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WEIGHING I N By Evan Shipman BELMONT PARK, Elmont, LL I., N. Y., MayJl. Despite John B. Campbells repur tation for severity, most horsemen, pinned down to it, will acknowledge that he is eminently fair. When this veteran official distributes weights, top horses are not going to be given presents of feature races, no matter what the temptation to hold these horses in the area of his immediate authority may be. On the other hand, Campbell refuses to be swayed by what may well prove to be exaggerated enthusiasm in regard to any particular horse much in the public eye; that horse must prove himself before being asked to pay the penalty for his eminence. Last year, Campbell assigned Greentrees great Tom Fool 130 pounds for the mile Metropolitan Handicap, or three pounds "over the scale for that distance for four-year-olds; this year, Alfred G. Van-derbilts Native Dancer will start in the same race next Saturday under an identical burden. Previous to his Metropolitan, Tom Fool was recognized as a potentially-great thoroughbred, but the Menow colt, for all his brilliance, had not yet proven himself. This season, Native Dancer will be going beyond the narrow limits of his own age group for the first time in the Metropolitan, or the first time in an event of real importance, since the gray was meeting older horses in the overnight dash won with such ridiculous ease last Friday. Both Tom Fool and Native Dancer approached the Metropolitan engagement as outstanding popular favorites, but their assignments have been conservative, based on a cool appraisal of accomplishment rather than on a prophecy of what may or may not transpire later this month and during the remainder of the season. AAA In effect, Campbells just released Metropolitan weights tell us that he now esteems Native Dancer as highly as he did Tom Fool a year ago. What a pity that the pair never met last season -that their projected encounter in both the Sysonby Mile here at Belmont Park and in the Pimlico Special came to naught because of the stone bruise suffered by Native Dancer at Chicago. Had either the Sysonby Mile or the Pimlico Campbell sW eight Assignments Fair Only Proyen Performers Pay Penalty RatesTom Fool, Native Dancer Equal Special, materialized according to our expectations, one or both of these fixtures would, in all probability, be now referred to as "the race of the century." Certainly no other prospective encounter has excited greater controversy, or more heated expression of opinion. Campbell, as you see, is carefully avoiding a rating that could "be taken as indicating his own preference, wisely preferring ! to let performance speak for itself. The caution of. the official handicapper, however, does not prevent us from hazarding our own unimportant guess as to the relative merits of this much discussed pair. Tom Fool then would be a choice at the Sysonby and Metropolitan distance of a mile, or event at the Pimlico Special distance of a mile and three-sixteenths. At a mile and a quarter, we would call it a toss up between the two. At any distance over 10 furlongs, and notably at The Jockey Club Gold Cup distance of two miles, our choice would have to be Native Dancer. AAA In contrast to Tom Fool, all fire and verve and brio on the track, Native Dancer is a "cold" horse, doing what he has to do, or sometimes what he chooses to do, and no more. As far as his relations with the handicapper are concerned, this pronounced trait is definitely to the grays advantage; he has fooled horsemen time and again by giving them the. false impression that he was at or near the end of his resources, when actually, Native Dancer was merely "cutting a finish, fine." When it came time for the running of the Belmont Stakes last season, we were well enough acquainted with this habit of his to be looking for it, and we have always believed that ,ve Dancer permitted Jamie K. to come as close as that one did through the long Belmont homestretch purely on sufferance. AAA In terms of feet, or more properly inches, that was a very tight finish, and Eric Guerin in the saddle on the winner cannot have been too happy about it, but" Native Dancer, as usual, was calling the turn, and it was his lordly pleasure that afternoon to tolerate Jamie K.s presence right to the wire, only being quite certain, in his work manlike way, that it was his own gray head that dropped down in front at that critical point. AAA Both the Preakness and the Belmont were tight fits, in each engagement Native Dancer earning the verdict, over Jamie. K. by nothing more than a head. Native Dancer went on, of course, to do splendid things during the summer, but whatever became of Jamie K.? The colt who was beaten yesterday on the turf course by Royal Governor and Kaster certainly does not look in petition like the same individual who gave Native Dancers friends such a scare last spring. Those races were at even weights. - A A . On Saturday for the Metropolitan, Campbells weights tell us that Native Dancer is now 20 pounds superior to his former rival, while even at that disparity our guess is that few believe Jamie K. to hold much of a chance. They say that champions wear out their working companions, the horses in the same stable that are sent out to maintain a pace in the niprning. The work horses, apparently, just get sick of being beaten, and, fanciful as this opinion may be, Jamie K. may have become thoroughly tired of being dominated and nosed out by the gray. AAA Juvenile racing has, so far, been overshadowed by the succession of v important local events for older horses, but the running of Wednesdays Juvenile Stakes promises to bring out an excellent field of youngsters and should be well worth close attention. Summer Tan was a rather impressive winner of the Youthful at Jamaica, and this clever fellow may be the best of the newcomers. In Wednesdays five-furlong dash down the Widener chute, Summer Tan will find a tough competitor in the highly promising Nasrullah colt, Nashua, an easy winner over this same course just the other day. A A As Nashua is a Belair stud .homebred, and one of a thoroughly satisfactory group that "Mr. Fitz" is preparing for young William Woodward. He will start coupled here with the Wheatley Stables Laugh, another for whom the barn has ambitious plans. Only a small field will face the starter for this renewal jf the Juvenile, it being quite possible that the reputations of Summer Tan and Nashua have frightened the trainers of less precocious prospects, but this wilLmake "not only for a truer contest but for one that is easy to follow as they approach us from the far reaches of the chute.
