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Between Races By OSCAR OTIS Westerner on Tap for Coast Fans Daily Average Distribution Soars Westerner Has Share of Standouts HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 26. — Hollywood Parks prestige race for three-year-olds, the Westerner, is on tap for Southern Cali- fornia racing fans to- Bn|. ,; morrow and a wide IPH open race in prospect §f "jK-for the mile and a Wh-Kw quarter may be-taken P,Kf as a hint that perhaps flw"fc .: M J the race is coming of % Z** Wm age as a California £§| - -mm -classic. The race will V"-tilw v be run under allowance J mk conditions, and racing gj||l Jfc "H secretary Johnny Mai- g|||lJ«JiMj uvius tells us that it is too late in the year to race it at scale, for, by this time, the three-year-olds have pretty well classified themselves, and a scale race would result in a small, and perhaps lopsided, field in an average year. Also, for the first time, the race will have an added value of 00,000. While we have no desire at this point to argue the 00,000 race, one way or the other, we can say the Hollywood Park management sees nothing incongruous in offering a purse of this size as its top sophomore race when ,500 claimers are racing for not less than a ,000 regular purse, and when some overnight features are carded at 2,500 and 5,000 to keep regular purses somewhat in line with the value of the horses and lest too many races with a ,000 purse be offered for ,000 claimers. Incidentally, the next condition book will show daily average purse distribution of 0,000, and that figure will approximate the daily average by the time the season is over. The Westerner was originally known as the Hollywood Derby, but its name was changed when the race was converted into an out and out allowance race because the tag "Derby" to most people connotes a Continued on Page Forty-Three BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Three weight-for-age stake. Hollywood gave up a great deal in making this change in deference to a technicality, for the word Derby is magical in the West, and some tracks have a Derby at handicap weights, and we, personally at some of the smaller tracks, have seen Derbies for all aged horses. The Westerner has a history of having: been won by favorites, and has had more than its share of standouts than perhaps any other major stake in California. To be specific about it, eight of the favorites .in 12 runnings have won. Last years example, A Gleam, is a good one. The Calumet filly won by only eight lengths from Arroz, but she was as good as pulled up at the wire, and still managed to click the 10 furlongs in 2:01V£. Had she been urged, we have no doubt but that she could have accomplished it in 1:59 or even a shade better. As a classic, the Westerner has one weakness, i. e., it has never become known as a .. breeders race. Two of its colt victors, Pedigree and Solidarity, are now in stud, and the latter will have his first crop to the races next winter. It can be said for Solidarity that if looks of foals mean anything, he will be a success as a sire, but in checking back on his record, Solidarity is best, remembered for his score in the Gold Cup, in which he beat a really good horse, Ace Admiral, or for his win in the San Felipe at Santa Anita, in which he beat a host of "big name" horses from the East. Solidarity, incidentally, was the only Westerner winner ever to win the Gold Cup, which he did the following year. As for A Gleam, her Westerner score coming on top of consecutive wins in the Hollywood Oaks, Milady, Vanity and Cinema, earned her "horse of the meeting, best filly and mare, best three-year-old and best three-year-old filly" honors as voted by Southern California turf writers. She also was runner-up to best three-year-old filly of the year honors to Real Delight in this publications authoritative poll. Two other great fillies won the race, Basher and Honeymoon. Even so, the roster of the Westerner is not replete with the names of those who have gone on to success in the stud, although we -.have the notion that if its present value of 00,000 is maintained, it will gain considerably in stature in the immediate years ahead. If so, it will be a worthwhile thing for California breeding, for the past 10 years have seen breeding prestige accrue mainly from bold efforts in only a few races, the most notable being the Santa Anita Handicap and the Gold Cup. While there is no need to defend an allowance race at this time of the year, especially in California, which is isolated from the rest of the nation and gets little or no "intersectional" competition except perhaps in the winter, it still is noteworthy that the Hollywood people think a contest is the prime essential of a stake, and no matter how important scale stakes may be to some people, who may or may not be living somewhat in the past, the contest is still the basic of horse racing. A walk-over, or a near walk-over, where the others run solely in the hope of getting second, third and fourth monies, seldom has proved the greatness of a horse except perhaps in a negative fashion. These races may have a place in the all over scheme of American racing, but in this day and age and, as yet, that place apparently is not in California as late as June. Added interest in this running of the Westerner is being provided by the starting of the newest "rags to riches" three-year-old in the West, King Ranchs Rejected. This colt, by Revoked, was unpromising early in his two-year-old form and when he developed a hot ankle last summer at Del Mar, was fired and put on the shelf to await the current year. "He looked as though he might do," says trainer W. J. "Buddy" Hirsch, "but he didnt seem to be able to get his mind on the. racing. He kept racing greenly?" Hirsch dropped him in a claimer at Tanforan this spring, but from then on, he not only has shown steady improvement, but in the Cinema Handicap, he lost by a heartbreaking nose to Alis Gem, convincingly defeated . such as Imbros, Decorated, Atomic Speed and the Santa Anita Derby winner, Chanlea. There is no question but that Rejected is the most improved horse in Western racing in years. Under the Westerner conditions, he drops in at 110 pounds as against 126 for the top three, Alis Gem, Chanlea and Imbros. Incidentally, the Westerner is conforming strictly to the distribution pattern established at Santa Anita, sharing the wealth, with 45 per cent of the money, or 5,000 going to second, third and fourth; with 55 per cent, or 5,000 plus fees being earmarked for the winner. Hollywoods thinking in lifting the Westerner to 00,000 from 0,000 was explained to me as follows: "Santa Anita, with its 00,000 Maturity early in the winter season, creates a peak of interest early in its season and is able to sus- tain it right through to the end. Therefore, at Hollywood, interest has built up steadily to the Gold Cup, but the build up has been gradual and we are hopeful that the new value for the Westerner will do a job in creating a crescendo to our season far earlier than has prevailed in previous years." In other words, there is still a great deal of magic in a 00,000 purse.
