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REFLECTIONS y NELS0N unstan SARATOGA, - Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Aug. 18. Horse of the Year honors will probably not be settled until Native Dancer and Tom Fool stage their much-discussed duel in some race this fall and it is just our guess that it will be in the Sysonby Mile at Belmont Park on September 26. The Belmont officials not only changed the conditions of this particular race to make it a weight-for-age event, but they also moved it up to its present date and increased the value to 0,000. That is a direct invitation for the owners and trainers to give con-" sideration to the Sysonby and although no announcement has been made, we believe they will fight it out in this event with a record throng present to see the outcome. - Actually, fourchampionships have practically been settled even though the season still has a long way to go. Native Dancer and Tom Fool stand out like beacon lights in their respective divisions and a victory for Grecian Queen in the Alabama will solidly establish her as the champion of three-year-old fillies. In winning the Schuy-lerville Stakes here at Saratoga, Mrs. George D. Wideners Evening Out remained unbeaten in three starts and in defeating Incidentally she has as good a claim as any miss in the country to two-year-old honors among those of her . sex. Tom Fool was purchased by Greentree from Duval Headley, while Native Dancer, Grecian Queen and Evening Out are all homebred. The Spinaway at six furlongs will be run here on Friday and Evening Out is likely to meet Incidentally and many other youngsters of quality in that race. AAA The championship among two-year-old colts may take a lot of settling this year for out in the Midwest the Hasty House Farms of Mr. and Mrs. Allie Reuben have Hasty Road, a youngster who won the Arlington Futurity Four Championships Now Appear Clinched Evening Out Likely Starter in Spinaway Auction Again Featured at Futurity Ball Fasig-Tipton Directors Pleased With Sale and is now being, pointed for the Washington Park Futurity to be inn on September 5. The same outfit owns Queen Hopeful, winner of the Arlington Lassie, and it struck us as rather remarkable that Mr. and Mrs. Reuben should buy a colt and filly a,t the sale and win two such important races, especially as both of them are by the popular sire, Roman. While at Saratoga we had an opportunity to ask Allie Reuben if they had any set ideas as to what they looked for in selecting yearlings. He smiled and said, "Believe me, we have been very lucky and no one knows it better than we do, but we are students of conformation and in most of our purchases we stick to the principle, that a yearling must be out of a mare who is a stakes winner or again a mare that has already produced a stakes winner." In Kentucky, they bought a colt by Alibhai, out of Jerrybuilt, an imported daughter of Empire Builder, the dam of the good stakes winner,. Solidarity. They were very much taken with a colt by War Relic, out k of Dark Sissy at the Keeneland sale and while the first dam has not produced a stakes winner as yet, the second dam of this colt is Dark Loveliness, who produced that fine stake-winning mare, Dark Discovery, and also Dark Display, the dam of Battlefield. When he had finished, however, Reuben repeated, "What I first said still goes. We have had a lot of luck." Here at Saratoga they purchased a bay colt by Roman, out of Our Hostess, and while the first dam is young and has not yet produced a winner, the second dam, Epitine, is dam of the stakes winner Zacatine. This writer wishes to announce that at the Belmont Futurity Ball he will again conduct an auction of services to some of the top stallions in the land. At this ball we collected approximately 9,000 last year and, as everyone donates their services, every penny of it went to the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmens Clubhouse in New York City. This year, there will be thousands of boys arriving right up to Christmas time and it is urgent that the funds be forthcoming to take care of them while they are in New York City prior to their going to their homes throughout the country. Owners of stallions or those holding shares, have been wonderful in their talks with this writer. Lou Doherty, who will operate a stallion station in Kentucky, listened, for just a few minutes and then said, "You have a service to Bolero." John Galbreath, the owner of Darby Dan Farm, was just as quick to donate a service to Djeddah or Nirgal, and Bull Hancock of Claiborne Farm never hesitated in saying, "I am happy to donate a service to Black Tarquin." Last year we auctioned only eight services, but this year we hope to increase it to 12 and that is because we feel it necessary more money be raised this year. It costs approximately 10,000 to 20,000 annually to take care of the homecoming boys and much of this money is raised by staging the Belmont Futurity Ball at the Plaza each year. AAA Herman B. Delman, who recently returned from Paris, make us one of the most unique offers we have ever heard. Last year, Delman made the highest bid when he bought the service to Eight Thirty for ,200. This year, Delman is donating two services to his stallion, Flushing n a son of Mahmoud, who is now standing at the Spendthrift Farm of Leslie Combs H. Of his 45 foals to race in this Continued on Page Forty-Three REFLECTIONS 1 By NELSON DDNSTAN Continued from Page Fifty-Two country Flushing XT. has had 38 winners. His service fee is 00 and the buyer of these two services will have a letter from Delman guaranteeing them that if the mare does not get in foal he will return the purchase price to the successful bidders. He goes further, however, in saying that the colt or filly from these matings will have to be a winner as a two-year-old or he will refund the fee to the buyers. Although other breeders have told us they will donate stallion services, we do not want to make any announcement until we have contacted them once again for verification. Within a few weeks we will announce in this column the 10 or 12 sires anw we can only hope that the respense from mare owners will be as strong as it was a year ago. In this year especially, this is a concrete way of showing our returning veterans that we deeply appreciate what they have done in the service of their country AAA On Monday the directors of the Fasig-Tipton Company met and told Humphrey Finney, general manager, that they were well pleased with the outcome of the five night sales conducted here. As near as we can judge, most of the consignors were well pleased, although we understand that the Ali Khan thought some of his yearlings should have brought more money. This writer has been watching these sales at Saratoga for over 20 years and it is our belief this years vendues were among the best ever conducted here. The average of ,350 was a far better one than in 1952, when the figure was ,312. The wisdom of barring youngsters who were obviously not of Saratoga quality was one of the big factors in the upswing. There was not one yearling at Keeneland or Saratoga who was taken from the ring without some bids being made and the market is so strong that we believe there will be demands for the many that will be sold in Kentucky and on Long Island in the weeks to come. A feature of this years sale, as well as last years, were the many who were buying for the first time. These sales at both major points are but one of the many instances that horse racing is more popular today than it has been at any time in this country. It .is interesting to note that at Keeneland Vthree fillies topped the sale at 9,000, 0,-000 and 2,000, and that at Saratoga, the highest price heard was the 9,000 that Dan Van Clief, of Nydrie Stud, paid for a Bois Roussel filly.
