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On the Trot I By MORRIE KUREANSKY 1 Meeting Off to Auspicious Start Issue Several Severe Penalties Mrs. Henson Buys Saxon Abbe MAYWOOD PARK, Maywood, 111., Aug. 26. The 60-night meeting of the Fox Valley Trotting Club, Inc., here got off to an auspicious start when the very first race resulted in a dead-heat for place with an outsider winning at 36 to ,1. In the third race Duplicate and Tobby C. dead-heated for win, and in the majority of the other races a picture was needed to determine the winner. The completely resurfaced track apparently is faster than ever, and experts predict that Good Times pacing record of 2:03M and the trotting standard of 2 : 04 established by Lord Stewart and Rose Song will go by the wayside-when the free-for-allers meet during the fall session. An inkling of things to come was given on Monday night when eight out of the ten winners improved their previous half-mile mark. Speed honors went to Miss Abbe Cash, v who won the feature race, a ,000 BB pace, in 2:05. W. J. dingers homebred three-year-old boasts one of the bet- ter records for consistency, being in the money in every start at two and three. Altogether, the daughter of Poplar Abbe, trained by Edgar Leonard and driven on Monday by Jack Leonard, started 18 times, winning 14 races, placing once and finishing third three times for total earnings of 6,599 in her young career. Others to reduce their records Monday were Spanker Chief, who broke her maiden in 2 : 10 ; My Cash, 2 : 094A ; Duplicate, 2:11; Tobby C, 2:11; Lucia, 2:10; Judy Cash, 2:064, and the rejuvenated Try Wyn, 2:07. The latter, a former stakes performer with a mile track record of 2:00, scored his first victory in two seasons with Billy Rouse at the reins. Several severe penalties were meted out "during the last fewnights at Sportsmans Park. Clarence Curtis was suspended for 15 days, August 23 through September 6, from driving in races only for interference with and causing Beck Hanover, driven by Joe OBrien, to go to a break on the first turn, while driving Shorty DePonti in the ninth race 0,000 Invitational Trot, Aug. 22. . .Jim Kealey also was set down for 15 days, August 23 through September 6, during which period he will riot be permitted to race, for driving Billy Wasson between horses where insufficient clearance existed at the finish of the seventh race August 22, causing Billy Wasson to go down and into the horse Lucy F., driven by Bob Parkinson. Parkinson was fined 0 for violating the breaking rule while driving Richard D. Grattan in the eighth race," August 21 . . . Ralph Wheaton was suspended for 15 days from driving in races only, August 23 through September 6, for changing the length of hopples without permission. The horse involved was High Counsel, in the sixth race, August 21 . . . Kennth Boring was suspended for 15 days from driving in races only; August 23 through September 6, for second offense of the same violation in 1953. Boring, on P. D. Q., scoring from the No. 2 position, laid on the outside of Clarence Curtis, scoring from No. 1, for a quarter of a mile. When he couldnt get to the top, he took the legs out from under Curtis horse, Senator Tell, throwing him off stride and interfering with the horses in back of him in the second race on August 21. Saxon Abbe, a recent winner at Sportsmans Park in good time, was acquired by Mrs. Virginia Henson of Chicago for an undisclosed sum and turned over to Rouse for training.-. . . Curtis will use the time ,of his current suspension to ship his public stable, which includes such good horses as Shorty De Ponti and Victory Scott, to New York to compete at Roosevelt Raceway. Yonkers Raceway and Roosevelt Raceway currently operate a simultaneous meeting in New York and, with the runners at upstate Saratoga, both tracks are doing tremendous business. Last Saturday, Yonkers had 25,608 customers and 22,058 spectators were counted at Roosevelt. The Long Island track recently surpassed the ,700,000 mark in mutuel handle on an ordinary week-day night. This season, the sulky horses are out-drawing the Yankees and the other two New York area baseball clubs by two to one. A New York newspaper conducts a daily contest in which the person who picks the winners of the first two races at Roosevelt and predicts" the actual payoffs most accurately receives 00 and the second best solution is rewarded with S100. A new voice is being heard here during the present meeting. It belongs to Andy Cunningham, who just completed a race-calling stint on the Maryland harness circuit.
