view raw text
J U D G E S S T A N D By CHARLES HATT0N DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., June 5. The patronage at this course is truly remarkable when one considers its unique and rather inauspicious position in the scheme of things racing along the Atlantic seaboard. Delaware Park is not a part of any circuit, operating in isolated munificence as tne only game m town." At the time pf its origin in 1937, neighboring Maryland had 50 days of racing in the spring and 50 in the fall. There was an abridgement in June, so Delaware selected these dates, which have since become traditional. How very different now. The lovely Staunton course finds itself in conflict with opulent Garden State and Monmouth in New Jersey, there are overlapping dates in Maryland, and night trots in that state parallel the entire meeting. Its problems has multiplied and still are multiplying, what with the possibility of a revised dates schedule in Maryland and a probability of .50 more, days of racing in Jersey; In the midst of all this bitter contention, for both patronage and horses of a quality with which Delaware always has indulged its discriminating public, it has at this meeting broken some attendance records. It has constantly improved its physical property and increasing its purse distribution. AAA As we mentioned several columns ago, the Delaware law limits dividends to four per cent, and we understand the sporting owners of the course forego these in the interest of developing their racing along the idealistic lines of the clubs established policy. Of course other tracks in the crowded east also feel the present intense competition more or less poignantly and how well they meet it is reflected in "The Trend of Racing." It is a good thing for the public, in the sense that clubs vie to Delaware Park Meets Conflicts Successfully Unsound Takes Boomerang on States two Stakes Feature Week at Stanton Course Polly Drummond Among Aptly Named Events offer the most appealing sport in the most agreeable surroundings. Some are handicapped by the nuances of the tote commissions imposed in the various states. As a classic and rather horrible example there is New York. Unquestionably the sport there suffers because the players dollar is worth more across the Hudson. Conversely the normal 10 per cent take is proving advantageous in Maryland and at this point. It is to us remarkable that the state legislatures do not seem to perceive or much care that eventually they will suffer along with the racing associations when an exorbitant tariff invokes "the law of diminishing returns." AAA Delawarians look interestedly forward to two stakes during the new week at this rural course. On Wednesday there is the 0,000 Polly Drummond of five furlongs for two-year-old fillies, on Saturday a renewal of the Leonard Richards for three-year-olds, at its peak added value of 2,500. There can be no assurance the running of the Polly Drummond is going to look like the recent Rancocas at Garden State Park. But there will be some resemblance in the post parade at least, for the Rancocas winner Menolene is to expose her more or less spot resistant record in this event, and Courtesy and Fantine Busher also are considered probables. Menolene is nothing if not precocious and from this distance we expect that she will be the favorite, though we wouldnt care to wager any- thing she will be so formidable when the dates of the mile and a sixteenth events such as the Demoiselle and Selima roll around. Actually there is nothing to document this except that she has matured like a filly bred for short bursts of intense speed. By the way this club names its stakes with, somewhat more imagination than most, and the Polly Drummond is appropriate in that it honors a heroine of Delawares Revolutionary War days. If it interests you there is, just to the southwest of this park. "Polly Drummond Hill," where the embattled lady owned an inn. It was here she hid wounded Yankees from the British and administered them, turning the hostelry into a sort of "Blimey." On the property now is the Colonial residence of -former U. S. District Court Judge Hugh Morris, now corporation "attorney for Warner Brothers, Coca Cola and other copious concerns. The Leonard Richards will attract those three-year-olds who prefer to avoid the likes of Porterhouse, Hasty Road and Correlation, prospective runers in the Belmont Stakes the same afternoon. There are a good many of them, enough to make for an "open" and very bettable race, just the sort of thing which holds an irresistible appeal for Philadelphias 00 per capita horse players. The Leonard Richards, as if you did not already know, was originally called the Diamond State Stakes. It is now a memorial to the first chairman of the Delaware Racing-Commission, a longtime friend of Don Ross and of the turf sport, and a former vice-president of the Atlas Powder Co. AAA Turf ana: There is evidence impeccably clean Garden State is making some other tracks a bit self conscious about the policing of their properties. . .Joe Cascarella does not know the worth of Japanese form, nor the Continued on Page Fifteen JUDGES STAND By CHARLES HATTON Continued from Page Fifty-Two quality of its international prospect, but he is listening. . .Several other trainers concur in Harry Trotseks opinion that, arresting as the effect may be, gooseneck rails are preferable to hedge as inner boundaries of turf courses. . .The paddock here boasts a tree more than 100 years old, of a species baffling tree surgeons. . .Delaware Parks race cards carry no selections. . .The builders of this plant agreed no intoxicants would be sold. Things like that can be in restraint of trade at the "tote" windows . . . One of the more attractive Nasrullahs is Larry MacPhails three-year-old chestnut filly Eeyea, who has made only four starts and won a maiden race by impressive lengths the other afternoon Thanks to the increased purses for horses running "long," Gil Haus manages to fill a pleasing number of middle distance events. . .Willie Hartack has a large following at this point. . . .It is true as "Babe" Wells insist nobody can be quite sure where Hasseyampa would have finished in the Preakness except for the fouling. But after all he was backed out of the wedge because he was not outrunning Hasty Road and Correlation. Normandy Farms aristocratic Skye is believed to be in foal to Mahmoud.
