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Spur On Has Seven LaGrange Rivals Landy Star to Shoulder 120 In Lincoln Fields Feature Tilt . Speedy Gala Fete,Mon-Pharo/ Recline, Stop Gap Ready to Compete in Six-Furlong Dash HAWTHORNE, Cicero, HI., May 20.— Several horses who declined the issue in the Crete Handicap last Monday, because of the heavy condition of the track on opening day, will meet in the six furlongs LaGrange Purse, which features Thursdays Lincoln Fields program at Hawthorne. These include B. W. Landys Spur On, 120, and Cullerton, 111; Red Top Farms Stop Gap, 108; Fairway Farms Recline, 114; Reverie Knoll Farms Mon-Pharo, 111; Walmac Farms Gala Fete, 109. Besides those six who were withdrawn from the Crete, trainer Harry Trotsek entered two of Hasty House Farms accomplished sprinters for the ,000 LaGrange Purse. These are Tahitian, 111, and Big Stretch, 108. The topweighted Spur On was one of the outstanding performers of the winter season at New Orleans, where he won four races between January 3 and March 13. These included the Louisiana Handicap on February 7. He also finished second to Smoke Screen in the A. B. Letellier and LeCompte Handicaps, and was second to Happy Go Lucky in an overnight handicap at the Fair Grounds. His stablemate, Cullerton, has a second and third in five starts this season and was a winner of four races last year, his latest victory occurring on Christmas Day at New Orleans. Only Filly in Race The four-year-old Gala Fete, only filly in the LaGrange, closed the 1952 season with two brilliant victories, one at each of the Kentucky tracks, Keeneland and Churchill Downs. This spring she picked up where she left off the previous fall, winning her first start of the year at Louisville by a margin of six lengths over Cullerton on May 7. The LaGrange will be the second start of the season for the daughter of Heliopolis — Gala Event. The LaGrange will be the first start for Stop Gap since he won at Oaklawn Park, Hot Springs, on March 16. He started only seven times last year, winning once. Recline, hero of the Illinois Owners Handicap at Hawthorne last fall, has not won in five starts this season, but he placed in three stakes during the Tropical Park meeting. Mon-Pharo has been a consistent performer in sprints for several seasons. In two starts this year he finished third, once behind Jet Ace and Inseparable in an overnight handicap at Keeneland. Big Stretch will be trying for his first victory of the season in the LaGrange. The Eight Thirty gelding was one of the top flight two-year-olds of 1950, while racing for Greentree Stable. He was a stakes winner and was second to the champion Battlefield in the Futurity that year. His present stablemate, Tahitian, winner of four races and 7,875 last year, likewise will be seeking his first set of brackets for this year.
