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JUDGES STAND " By Charles Hatton Volcanic Trains Well for 1952 Debut Arlington Park May Develop New Title Hope Detroiters Commute for Lincoln Stakes Revised Weight Scale Under Consideration HAWTHORNE, Cicero, 111., June 12. Visiting behind the scenes here at Hawthorne this morning, we looked in on the turf course champion, Volcanic, with his owner and breeder, Robert W. Mcllvain. The long-striding bay stallion is one of the most popular performers that has raced on Chicago tracks in many years, and if the racing surface dries, he will add a 16 hands element of box office to Saturdays mile and a quarter Lincoln Handicap. Though Volcanic has yet to appear under Walmac Farms green and white colors this season, he has trained satisfactorily and Mcllvain observes, "He seems to be doing as well as ever he did." He is seven now, you know, and sometimes aging stallions lost their zest for racing, sulk and become ill-tempered. But Volcanic has a wonderful disposition. This is an advantage to any horse, especially one who is training to carry his weight long distances. Volcanic holds track marks at Arlington, Washington and Hawthorne, and, indeed, one of his most distinguishing performances on the loam strips was at this course in 49, when he picked up 124 pounds and won at a mile and a furlong in 1:49%. This tied a track mark Plucky Play set under 106. His principal summer objectives, or rather those which seem to afford him the best chance of adding to his stakes successes, are the grass features at Arlington and Washington. Middle distances are his forte. And Mcllvain tells us he is not particularly interested in breeding and developing sprinters. The Chicago sportsman, incidentally, thinks it strange that Volcanic has the versatility to race either on the turf or the loam, and yet does not care for a track that has any moisture in it. One would think that a horse who can get around the rather sharp turns on the grass could run anywhere. Apparently this is the one chink in Volcanics armour. The circumstance that the Derby winner Hill Gail is mending, and that the Preakness winner Blue Man and Belmont winner One Count are in none of Arlington-Washingtons early closing stakes, raises a question of who will be the "Big Name Horses" of the Classic and American Derby. Pete Brandsness supposed, "Well just have to develop one." Last seasons two-year-old champion, Tom Fool, is a Classic possibility, and his breeder, D. A. Headley, fancies, "It should suit him perfectly," at its reduced mile distance. It would take a brash prophet to attempt naming the ultimate three-year-old champion at this particular time. Windy City II.. Hill Gail, Blue Man and One Count have taken turns beng glamorous, and we should hesitate to guess what new development races like the Dwyer, Classic and American Derby will bring. For there is no standout, and indeed they have difficulty putting two stake successes together. This defeats the form students, but one imagines it is the way a majority of horsemen would have it, as it makes for a wider distribution of the distribution, so to speak. One Counts emergence as a candidate for three-year-old honors demonstrates once again that Bull Lea has a rival as a sire of classic horses. A good many of the Count Fleets have improved materially from two to three, and One Count is one of them. His two-year-old "campaign" recalls that of Counterpoint, and of Kiss Me Kate, in that it was very brief. He started three times, winning once and earning ,800. Of course, the fact that Count Fleet has sired the two latest Belmont Stakes winners will not depreciate the youngsters by that stallion Stoner Creek has consigned to the Keeneland sales. The Michigan Racing Association offers no stakes events this season, but it has some runners of that calibre on the grounds, and several of these have been commuting to Hawthorne for Lincoln stakes. In fact, the Detroiters, Biddy Jane and Sweet Patootie, were first and second in the Miss America, and Biddy Jane has stayed on here for the Pollyanna and the Lassie. The Motor City may have representation, also, in this week-ends 0,000 Lincoln Handicap, for Reuben Kowals Pur Sang, who recently defeated Sickles Image, and White and Thomas mare, Our Request, are among the prospects. Pur Sang is no stranger to Lincoln Fields patrons. He came to Chicago last year and won the Peabody Memorial. Time was when Detroit and Chicago tracks did not roll out the welcome mat for commuters, but there no longer is any place for provincialism in racing. All progressive clubs strive to attract the best talent possible, it doesnt matter from where they come, nor how soon they plan to return. Turf ana: A steward notes that the glass whips, which are becoming quite de rigueur among fashionable jockeys, photograph with remarkable clarity in film patrol movies. . . . Tuonine might have bettered her Miss America performance, except for swerving greenly and striking the fence when hit with the whip. . . . "Tiny" Keezek notes that, "Whirla Lea doesnt like her works and races too close together." . . . Clocker Johnny Beach observes that Spartan Valors markings include a curious family characteristic. Has a gray streak in his tail, like Flying Lills. . . . One Count was in the Classic, but was dropped from the nominations. . . . The HBPA has a trailer which serves as a mobile office at Chicago tracks. . . . Stagestruck qualified handsomely to represent Tom Piatt in the Delaware Oaks, when she carried 121 and beat Enchanted Eve in front-running fashion at Stanton recently. . . . Bloom is like Whirla Lea, who made heavy weather of beating her here, a Calumet cast-off. . . . Dixianas Jack Hodgins has high praise for the Arlington-Washington program. . . . Harry Trotsek is handling four prospects for Arlington handicaps in Oil Capitol, Inseparable, Seaward and Ruhe. Seaward is the most generous of the quartet, though handicapper Bogenschutz does not consider him quite so capable as the whimsical Ruhe. . . . The Illinois boards Frank Warton is returning this week-end from New York. . . . The Arlington staff is transferring its offices from downtown Chicago to the North Side course for the Monday inaugural. . . . Sub Fleet is expected, by many close observers, to perform more creditably at Arlington than over the deeper, sandier eastern tracks. . . . Johnny Adams, who has a tremendous Chicago following, rides at the Lindheimer meets. . . . The TRA still is working on a possible revision of the scale-of-weights.
