 Yankee Handicap, for three-year-olds at one and one-quarter miles. Like the Massachusetts, the Yankee has been won by many of the best horses of the three-year-old division since its inaugural running. Last year, Out Point, carrying the feather of 108 pounds, defeated Alerted to earn ,450. Determined to have the Yankee become one of the important sophomore events in the East, Judge Pappas raised the value to 0,000. With the Belmont Stakes now history, and the Kent at Delaware Park and the Yankee at Suffolk Downs coming up, three-year-olds enter the second phase of their long season. Seldom is there a year when so many of the top sophomores have been on the sidelines so early in the campaign, but, as the year progresses, some of them will return to make their bids for honors. Next Saturdays Kent Stakes, at a mile and a sixteenth, has 5,000 added and about every three-year-old now in training has been named for it. The Leonard Richards Stakes, also for three-year-olds, has 7,500 added and will be run on June 28 at one and one-eighth miles. Virtually the same group named for the Kent are also eligible for this race. The three-year-olds will still be very active during July. That month there is one event worth 00,000, the Arlington Classic, while the Dwyer at Aqueduct, and the Westerner at Hollywood Park, each has 0,000 added. By fall, it is fairly certain that Tom Fool, Cousin, Hill Gail, The Pimpernel and others will be back in action. Just as Counterpoint came on late last year to earn sophomore honors, so could that be the case this season.
