view raw text
i ; ! ? | I 1 3 WEIGHING IN By EVAN SHIPMAN i Continued from Page Two horses. The fact is that he has been badly beaten whenever he leaves the claiming ; ranks, and a good mile and a half horse i : would probably defeat this plater in much i slower time than he showed yesterday. If Joe Donohues Irish importation, Stella Aurata, has class, tomorrows running of the Cassis Handicap, seven-fur -I long feature of the Belmont card, will tell the story. Stella Aurata, making his seasonal debut at Jamaica recently, rewarded his scattering of backers with longest price at that meeting when he successfully staved off the closing bid of the favorite, Goodwillow. Tomorrow, the Irish five-year-old encounters an even better field, one including such speed specialists as Delegate, Northern Star, Hitex, Master Fiddle and Thymus. Placed at 113 pounds in the weights as against 122 on staunch old Delegate and 120 on the swift but unpredictable Northern Star, Stella Aurata must live up to his Irish reputation in order to win. As a two-year-old over there, he was the best of his year, barring the sensational Windy City II. Since his surprising Jamaica race, Donohues sprinter has worked well, a recent mile move here at Belmont earning praise from the dockers and indicating that the distance of the Cassis will not be too long for him. While the Belmont strip appears to be as s glib as usual, all of the races so far at the e seven-furlong distance have been notice-ably on the slow side, and we are quite at t a loss for an explanation. It has been men-7 tioned here that Tahitian Kings Swift required 1:26, time that should not be used [j as basis for criticism of the winner since e there was no colt in th?t field to push him n any faster. Now Alfred Vanderbilts Beachcomber, . a colt whose usual chore is to accompany that stables Native Dancer in his s slow workers, breaks his maiden with h seven furlongs only a tick off Tahitian n y Kings time. Beachcomber, as was evident £ - when he failed utterly to keep up, even for ,r d a furlong, with Native Dancer and First it an n Glance in the public trial that preceded d ?s the grays seasonal debut, is "no great y shakes," but he was "mocking a runner," " r- as they used to say, when he scored his [s by »y first victory yesterday. All but left at the Le ir start, Native Dancers trial horse simply [y of f scampered away from this field in the te st stretch, his margin at the wire a good 10 .0 :- lengths. Once he found that he had no r- Native Dancer to chase, maybe Beach-g. combers surprise and relief lent him wings. s.
