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I OnMrroi I J; By MORRIE KURLANSKY 1 Gay Order Leading Maywood Gleaner Royal Vickie, Short De Ponti Stars Maywood Handle Up 20 Pet. Over 52 MAYWOOD PARK, Maywood, HI., June 22.— What looked like a most promising card on Friday night indeed provided some of the best races seen t year at Maywood Park. Five of the nine winners improved their records and in four races the time was better than 2:07. Highlight Sthis of the night was the impressive win of Gay Order in the Charles Coburn Pace Stake for a purse of ,420. This race dedi-1 cated to the well- known movie actor, who is such a staunch supporter of harness racing and races a stable in care of Jake Rodman with the Ulihois-bred Rush Hour 2:00 as the outstanding campaigner, was a huge success for trainer Ralph Ayou. Ralph himself was in the sulky behind Gay Order to win this feature event in the fastest time of the night, 2:05%, also a new record for Gay Order, while Peggy Adams, the other half of the Ayou stable entry with Tom Beasley in the seat finished second after cutting out a swift pace for nine-tenths of the way. Gay Order is now the leading money winner of the Maywood Park meeting with earnings of ,203 this year. There was plenty of competition in that race what with 11 starters and besides Peggy Barnes, who -showed he usual honest effort, Roberta Darnley and King Gaines were able to get part of the purse. Phil Bob tried in vain to reach the top and became a victim of the driving tactics of his youthful reins-man Phil Milburri, Jr. Bill BIoss, the four-year-old Scotland pacer owned by E. C. MoriartyWichita, .Kan., continued his winning ways with a victory over BB class pacers in 2:06 for his sixth win out of 10 starts in his initial campaign. Everett Osborn, trainer of Bill Bloss, expects even more of the Moriarty home-bred when he hits the Grand Circuit later hi the year. . .Owner Norman C. Towne received congratulations from Paul S. Dougherty, the La Grange patron after Dan Peacock, the Towne Stock Farm trainer, brought jthe old-timer Guy Ganonian home in a swift 2:05%, an improvement of almost seven seconds over Guys last victory in May this year. The ten-year-old gelding, however, gave a good account of himself in his late races when beaten in fast times. The trotting championship of the meet narrows down to an issue between Royal Vickie and Shorty De Pointi, if these two good trotters can be brought together before the meeting ends here on July 4. The Darnley mare had an easy time in Friday nights free-for-all trot, purse ,000, which she won in 2:06%. Mary Hall made a break ,.a few yards from the wire and Little Steve thus landed once more in the runner-up spot to be out of the money but once in ten starts this year... Earl Roush. maintained his lead in the drivers standings When he guided the class C pacer, Speed Gail, owner by Earl Pierce, Fort Wayne, Ind., to victory in 2:09% on Friday night. It was the twenty-second win for the Ohio reinsman, who is followed by Ralph Ayou with 21 winners and Clarence Curtis with 20 victories. Both Rumleys, C. F. the father and C. J. the son now have nine victories at this meeting, while Bob Parkinson with a double score on Friday night is now credited with 11 trips to the winners circle. The Maywood Park mutuel play is about ,000 ahead of the average handle for the same period of the record year 1948, and the gains over last year are almost 20 per cent. . .Billy Haughton, the leading driver at Roosevelt Raceway last year, recemiy went inrougn a siump a* the New York harness track which carried through 22 races, before he was able to win with Mighty Santa. This three-year-old pacer, incidentally, started his career here at Maywood Park last year when racing for owner F. S. Staley, Anderson, Ind., and trained by Gene Riegle, of Red Sails fame. Staley sold the colt for ,500 to Bill Haughton this spring, which is almost four times as much as he paid for the Volomite colt at the Tattcrsalls yearling sales in 1951. Rosecroft Raceway, the harness track near the nations capital, concluded its 20-"iiight stand with a total mutuel play of ,935,687, as against 52s ,718,525, with 192,585 viewing the shows. The leading driver at the Maryland oval was Jimmy Arthur, who raced a division of Del Millers stable. Jimmy had 20 wins, 13 seconds and six thirds in 68 starts for 2.430 average. . . Trainer Ray Reeves, who raced in the Chicago area two years ago for the Los Angeles patron, Arch McDavid, is currently confined to the Olive View Sanitarium, Olive View, Calif. He would like to hear from his old friends racing at Maywood Park. . .Ohio is the only state in the Midwest and East -r- that allows wagering at its fairs. When Governor Warren of California signed the bill which gives harness racing 14 more days of racing: in that state it became possible for Western Harness Racing Association to stage two big-time pari-mutuel meetings at either Santa Anita or Hollywood Park yearly instead of just one in every 18 months Thomas B. Scot, who was third in the race where Hi-Los Forbes set the amazing half-mile track world record of 1:58%, was out to beat his own record of 2:02 oyer an abbreviated oval the other night at Roosevelt Raceway. With owner-trainer Tom Carlock in the sulky and prompted by Unspoiled, Steve Rowan up, the Scotland son went the following fractions: :30, 1:00%, and 1:30 for a mile effort in 2:00%. Two sons of The Widower, 1:59Vand, whose son, Meadow Rice, 1:58%, won the Little Brown Jug last year and earned almost 0,000, will make their first starts of the year in tomorrow nights class A pace. They are Rilmas Widower, a winner of 11 races last year and earnings ot 1,149 in 1952, owned by Philo Hammond, Stockton, Kans., and trained by Harold Wilson; and Earl Widower, a winner of eight races in 1952 and earnings of ,381 for that year, owned by Mrs. Ruth Berry, Fort Dodge, Iowa, and trained by Art Berry.
