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WEIGHING IN I; By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Two builds great hopes. If the stable ever felt the need to economize on eligibility payments, her name should never have been included among those slated for elimination. While it is tempting to compare Incidentally and Evening Out by a line through Greentrees Mainsail, fourth in the Fashion Stakes to the Widener filly and then, a little later, a very close second to Incidentally when the latter scored so impressively down the chute on Thursday, still we will not accept the easy inference. The Fashion was Mainsails first race, and she was beaten five and a half lengths for it all. On Thursdays, Incidentally s margin over the bay daughter of Devil Diver was only a head, and the Greentree filly was actually coming again in the final strides. Mainsail, as we saw it, was much improved for her second start, and Evening Out may have been lucky that her rival in the stake did not have the advantage of a preliminary race under her belt. With Incidentally absent, Mainsail can be counted on to give Evening Out a real tussle on Wednesday, and it will be only after watching the National Staliion that we will use Mainsail as a handy measuring stick. The ideal, of course, would be for all three to resolve any argument by competition, but that will have to wait until later on. Belmonts "big" race of the week will be the sixtieth running of the mile Metropolitan Handicap on Saturday. It is really too bad that this event conflicts with the Preakness, since it is inevitable that the classic robs the aged fixture of the attention it deserves. The American turf can boast a quantity of important handicaps today, but in the not so distant past, the Metropolitan, the Suburban and the Brooklyn were preeminent, determining leadership in the handicap division beyond cavil. If that situation has changed with the times, these three great races still possess a prestige quite apart from their value in dollars. The Metropolitan, for instance, is worth 0,000 in added money, a figure that is more than matched by many newer stakes throughout the country. It may not represent so much where a stables bank account is concerned, but to own a Metropolitan winner is still to have the horse in your barn with best claim to the title of our leading "miler." That is an honor we confidently predict this season for Greentrees Tom Fool, and it requires a thoroughbred of Native Dancers stature to deprive us of the pleasure of watching the Greentree four-year-old establish his right to the crown.
