view raw text
3 - •: Weighing In By EVAN SHIPMAN ! -1 DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., June 10. — King Ranchs High Scud, a Bernbor- ough colt from an Epithet mare, thorough I 5 " | I 1 •J 1 ly exploded any pres- ent hopes that may 1 have been entertained | for Montpeliers Pintor i in yesterdays running . of the Madison Purse, a mile and a sixteenth I event that racing sec- I retary Gil Haus had arranged as a sort of 1 tune-up for the important Kent Stakes 1 this week-end. Pintor, , a son of the imported , , i I I 1 I j j ! , I I I . i j I j 1 I j , j I I I I I I I I j j j 1 l ; j I ! ! ! 1 • 1 J , I Goya II., had been considered one of the really likely juveniles early last season, and ; he ran in this Aprils Wood Memorial as I if he might train on to be among the leaders of the generation. It was a will-o- I the wisp. Eddie Arcaro could not persuade him to extend himself in the Peter Pan Handicap at Belmont recently, and now j High Scud — a new name in the growing j roster of three-year-olds who have something tangible to recommend them — has decisively humbled this deception scion of the French horse. Although Belmont was fast enough for Golden Gloves and Armageddon to step off the initial six furlongs of the Peter Pan in 1:0925, people talked about "slop" in referring to Pintors dismal failure, assuring you that the colt would do far better when he could keep his feet dry. Dont believe a word of it. It would take a mighty particular trainer to quarrel with the Delaware strip as of yesterday, and Pintor soon showei us that he had his full measure of early speed, racing head and head with High Scud around the first turn and trying vainly to wrest the lead from the veteran Ira Han-fords mount. At the far turn. Pintor had called it a day. High Scud, always on the inside, accentuated his lead to a couple of lengths, then drew off between the turns, and, in the stretch, the Bernborough colt was "looking for horses." Hell be a lot better, than an empty stall for the Kent, particularly since the Belmont winner, One Count, is on the sidelines as far as Saturdays feature is concerned. Trainer Oscar White was, of course, vastly relieved when the x-ray pictures showed that One Count had suffered no bone injury in his fine Belmont race. The only trouble, we all learned this morning, was a slightly bruised heel, and "I had not intended to give him anything beyond walking exercise after the Belmont for a couple of days in any case," White says. One Count will have a saddle on again in a couple of days now, and while he will not start in the Kent — which never had been on the stables schedule — he certainly ought to be ready for the Leonard Stakes here on June 28. One Counts half brothers, Post Card and Yildiz, are both candidates for Delawares holiday feature on July 4, the Sussex Handicap, and it looks as if Ace Cards astonishingly consistent family may well prove formidable at this meeting. Once in a while turf writers quote nonsense to the effect that a wise horseman should steer clear of the brothers and sisters of champions, citing sources for this superstition that might be expected to place it beyond the refutation of mere facts. When that droll theory was first advanced, it must have been on some such grounds as the old adage, "lightning does not strike twice in the same place," but the fact of the matter is that lightning does strike twice in the same place, and that the same cause will attract the heavens electricity time and again. Otherwise, Ben Franklin would not have had a successful invention in the lightning rod. Ten years is a long, long time to spend in a hospital bed, and it is 10 years now since the steeplechase rider, Tom Roby, fell with Knights Quest at Belmont Park, injuring himself horribly. Tom Roby has been all the time at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica, paralyzed, unable to move, speak or read. He lies there in the bed, and the hours and days and weeks and months go by, nor will there be any quick, merciful end to this living death — as there might have been, had the fates been kind, on that long ago, almost forgotten afternoon on Long Island. It is one of the uglier tragedies of existence that people do not remember, that yesterdays name is a blank look tomorrow, but there are exceptions, and it is good to record that racing lives up to its old boast, and actually does "take care of its own." Delaware Park, has, for a long time, named a steeplechase stake in honor of Roby, and it will be raced here this Thursday as the initial event in a fine program of events over the obstacles. The sentiment is there, and we applaud it, but sentiment can be of very little help to Roby in his predicament. He can know nothing about the race, and he would probably care less if he did know. Bayard Sharp, a young owner who races the pretty fair colt, Hannibal, was even Continued on Page Nine I WEIGHING IN By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Four younger when he sent Knights Quest to the post on June 2, 1942 at Belmont, but a keen sense of personal responsibility must already have been well developed with this horseman. Over the years, he has stood by his unfortunate jockey, Tom Roby, not only paying for the extras that can make life — we choke on the word "comfortable" — at least endurable, but visiting him frequently, hoping, however vainly, that some contact with the outside world will break the monotony of those endless hours, staring at nothing. The Jockeys Guild does not accept steeplechase riders as members — why, we do not know, but it does not. Nevertheless, the Jockeys Guild, while it was of no material help to Roby in his predicament, did contribute largely for a television set that is now set up in the private room Sharp provides for him. Both Sharp and Robys nurse say that his eyes respond to what he sees on television, that he seems to smile when the picture on the screen is gay, and that tears roll silently down his cheeks when the story is sad.
