Judges Stand: Further Uptrend Seen at Randall Park Oval See Tom Fool as Favorite over Dancer, Daily Racing Form, 1953-08-18

article


view raw text

JUDGES STANDS charms hatton RANDALL PARK, North Randall, Ohio, Aug. 17. Things racing are progressing swimmingly here in the crowded 1,500,000 pop. Cleveland area this summer. Dynamic little Saul Silberman tells us he is gratified over response to the first 25 of his 44 programs, with business about three per cent greater than in 52, despite some "unfair" weather, and the best sport still is to come. As ThistleDowns Lou Ponfield observes, "We have only scratched the surface here." But the impression which the thoroughbred is making in one of baseballs strongest holds is becoming less superficial, and average Saturday crowds of 20,000 are foreseen. Highest lights of the remaining weeks at this course are the 0,000 Buckeye Handicap on September 5 and the innovation of an Ohio Futurity of ,000 on the final day, September 7. The Buckeye annually is the vehicle of showing Ohioans a number of important stakes winners from other parts, and we have no doubt a quota will be found among the nominees when entries close for this mile and a furlong on August 25. The race this season was increased from 5,000 to 0,000 added, and turfmen are becoming more conscious of it. Prospective starters include last years winner, Euclid, and Trotsek and Reubens good gray, Oil Capitol. The Ohio Futuritys conditions are rather unusual. It is not, as you might suppose, a race for home-breds, but is for two-year-olds that are owned by bona fide residents of the state. This can only be encouraging to Ohioans who breed horses and patronize the yearling auctions. Silberman has a turf course here, and observes r that this competition is beginning to catch on with the public, as it has in other areas. He will offer a ,000 added stake of six and a half furlongs, called the Chagrin Valley over it on September 5, and it is indicated that the Further Uptrend Seen at Randall Park Oval See Tom Fool as Favorite Over Dancer Canadiana Is Randall Park Development Cleveland Racing Has Bright Future new ThistleDown may have a grass surface in future years. AAA If and when The Dancer and Tom Fool meet in the Sysonby, which is at a mile "wfa," we believe the Green-tree four-year-old will be the favorite. For he has given New Yorkers the impression, whether real or fancied, that he is the faster horse. Certainly he looks more exciting than does Native Dancer, who approaches his tasks in an unspectacular fashion. When Alfred Vanderbilts colt moves, it is steadily and with assurance, rather than with the verve and dash of, say a Whirlaway. But he "gets there just the same." And morally he is unbeaten in 18 starts. That Vanderbilt and Winfrey are prepared to start the gray against Tom Fool at mile, which is popularly supposed to be the latters favorite distance, is to us significant. If some of the public have forgotten the colts proximity to a world record in the six and a half furlongs of the Futurity, they have not. Perhaps Tom Fool, who puts more esprit into his work, just looks the faster horse. Of course, that is the fascination of the prospect they will finally meet at Belmont. Never since Seabiscuit met War Admiral have people been quite so agog over an engagement between two champions. TV has made them more familiar to millions of Americans, actually, than any past turf idols. They have been of inestamible public relations value to the sport. And it is earnestly to be hoped that they will maintain their form until Belmont. That an engagement between them at a mile will determine the Horse of the Year is debatable, however. For even were Tom Fool to emerge the. winner, there will be those who will challenge his right to the title until he proves his capacity to stay the classic distances Native Dancer has raced. And just as Native Dancer may have more sheer zip than some imagine, it is possible Tom Fool can spread his speed over longer routes than he has been asked to race. AAA Perhaps Randall really should name one-of its filly stakes for Eddie Taylors Queens Plate heroine, Canadiana. For it was here last summer the chance -bred daughter of Chop Chop first indicated that she is one Dominion champion who is capable of holding her own with the best of her age and sex in the States. She cannot beat our Grecian Queen, but her performances in the Gazelle and the Test make one wonder if we have any other three-year-old filly who is her superior. Taylor has invested heavily in racing, and did a rotarian thing when he established Canadas National Stud, and it seems to us he deserves Canadiana. Such a filly has much intrinsic value .at stud, apart from her worth in training. And if she is not the result of a mating that is exactly de rigueur, Taylor may breed her to a stallion of unimpeachable bloodlines in his imported Castleton, who was a stakes winner in England and is by Windsor Slipper, out of a mare by Hyperion. And he would seem a particularly suitable mate for her for a physiological reason, as he has very straight hind legs, whereas she inclines to be sickle hocked. A A A This observer inclines to agree with Cleveland racings entrepreneurs that the sport here has a high potential, despite the disrepute to which it fell some years ago, and the unfortunate increase in the "tote" commission to 12 per cent, which comes to near the 15 per cent with breakage. The reconstruction of ThistleDown, just across the road from Saul Silbermans Continued on Page Forty-Three JUDGES STAND By CHARLES HATTON Continued from Page Fifty-Two cozy park is bound to benefit the sport here, for their combined programs offer horsemen a long run of worthwhile stakes and purses and this undoubtedly will result in an improved quality of racing. Cary Bo-shamer is sanguine that ultimately Cleveland tracks will average approximately ,000,000 daily in the mutuels. The establishment of the Turf Club at Randall has interested a well-heeled social, civic and business element iii the sport, and many of them are assembling the nucleus of racing strings. The Turf Club patronage is unlike that at any other course. The members motor to the track at odd intervals all afternoon, often appearing for the last race or two. Thus the play and attendance fluctuates more markedly than at other tracks from race to race. This desire to attend, if only for a race or two, reflects Clevelanders enthusiasm. Their response is as remarkable as that in New Orleans, where the track operators had also to overcome the publics disapproval of racing under earlier regimes. AAA Turf ana: John Galbreath bred himself a runner in Clear Dawn, who is by Heliopolis, and hung out a fanciful 1:10 at Atlantic City the other day, though jockey Wilson has not yet moved on her. . . . New Orleans Fair Grounds is enlarging its seating and parking facilities. . . . This corner shares Mollie Cullums admiration for Mrs. "Nellie" Smithwick, who manages one of the Agas Irish studs, looking after Palestine, Diableretta and Dodoma among others. . . . Tink Veale, who formerly owned Elmen-dorf, is going racing here. . . . Jock Bar-shack wired Godfrey, "congratulations and condolences" on his 8,500 yearling purchase. . . . Washington . Park is deluged with reservation requests for the upcoming American Derby. . . . H. P. Headley has pensioned Alcibiades, who is 26, and Vo-lette, who is 23, at Beaumont Farm. ... In cataloguing the Headley mares for the November dispersal, Miss Frances Kane observed: "It is not a question of finding enough data. The problem is what to leave out in order to get these mares on one page each." l . r . . I r I 3 I 3 f .


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1953081801/drf1953081801_52_1
Local Identifier: drf1953081801_52_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800