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Fifteen Fifteen Seeking Seeking Princess Princess Pat; Pat; Grecian Grecian Queen Queen in in Alabama Alabama Filly Champion Is After Fifth in Row Must Give Speedy Sabette Twelve Pounds in 5,000 Mile and Quarter Spa Test By BOB HORWOOD Staff Correspondent SARATOGA, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Aug. 25. The 5,000 Alabama Stakes, Americas oldest event for three-year-old fillies, will have its seventy-third running here at the Spa Wednesday. Mrs. Ben F. Whitakers reigning champion of the distaff runners of all ages, Grecian Queen, heads a field of eight named for this mile and a quarter event, and will doubtless be the public choice. However, the rather diminutive daughter of Heliopolis is asked to carry 126 pounds and concede 12 to Belair Studs Sabette, which promises to be a-very difficult task, indeed. Review of Previous Meetings Grecian Queen beat Sabette a matter of inches when they met at level weights in the Coaching Club American Oaks, but the margin might not have been so narrow had the Whitaker miss not been forced to make a premature move to avoid a blind switch at the half-mile pole. Grecian Queen gave Sabette eight pounds and more convincing beatings in the Monmouth Oaks and Gazelle Stakes and gave her 10 pounds and beat her three lengths in an overnighter at nine furlongs before those fixtures. Sabette indicated that she is in her best form by following her second to Grecian Queen in the Monmouth Oaks with an impressive victory in the Diana Handicap here last Wednesday, in which she carried the same 114 pounds as she will Wednesday, while beating Canadiana four widening lengths at a mile and a furlong. Grecian Queens overall record is considerably better than that of Sabette, as Continued on Page Forty-Eight Grecian Queen Out to Add To Laurels in Alabama Filly Champion Must Concede Sabette Twelve Pounds at Spa Continued from Page One she has won seven of her nine starts this year and was one of the leaders of her generation at two. After an obscure juvenile campaign, Sabette has won only three of her 13 starts this year, and, though she has finished close up in several stakes, she also has turned in some very bad races. Grecian Queens only bad race was in the Acorn Stakes, in which she hit a particularly bad stretch of the Belmont strip just as she was making her challenge, while in her other defeat she finished third in the Delaware Oaks wons by Cerise Reine on a rain-soaked track. Her victories include a triumph in the New Castle Handicap, worlds richest race for fillies and mares, in which she went out of her division to beat older mares convincingly. Nick Shuk, who had fared especially well on his invasions of New York, is coming up to ride Grecian Queen in the enforced absences of Eric Guerin and Ted Atkinson, one suspended, the other injured. Jess Higley, who fits her well, will guide Sabette. Trainer Jim Conway is also scheduled to saddle Miss Nancy and Tiny Request, who will carry Mri Whitakers silks, but have little to recommend them beyond their feather 109-pound packages. The others in the Alabama, which is, after all, not quite a two-horse race, are John S. Phipps Spinning Top, 117; C. V. Whitneys Ming Yellow, Greentree Stables Cherry Fizz, and Howel E. Jacksons Ballerina, 109 each. Spinning Top owes her burden to a victory in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico in May, a feat that she has failed to confirm. Ming Yellow may be the "dark lady" of the Alabama, which has had. its share of surprises since August Belmonts Woodbine won the inaugural back in 1872. The gray daughter of Mahmoud finished with a rush to be third to Nothirdchance and Dine-wisely in a mile allowance test, then finished fast to be fourth behind Sabette, Canadiana and Dinewisely in the Diana. The added furlong may help the Whitney miss to get in the picture. Ballerina finished second to be in front of Cherry Fizz in a mile race here last week. Hedley Woodhouse will ride Ming Yellow, Warren Lane will be on Ballerina, while Conn McCreary will pilot Cherry Fizz, and Bennie Green will be on Spinning Top.
