view raw text
Devilkin Returning ToTurfWarsToday Comely Handicap Winner Vies With Marta, Milspal And Aesthete at Belmont BELMONT PARK. Elmont, L. I., -N. Y., May 11. — The ,500 Elpis Handicap, a classified event for fillies and mares at one mile, which honors the late William Helis fine filly of a few seasons ago, is the feature attraction at Belmont Park tomorrow. A field of 10 has been named for the Elpis, headed by Mrs. John Hanes Devilkin with 124 pounds, most of which will be Eddie Arcaro. Devilkin will have a running mate in King Ranchs Islay Mist, who gets in with 112 pounds, including Bennie Green. Devilkin will be making her seasonal debut, but the daughter of Devil Diver from the brilliant Pomayya won the Comely Handicap and six other races last year, besides finishing third in the Test Stakes and Monmouth Oaks. Islay Mist showed abundant speed in her first two starts of the year at Jamaica, finishing second to La Corre-dora after setting all the pace in her spring debut, then beating a good field at a mile and a sixteenth. She came back with a race that was too bad to be altogether true in the Firenze Handicap, forcing the pace of Aesthete for a half mile, then dropping out of contention to finish a distant last in the field of eight. Unplaced in Firenze Woodvale Farms Marta, who turned in a promising effort to be second to Islay Mist for her first start of the local meeting, then came back with a dull effort in the Firenze, in which she had only that filly behind her at the finish, gets in here with 119 pounds. No rider has been named as yet for Marta. Her regular pilot, Conn McCreary, has been taking treatments for an aching back. Hal Price Headleys Aesthete, who will be ridden by Hedley Woodhouse at 118 pounds, finished a weary fourth in the Firenze after setting the pace for about six furlongs. Her best races have been at a flat mile and she will probably have considerable support tomorrow. There will also be a substantial following for Willy Schwabs Milspal, who gets in with 106 pounds. The three-year-old filly won her last start at Jamaica, beating Dicar with a powerful stretch run at a mile and a sixteenth and most of her races have been good. The Elpis field is completed by Mrs. Ethel D. Jacobs Dashing By, 107, and Hadassah, 106 pounds; G. F. Stricklands One Miss, 107; George D. Wideners No Score, 113, and Sanset Farms Blue Flash, 100. The latter filly won her last at tomorrows distance here at Belmont Park, but was carrying a ,000 claiming tag and required 1:41 % for the journey. No Score showed little in the Firenze, One Miss has not been seen since the Tropical Park meeting in December, while the Jacobs pair have been racing far below their 1952 form.