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i BETWEEN RACES sy oscar om GARDEN STATE PARK, Camden. N. J., May 7. — Garden State Park had a "surprise" tryout of its new fire protection system last night, and firemen reached the site of the supposed blaze within a matter of 60 seconds. We dont know whether or not the Garden State protection is the last word in such matters, but if not, it is the next thing to it. Some 20 miles of wire have been installed with sensitivity devices spotted all over the plant, and, when the temperature hits 150 degrees Fahrenheit, there is as much ado as attends hitting the jackpot on a slot machine at Las Vegas. Red lights flash, sirens wail, and even nearby community fire departments are alerted. In case something goes wrong with the wiring, there is no false alarm turned in, but rather a green "trouble light" flashes, and electricians can repair the system at once. Since the supposedly fireproof Hollywood Park burned down some years ago, few race tracks have taken the word "fireproof" to be an absolute term, but for what it actually is, fire resistant. The stable area, incidentally, has been completely rewired with heavy cable sufficient to take care of the "load" of an infra red ray light in every stall. All tack room heaters have been removed in favor of a central heating system which supplies the stable area living quarters with radiant heat. The complete Garden State system of protection works on a separate power unit, so that failure of public power would not affect it at all. AAA We were having coffee in the stable area this morning when we chanced upon trainer Bill Passmore, who remarked: "Maybe the complete story of the Kentucky Derby hasnt been told. Here is what happened, and Im sure owner Harry Guggenheim will vouch for the story if you ask him. Anyway, we are all down in Lexington New Garden State Fire Alarm Setup Clicks Dark Star, Great Mogul Swap Is Turned Down Passmore Tells Story Behind Derby Story Coastal Repercussions Over Correspondent for the yearling sales, and Mr. Guggenheim was interested particularly in getting a colt by Royal Gem II., from a Bull Dog mare. There were only two in the sale so bred, one being the colt who later was to be named Dark Star, the other a colt from Valdina Gold, another Bull Dog mare. Moody Jolley, who was with Mr. Guggenheim at that time, had to leave the salesring, and Mr. Guggenheim purchased the colt, as is in the records for ,500. After he had made the successful bid, he remarked that he had bought the wrong horse, that the one he really had wanted was the colt from Valdina Gold. Acting for my patron, Bayard Sharp, I purchased the Valdina Gold colt for 3,000. Mr. Guggenheim offered to trade us colts and pay us the difference between the ,500 and the 3,000. I refused because the Valdina Gold colt had, in my opinion, a better conformation and was in every way a better looking prospect than Dark Star. The Valdina Gold later was named Great Mogul, and he graduated from the ranks of the maidens here at Garden State Park only last week for a thumping payoff of 27.40. No, Im not sorry now about not trading and taking the difference. It was just one of those things that has happened ever since racing began and will happen many more times. If I had it to do over again, Id do exactly as I did because Great Mogul not only was better looking, but had a stronger bottom line. That Great Mogul turned out to be ordinary and Dark Star went on to win the Kentucky Derby is luck. It is part of the racing picture and what makes the sport at once an inexact science and fascinating to the extreme." The failure of Correspondent in the Kentucky Derby has added another surprise twist to the final Derby story, specifically, has given some ammunition to a group of Californians who want the state to purchase some sires, stand them at one of the agricultural colleges, because, as Senator Harry L. Parkman of San Mateo put it, "California has been shamed long enough in the Kentucky Derby." Adds Parkman: "The reason is that Californias good breeding stock is being bought by people in Kentucky and other states. We have let it get away from us." Parkman has just put the finishing touches on a bill which would put California in the breeding business and legislative action in Sacramento is expected within a matter of three weeks. The measure calls for a five-man breeders committee to be given a million dollars a year from racing revenues with power to purchase good stallions anywhere in the world. The million is a comedown from three million originally sought. As this writer pointed out some months ago, we believe that Parkham and backers of a state-owned California stud are a little ahead of the times in view of the furore in Ireland, where state studs are familiar, over the expenditure of 00,000 for Tulyar, less 00,000 for the sale of Royal Charger, whom Tulyar will replace. AAA Actually, we do not consider the failure of Correspondent a slur on California breeding nor upon Khaled as a sire. As measured by the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, in which Correspondent snipped a fifth of a second from Coaltowns track record for a mile and a furlong 1:49, the Calif ornian simply did not run his race in the Derby, any more than did Your Host. The latters Derby was the only poor race in his entire career. Nor did the Derby failure of Your Host affect his desira- Continued on Page Thirty -Four BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty Four bility as a stud. The Derby probably did double the value of Royal Gem II. as a sue. and, to our way of thinking, certainly did no harm to Polynesian. AAA This corner does not agree that Ken-tuckians, in the general sense, have faulted Native Dancers pedigree as being a speed one simply because he will not stand in Kentucky, but rather in Maryland. While this may be true with a very few people, it is our observation that one of the secrets of Kentucky breeding is the utter objectivity with which the subject of blood is approached, and Native Dancer fits, within reason, the desired pattern of many of the top-ranking breeders in the Blue Grass, although it perhaps falls short of being classic desirability. In an oversimplified statement of views, many of the leaders of the industry in Kentucky cling to the thesis that in general, speed can be taught to stay, but that plodding cannot be infused with speed to the point where it will meet the demands of Americas classic distance, a mile and a quarter. Proof is easily obtainable by a comparison with Germany, where the government supervised breeding of the thoroughbred for years with the notion of getting plodders by reason of the fact that in war, the thoroughbred could pinch hit as a utilitarian horse, which he did. American breeding represents, to our thinking, a happy medium between the German plan and that of the Southwest quarter horse people, using thoroughbred, blood, of doubling and redoubling speed, ad infinitum. As we say, most breeders in Kentucky approach the subject of bloodlines with detachment and objectivity, for once sentiment, such as a state boundary line, enters into consideration, straight thinking becomes impossible. And. if honest thinking did not prevail, Kentucky breeding would suffer.
