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? W E I G H I N G I N By EYAN shipman DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., June 27. — Closing this meeting on the national holiday next Saturday, the 00,000 added New Castle Handicap for fillies and mares must be regarded as a rather daring experiment on the part of this progressive and sporting association. In this era of unexampled prosperity for the American turf. stakes of that size have become almost a commonplace for three-year-olds, for the handicap division, and even our juveniles, but putting this still considerable amount of money at the disposal of the fillies and mares is unprecedented, and does involve a certain risk. When, as sometimes happens, we run into a poor year with the three-year-olds, the handicap division or the two-year-olds, we have nothing really to measure them by except * our memory of good horses, and that — say what you like — is an uncertain standard. As for the fillies and mares, these are always measured in relation to the contemporary colts, or the contemporary aged horses. There is nothing equivocal about that "yardstick," and it can, at times, furnish a cruel answer when we ask: "Just how good is this current crop of fillies and mares?" Delaware, then, is making the gamble that the field on the week-end will justify a somewhat prodigious outlay, and that the contest will appeal to the racing public in the same way as do our other, more conventional features. Having gone so far, our own view is that Delaware might have creditably gone just a little bit farther, establishing the New Castle as a weight-for-age test rather than a handicap, but even as we timidly advance the suggestion, we realize how much that is asking, and also what an advance the associations actual gesture is over the customary attitude concerning the rewards to be -attached to the various features on a tracks annual program. Field for Rich New Castle Handicap Takes Shape Absence of Calumets A Gleam Keenly Regretted The Mast Shows Trace of Last Years Fine Form June Fete Just Gets Up to Score a Lucky Win While it is a little early to make any confident predictions concerning the starting field for this vasty enriched renewal of the New Castle, it seems safe to say that Kiss Me Kate, last years winner; Marta, now at peak form and winner of the recent Top Flight Handicap at Belmont Park in near record time, Grecian Queen, best of our three-year-old fillies with both the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Gazelle to her credit; La Corredora, winner of the Gallorette at Pimlico last fall; the hardhitting Discovery mare, Be Gracious, and George D. Wideners well-considered daughter of Shut Out, No Score, will all go to the post. There are plenty of other eligibles with interesting credentials, and we may well have omitted some names that deserve emphasis, such as Greentrees widely touted Hows Tricks, all but left at the post in the Gazelle this week at Aqueduct; Mrs. John Hanes speedy Devilkin, Big Mo, who has quality but rarely shows it; Joe W. Browns game, stretch-running filly, Parading Lady, whose present status is something of a mystery, and, finally, a gray three-year-old daughter of Mahmoud from the C. V. Whitney barn, Ming Yellow, a filly who finished a fast-closing third to Grecian Queen and Sabette in the recent Oaks, and who has impressed us as a genuine stayer. From this nucleus, the race should take shape. It can turn out to be an excellent race, only assuming that a fair proportion of those mentioned show their best form. There is an absentee, however, whose presence could "make" the New Castle, it being no secret that the association keenly regrets Jimmy Jones decision to keep Calumets A Gleam in California. A Gleam is the kind for whom this stake was designed and there is no substitute for superlative class. AAA Class is what was missing in yesterdays Georgetown Handicap, one of the two excellent steeplechase stakes that traditionally feature the closing weeks of this meeting. You could not ask for a more bitterly contested chase than this Georgetown, The Mast, Monkey Wrench and Hunting Fox all finishing in a package at the end of the two miles less than a couple of lengths separating the first three. Winner also of the previous renewal, Mrs. E. duPont Weirs The Mast stood a long drive to outgame his stubborn rivals in the final stages, but the truth is that this big, black Annapolis gelding is hardly the horse he was a year ago. If he had been, The Mast under the modest assignment of 148 pounds, would quite simply have left the others up the track. As for Jam, winner of the 52 renewal of the Indian River, second of Delawares features for this speciality, the J. F. McHugh fencer committed a serious mistake at the seventh obstacle, recovered to rejoin the leaders, but then tired badly when the real pressure was turned on. Jam, too, is not what he used to be. Returning to a subject often mentioned in this space recently, what the Georgetown lacked was a competitor such as Sea Legs, whose breakdown during the running of the recent Temple Gwathmey on the final day of the United Hunts meeting leaves a gap in the thinning ranks of good steeplechase horses that it is impossible now to fill. A A A~ - As the public should know by now, and as the steeplechase set certainly knows, the obstacles on the outside course here at Delaware are pretty special, and they take Continued on Page Forty-Three WEIGHING, IN 1 By EVAN SHOPMAN Continued from Page FHty-Two a lot of jumping. It would seem almost idle to point out that a horse who is familiar with these obstacles enjoys a marked advantage, and yet yesterday the crowd established Mrs. Clara Adams Errolford an even money choice in the Georgetown field of a half dozen, and Errolford, who had benefitted from Sea Legs misfortune to snatch the Temple Gwathmey, was the one chaser who had never previously raced at Delaware. The outcome of this rash overconfi-dence involved as little suspense as possible, Errolford falling at the first fence. The pace for the first turn of the field was not severe, and it was Monkey Wrench, perfectly at home when it is a matter of stiff fences, who showed the way,- while The Mast and Jam lay within easy striking distance, and Hunting Fox, also jumping very surely, was rated well off the-pace. When Jams bobble at the seventh had taken its inevitable toll, The Mast made a determined run at Monkey Wrench, while Ferral began to hustle Hunting Fox, this trio rounding the final bend on almost equal terms. For a good quarter of a mile, it was anybodys race, Monkey Wrench fighting it out with unexpected tenacity, and Hunting Fox now looming on the outside as if he well might go on to take it all. In his extremity however, The Mast retained enough of his former brio to prevail against each challenge, his victory being well deserved and well received. AAA Happy Hill Farm scored a pleasing but somewhat lucky victory yesterday in a good dash for two-year-olds when their homebred filly, June Fete, just did get up to snatch a nose decision on the post from the front-running Bitter Pill. The latter showed more foot than any juvenile at this meeting when he scampered down to the half in A54/s, but after opening up a good, and apparently safe, lead, Bitter Pill began to loaf inside the sixteenth pole, tossing it off despite Bobby Mitchells effort to set .him going "again. June Fete,, who received a well-judged ride from the energetic and capable aprpentice Wilile Lester, is a highly nervous miss, but Lester fits her well and made good use of her determination in the drive. She is a light chestnut of a pleasing model, and is by the imported horse, Orestes m., out of the Johnstown mare, Market Day. Bitter Pill, who may have been the best yesterday and who was conceding the filly eight pounds in actual weight, is a Blenheim LT. colt from a Stimulus dam, very racing-like and with fine lines, but a trifle long in the back and light over the loin. Both the winner and the runner-up appear to be of stake quality. J
