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WEIGHING IN By EVAN SHIPMAN BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., June 13. — With Belmonts spring meeting drawing to a close, we can look back at six weeks of excellent sport. Each division did itself proud, but the outstanding race was certainly Tom Fools Suburban, the long duel between the handsome Greentree four-year-old and Mrs. E. duPont Weirs English importation, Royal Vale, presenting a spectacle that will live long in the memories of those fortunate enough to see it. Handicapper John Banks Campbell had been lamenting the scarcity of good handicap horses shortly before the Suburban running, but this seasons division certainly makes up in quality for what it may lack in quantity. Tom Fool will stay here on Long Island, his next objectives being the seven-furlong Carter and the mile and a quarter Brooklyn, both features of the Aqueduct summer meeting. As for Royal Vale, he is on a "barnstorming" tour, his latest foray in the hinterland having been a descent on Boston where he captured a good renewal of the always interesting Massachusetts Handicap. If Royal Vale passes up the Aqueduct Stakes, which seems likely, Tom Fools chief antagonist will be Mr. Campbell, whose weight assignments for the Carter and -Brooklyn will be awaited with considerable trepidation by the Menow colts entourage. Naturalist and Osmond, two fine horses who carried the Joseph E. Widener colors, won the Carter under a staggering 132 pounds, while Alfred Vanderbilts Discovery carried an almost unbelievable 136 when he defeated Good Gamble and Roman Soldier in the 1936 renewal of the Brooklyn. AAA It was for the Carter, of course that Campbell achieved his greatest feat of handicapping, the "Old Masters precision being such in 44 that Brownie, Bossuet and Wait A Bit came down to the wire in a heat. Nor trdead Tom Fools Suburban Belmont Park Highlight Colts Next Objectives Will Be at Aqueduct Double of Carter and Brooklyn Is Possible Devil Diver and Gallorette Won Both Stakes was that renewal the first dead heat the Queens County Jockey Clubs fine sprinting stake had known, the three-year-old Macaw and the four-year-old filly, Nedana, being inseparable back in *26 when the late Walter-S. Vosburgh, Campbells predecessor, distributed the assignments. The fastest of all Carter renewals was last summer, Tom Fools erratic stablemate, Northern Star, winning from Crafty Admiral and To Market in 1:22 flat. Northern Star had shown few good races last season before his surprising Carter, and he was to show few, if any, good efforts after that, but when he is in the mood, this Irish-bred can all but fly. We have watched Northern Star carefully in several of his outings this spring, always noting that his jockey, Ted Atkinson, nurses him along with the embarrassed delicacy of a drover herding turkeys, but for all Atkinsons babying of this temperamental clown, he invariably reaches the point where he decides to stick his toes in and stop running. AAA Northern Stars 1:22 in the 52 renewal of the Carter set a track as well as a stake record. This time for the seven furlongs equalled the former world mark, long held by Davey Johnsons Roseben, the "Big Train." Roseben, too, was a Carter winner, but it was here at Belmont, not at Aqueduct, that the famous sprinter set his mark. When he won the Carter from Southern Cross and Red Knight, conceding them 23 and 21 pounds respectively, Roseben did not have to beat 1:26%, and the following year, anchored under a crushing 135 pounds, greatest burden ever assigned an actual starter, he wound up second behind Glorifier, the latter timed in 1:28 %. Mention of these figures reminds us that time can be taken too seriously, and if by some miracle, Roseben could be restored to the flesh and started against Northern Star in the next renewal of the Carter, our guess is that he would leave the latter day, horse "up the track" whether his time was 1:22 or 1:32. So much for the watch when it is a question of a really good horse. AAA Unless Campbell imitates his predecessors severity with Roseben, Tom Fool might well accomplish a rare double, taking both the Aqueduct handicaps. If he does, it will not be the first time a Greentree horse has been successful, Devil Diver having won both races in 43. That fine mare, Gallorette, one of the best of her sex seen in these parts in many a year, also accomplished the double, but in different seasons. She took the Brooklyn as a four-year-old, carrying 118 pounds and defeating Stymie and Burning Dream. But she had to wait two years before coming down in front in the Carter. When Galorette did win the seven furlong stake, she had 122 pounds up, 10 less than her runner-up Rippey, but Rippey, if you recall, was just about as good as sprinters come. Devil Diver and now Tom Fool can certainly not be classified as sprinters nor could the mare be so classified, but Rippey was a specialist and of a rank sadly lacking in the sprinting division today. We only wish that he, or one like him, was around to extend- Tom Fool in the next edition of the Carter. AAA Over the years, many good horses have tried for the CarterBrooklyn double and not made it. Calumets Whirlaway was cent for both stakes in 42, and "Mr. Continued on Page Forty-Foar I WEIGHING IN By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Forty-Eight Longtail" scored in the Brooklyn, defeating Swing and Sway and Attention, but in the Carter his stretch run was not quite enough to catch the gray Doublrab and Swing and Sway. Knowing Whirlaway, you would hardly have expected him to take the Carter, but one who might well have turned the trick in both handicaps was Pat Kneblekamps King Saxon, one of our all-time favorites. Today, with the distance of the Brooklyn a mile and a quarter, King Saxon would not have been in the picture, we fear. Back in 35 however, the Brooklyn was a nine-furlong race, and King Saxon could travel nine furlongs with the best. In fact he met the best when he came out for that renewal, both Discovery and Omaha going to the post, and it turned out to be a race that ranked right with Tom Fools recent Suburban. King Saxon was top-weight with 127, conceding four pounds to Discovery and 13 in actual weight to the three-year-old Omaha, fresh from Qie victories that earned him the "Triple Crown" that season. King Saxon finished in front of Omaha, but he could not stave off Discovery, the Vanderbilt colt winning in track record time. For the Carter, King Saxon met a pair in Singing Wood and Sgt. Byrne who were almost as outstanding as sprinters as Discovery and Omaha were as stayers, but this time Pat Kneblekamps horse was the best, even though he was conceding them both chunks of weight. The truth was, we suppose, that he fancied seven furlongs just a little bit better than he did nine. It takes a Devil Diver or a Tom Fool to be exactly as good at one distance as the other.
