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Lincoln Handicap Hopes Engage in Light Work Smoke Screen, Sunny Dale, Abbe Sting, Royal Mustang on Track HAWTHORNE, Cicero, III., June 17.— Reverie Knoll Farms Smoke Screen had a slow gallop and several other candidates for Saturdays 0,000 Lincoln Handicap engaged in light work this morning in preparation for their week-end engagement in the mile and one-sixteenth fixture, which features Lincoln Fields closing-day .-program here at Hawthorne. Among the Lincoln candidates who breezed were Buddah Stables mare Sunny Dale, Sam E. Wilsons Royal Mustang, J. P. Keezeks Abbe Sting, and H. G. Bock-mans Happy Go Lucky. The latter, however, lias had little serious work since the winter season and is a doubtful starter Saturday. • Abbe Sting, now five, has been chasing stake horses for the past three years with considerable profit without winning a stakes race, although he has been a good winner in other events of less importance. Among his stakes placings-was the American Derby of 1951 in which he finished second to Hall of Fame. There is one notable feature to Abbe Stings style of run- . ning. He is usually closer to the leader at the finish than during the early part, and he often gets a piece of the purse. Last year he placed 10 times, besides winning two. Abbe Sting was claimed by J. P. "Tiny" Keezek for ,000 as a two-year-old. Another former plater who has become a tough horse in high class competition and who is a contender for the Lincoln Handicap, is P. J. McMullens Dry Run, winner of the six-furlong Crete Handicap here on opening day, May 18. This horse with the "unorthodox" legs was a ,000 yearling, a fair sort of racer in his early career, when he attracted the attention of Roy C. Adams, trainer of the McMullen horses, in Florida a couple of years ago. One day he dropped a ,000 claim in the box and took Dry Run to the McMullen barn. The son of Sky Raider — Miss Joker soon won himself out. Last year he won seven races, placed in 13 others. He became a stakes winner when he won the Crete. Besides the foregoing, the field for the Lincoln is expected to come from among the following: Hasty House Farms Ruhe and Seaward, Mrs. J. L. and L. J. Knights Baybrook, Walmac Farms Adams Off Ox, Golden Triangle Stables Hierarch, Fairway Farms Recline, M. W. and Roy Saffirs Dr. Ole Nelson.
