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P» V ; ; - ■;■■ JUDGES STAND *y charles hatton PIMLICO, Baltimore, Md., May 9. — The Maryland Jockey Club some years ago abandoned spring stakes for two-year-olds, but Lou Pondfield tells us it is planned to have rather a novel feature for them here on Monday, May 18. This is the Maryland Jockey Club Dinner Party Purse. Its conditions are so similar to those of the Thoroughbred Club Dinner Purse at Keeneland, we seem to detect in them the skillful hand of director of racing Fred Burton, who authored the Kentucky race. The Dinner Party Purse is ,000, at five furlongs for two-year-olds that were maidens on March 27. The subscription fee is 5, and "all subscription fees are to be used to give a dinner for subscribers and guests at Pimlico clubhouse and to purchase a trophy for the winner or winners which will be presented at the dinner. In the event the number of starters requires the race to be run in more than one division it will be divided in the manner prescribed by the racing secretary and the management." Each subscriber is permitted one starter only, and will receive four tickets for the dinner. These things can be fun, as anybody who has attended the TCA purse and dinner at Keeneland will appreciate. Also races of this sort have been instrumental in interesting desirable new patrons in the ownership of a racing string. In this way they are commendably rotarian and institutional. With this in mind, we think it even more noteworthy that Pond-field plans a Dinner Purse at Thistle Down this summer. There are a great many Maryland horse owners, and indeed it seems there is a broodmare in every fence corner of the state. But we feel with Pondfield that Cleveland racing has only "scratched the surface." AAA One really cannot blame Kentucky breeders too much and IT they are a little chafed by A. G. Vanderbilts remarks Plan Dinner Purse at Pimlico and Cleveland Kentuckians Do Not Begrudge Md. Dancer Onfy Hope to Breed to Noted Sagamorean New Pimlico Richly Deserves Its Success concerning Native Dancer and the bloodstock industry. Vanderbilt suggests that reference to his colt as a "short-bred horse" In the sense speed predominates in his pedigree, not that he is "underbred" is only so much propaganda. He seems to suspect this analysis of the grays pedigree was placed in currency by Kentuckians because he is to stand at stud here in Maryland rather than in the Blue Grass. If this were true, it would be the sourest grape since Aesop invented the fable. After all Kentuckians have Native Dancers sire Polynesian, and numerous mares of the family of Geisha. Vanderbilt has been quoted as saying that "Native Dancer is my first great horse." Perhaps he is a bit hypersensitive about him. People feel almost as strongly about their horses as they do their children you know, and when one has invested the wealth and time Vanderbilt has devoted to the sport you may be sure his is no dilettante, fanciful affection for it. He has been breeding horses by the score for some 20 years in the hope of one day producing just such a animal as "The Dancer." If he is a better stayer than pedigree pundits think he has any right to be, there have been other "sports* in bloodstock production. We very much doubt if anybody in Kentucky, or elsewhere in racing, begrudges Vanderbilt and the stud in Maryland a Native Dancer. They only hope to breed to him when eventually he is retired to Sagamore. AAA Marylanders have never seen Native Dancer under colors, but they are eager to, in their proud Preakness. One of them, steward Wilmer Brinton, asked us over coffee at Pimlicos "Alibi Table" this morning if the colt had matured and developed noticeably from two to three. We should say that he has, extraordinarily. And our description of him in the American Racing Manual, as a two-year-old, will note these physical alterations if he gains inclusion as a champion in a later edition. We quite understand that artist Richard Stone Reeves, who did a canvas of the colt from sketches made last fall, felt that in all justice to his striking individuality he should do another when he saw him again this spring. There is extant a widely distributed head photo of Native Dancer, from a negative made last autumn, which you must have seen. It reveals a thick throatlatch and coltish lack of definition about the jowls so that he looks rather like a gray halfbred hunter. Actually he appears to have more crest, rainlength and refinement about the head and neck this spring, and he has improved materially also behind the saddle. It is doubtful if there is a broader beamed animal in training. Nor do his legs have the coarse, plebian joints of many descendants of Fair Play, except that his ankles are enlarged owing to "The eavy, eavy ammer on the ard ighway." Altogether, he is a delightful big colt individually, an unfailing pleasure to the connoisseurs critical eye. And if he proves to be the champion again this season, we may say "He looks the part." AAA Cary Boshamer, the Cohens and others interested in Pimlico are taking a long range view of its operation, investing heavily in improved facilities for its patrons, and inducements to the horsemen. But we cannot think the constant haggling over dates, and the stuffiness about rezoning the acreage adjacent to the track for further expansion, is likely to be very encouraging. If the owners Continued on Page Forty-Four A JUDGES STAND By CHARLES HATTON Continued from Page Forty-Eight of Pimlico were aggressive as some other elements in the state, they might call the oppositions hand and put it squarely up to ; the authorities if they want the revenue B from any racing at all at Pimlico. Nor ; would they be bluffing. For there is no question the property has tremendous real ! estate value. Certainly of the stockholders ! previously interested in the Maryland Jockey Club course were disposed to sell * only because they were weary of being harrassed by the politics of the states rac-I ing. One must admire the courage of the | present operators of the remodelled Balti-: more course, and their determination to develop both the plant and the quality of j the sport at this point. In their favor is perhaps the hardest core of public enthusiasm for racing anywhere on the Atlantic Seaboard. AAA Turf ana: Mort Weil tells us that Ken grabbed a quarter a fortnight ago, missed two work and his Dixie engagement as a consequence . . . John D. Jackson is a partner in a plastic concern . . . Eric Guerins remark that Native Dancer differs from others of his species in that he pricks his ears when he is loafing is a little bewildering to turfmen. We have always thought that they all did that ... It is questionable if there is, in contemporary racing, a more analytical "pencil man" than Stanley Hugenberg of the Downs and the Kentucky Commission. He knows to the decimal the breakdown of receipts, distribution, etc. at U. S. tracks. . . The success of the Royal Gem II.s has brought George McGann here to cover The Preakness for the Australian Consolidated Press . . Henry Moreno, an intelligent lad, gave a bad question a good answer on TV here recently. Asked if Native Dancer were bothered in the Derby he replied "I really dont know, not having been in position to see any fouls."
