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BETWEEN RiACES By Oscar Of is HOLLYWOOD PARK,.Inglewood, Calif. , June 28. Calumet Farms A " Gleam ap- pears a l-to-2 shot at this writing for Sat-! urdays 0,000 mile and a quarter Westerner, the Hollywood Park version, of a Derby, for not only has she shown, in convincing fashion, that she can beat all the colts on the West Coast, but can give them weight in so doing. A Gleam gets into the Westerner, an allowance race, at 118 pounds. You might be interested to know the story as to how A Gleam is coming along for the coasts richest summer race for sophomores, a race which has no championship aspects this year because everyone by now has conceded the coast-title to the Calumet filly, and some of the blither California spirits who cannot be repressed, it seems, are proclaiming her the best three-year-old in the nation. They have heard of Real Delight rather remotely, and while they did see her run at Santa Anita last winter, she was not, the filly then she is today. Until now, this writer has been judging Real Delight about an eight to 10-pound better horse than A Gleam, but after the Cinema we are beginning to wonder if that estimate does A Gleam justice and that perhaps if the two fillies were under different ownership at equal weights at any distance, it would be a real horse rafie. This opinion was formed after watching A Gleam just toy with a field in-the Cinema under 124 pounds 129 on the scale and after learning that trainer H. A. "Jimmy" Jones decided at the last minute to run in the Cinema instead of work the horse for the Westerner. "As long as I had to get a good, hard, long work under her belt, I thought I might as well work her for money as for fun" confesses Jimmy. It turned out a profitable 7,500 workout. AAA In all fairness, racing and breeding must be judged on percentages rather than by rare individuals who happen along every now and then, but we nevertheless cant resist telling our readers that A Gleam has been a blow in the face akin to that experienced if one were hit with a dead tuna fish to the few who have made a fetish of proclaiming the ironclad rule that no good race mare can throw a good foal because of the theory that top flight race A Gleam Stout Westerner Favorite A Her Triumphs Blow to Some Pundits Morenos First String for Calumet Petes Rise Result o f Determination mares are inclined to be of the Amazon type. One such pundit, we understand, came out boldly and told the late Warren Wright that for this reason Twilight Tear would never make a good broodmare. This incident understandably resulted in strained relations, and while we hold the remark was tactless, it nevertheless represented, the absolute faith of the pundit making it. If best matec to the best always resulted in the best, the science of breeding would be a lot longer along the road toward being an exact one. Even so, A Gleam has had the turf world politely snickering at the discomforture of the few pundits who have been shouting from their haciendas. Perhaps the top mare theory, of which Two Lea, undoubtedly never heard, was overcome by A Gleam being bred to the one fundamental theory of Calumet, to wit, the inherent potential of the Blenheim n-Bull Lea cross, be it top or bottom or in any manner. In the instance of A Gleam, he is by Blenheim H. from a Bull Lea mare. j AAA Eastern readers maybe wondering as to why Jimmy Jones has been consistently riding the brothers Moreno, Henry and Pete, who are not known beyond the Rockies. "I saw Henry and Pete ride at Santa Anita last winter," explains Jones, "and liked their style. They arent the greatest riders in the world, but take away Arcaro, and they do about as good as any in America. They have a driving urge to win, and that counts a lot with me, are skilled workmen, and I match them up with the best riders we have on the grounds here in California. The Morenos never fail to amaze me because of their background. Most top riders are associated with either a farm background or have been with horses since youth. Pete made good after several years of work in a sheet metal plant." AAA While Pete is the older brother, he still holds his apprentice allowance, got the urge to become a rider after Henry made good. It took a lot of courage for him to chuck his better than average foremans job at the mill and launch out as a novice exercise boy. He showed uncommon good sense in asking for work at the barn of Larry Kidd, who has developed more good riders than most anyone else in modern times in the West." Most everybody told me Jd never make a race rider because I was too old," recalls Pete, "but I had one bulwark who provided the necessary encouragement when all else looked black, and that was my wife. I galloped horses for Kidd for a long time before he thought I was ready to ride, and I abided by his judgment in the matter. I have never regretted it. Kidd had and has the rather remarkable faculty to analyze a race in advance and predict about what will happen insofar as the speed, etc. is concerned. He taught me one basic theory, and that was a horse who is kept on the outside and, even though losing a bit of ground in so doing, escaping trouble, had the best "of it. He always wanted me to take the outside, and I did. This led to some trainers thinking that I was not very bold and lacked heart. My first real break, other than with Kidd, came one day when I was on a horse named Ali Bye Bye. It was on the inside, in plenty of trouble, and no way to get to the outside. So, I just sat still and on the turn, when an opening appeared, I went for it in a hurry. I squeezed through and won the race, and from that day, nobody questioned my courage. And while I am on the inside more often now than I used to be, I still think the Kidd idea of keeping out of trouble, where possible, has a lot more to do with winning races than most people imagine." AAA Every six years in Mexico, there is a presidential election, and, on Sunday next, that election is oh tap and Caliente will race on Saturday, July 5, instead of on the customary Sabbath. It might be worthy of mention that whoever is elected the new president south of the border, said new president will be a friend of thoroughbred racing in every sense of the word. Both candidates have been to the Mexican tracks at Caliente and at the Hipodromo de las Americas in Mexico City. This writer has always admired Mexico in many things. Racing, especially the government, which has a taxation policy that can be termed "enlightened." The government has a fair tax, but has never been greedy and sought to tax the sport to death, about the only way, in our opinion, in which racing- could be killed. It is this fair governmental tax, incidentally, which permits Caliente to offer worthwhile purses, far more than prevail on American tracks in proportion to handle.
