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Between Races By OSCAR OTIS Fleet Khal Turns Back A Gleam Lodge Night Gains Sire Prestige Imbros Decorated Eye Westerner WesternerHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif June 8 A Gleam a filly whom many rated as the second best threeyearold in tne nation last year being surpassed only by Real Delight may not be the champion as a fouryearold if the result of the Vanity Handicap here Satur ¬ day may be taken as a criterion The Calu ¬ met filly was beaten some what narrowly but nevertheless decisively in the mile and a sixteenth Vanity by Fleet Khal a homebred by Khaled from a really worthwhile race mare and more lately matron Flitting Feet Fleet Khal and A Gleam were weighted equally on the scale 114 for Fleet Khal a three and 126 for A Gleam a four and the Khaleds effort was an exceptionally good one with the distance in 142 first mile in 136 flat It is our opinion that A Gleam has not been herself since she suffered that back wrenching at Santa Anita last winter an injury which kept her on the sidelines for most of the season As a threeyearold we thought A Gleam had something of a clain to national honors and she won the Westerner for instance from colts mile and a quarter in 201 under 118 pounds It was the fastest Westerner ever run at the distance although on two occasions that race was competed for at a mile and a furlong Not only that she humbled the best colts that could be mustered against her by about eight lengths lengthsThe The star of Rex Ellsworth is riding higher at this meeting than any at which he has previously raced perhaps because he at long last has a jockey who fits his horses Ellsworth as most folks are aware does not ride any but his own pilot and had a fancy for foreign riders It was one point on which he would not budge Press box observers thought these riders from time to time cost him many a race not because they were poor jockeys but more because they did not ride in American fashion Anyway he has a hardhitting American schooled and trained boy in John Burton and while conceding that Burton had a horse under him it did seem that he more than held his own in the prolonged stretch drive with the great Willie Shoe ¬ maker Willie could not devote all of his ability to urging A Gleam through the stretch because she was lugging in a bit but coping with such things are a part of horse racing and race riding Fleet Khal earned 15500 in the Vanity a sum which lifted her lifetime earnings to 64675Last 64675 Last weeks racing brought to popular notice the great potential merit of still an ¬ other California sire a son of Alibhai named Lodge Night The specific occasion was the Estrellita Stakes at six furlongs which Smart Barbara won in 1 10 in the red and white silks of the California pie chieftain Ellwood B Johnston Lodge Nights first crop consisted of but two foals of which Smart Barbara was one As a twoyearold Smart Barbara was able to win but one race out of six starts but she raced well in stakes company running third to Lap Full and Fortune Teller in the Del Mar Debutante Lodge Nights present crop of twoyear olds his second consists of but four young ¬ sters but he has nine yearlings and was bred to 19 mares in the spring springLodge Lodge Night might never have come to the attention of California breeders In such a dramatic fashion had it not been for the willingness of breeder Johnston to take a chance with him by mating the son of Alibhai to one of his best mares Wiseasyou she a daughter of Wise Coun ¬ sellor As a race mare Wiseasyou was far better than average did well in Chicago competition before being shipped to Mexico City where for a spell she held some track records Smart Barbara is Jier second foal the first being Pie Prince a colt of great promise but whose career was ended with a broken leg sustained in an accident at Del Mar MarAndy Andy Crevolins Imbros accounted for the sevenfurlong 25000 Debonair Stakes in 122 and in so doing firmly clinched his claim to prerace favoritism in the 100000 Westerner at a mile and a quarter later on in the season But how solid that claim is remains a matter of opinion For one thing Atomic Speed who finished second began to snap to his good form and any improve ¬ ment over his Debonair effort wouldmake him one of the top ranking Westerner con ¬ tenders And in the same race Decorated finished third after encountering early diffi BETWEEN RACES RACESBy By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Four Fourculty culty and he too will have something to say about the Westerner Decorated was the favorite you may revall in the Santa Anita Derby but injured himself in that race and was unplaced It just may be that he is the best threeyearold on the grounds He has a great deal of heart and stretch tenacity tenacityWe We do not believe however that the Debonair was in any way decisive as to the threeyearold picture on the Coast this summer and perhaps no definite opinions can safely be formed until after the Cinema this coming Saturday For it appears that trainer W J Buddy Hirsch and King Ranch may have some ¬ thing to say in the Westerner with the remarkably improved Rejected a son of Revoked Rejected made his seasonal debut at Tanforan in May in an 8000 claimer but he has shom such tre ¬ mendous ability since that as of today he is about as stout a Westerner pros ¬ pect as the next horse and maybe better betterCorrespondent Correspondent may be a surprise starter in the Cinema for despite the fact that he arrived here from Baltimore completely fagged out he has blossomed out famously within the last few days To this day there is no real accounting for his poor race in the Kentucky Derby and his utterly dismal effort if it could be styled an effort in the Preakness Jockey Bobby Summers who is as familiar with the son of Khaled as most anybody else in America thinks the feed in Maryland might have had something to do with it He didnt seem to like the Maryland hay explains Summers for he wouldnt eat properly This is not to be construed as an opinion there is anything the matter with Maryland hay but it is different and a change of diet not to mention water can often cause a great transformation in a horse sometimes for the better but more often for the worse It is no secret that California feeding hab ¬ its are quite different from those encoun ¬ tered the other side of the Rockies West ¬ erners for instance feed far more alfalfa than do Eastern trainers who only in the last few years have begun to feed the stuff at all during their sojourn at Santa Anita In any event the threeyearolds have taken a dominant position in Holly ¬ wood Park summer racing insofar as pub ¬ lic creation of equine heroes is concerned
