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ON TH E WI RE By HUGH J. McGUIRE DETROIT RACE COURSE, Livonia Mich., June 7. The last time we were on the site of this now very attractive course the only buildings were the shacks of the construction company and ! the activity was centered in the earth-moving tasks of the bulldozers. Today, although it is currently thoroughly drenched with water from steady rainfall which unfor-tunately held off through May and be- this month, the results of the beautification program are taking permanent shape as quickly as nature permits foliage to mature. To add to the definitely depressing weather conditions the track was unfortunate to lose in a fire one of its barns and some 40 horses. Charles J. McLennan, racing secretary here, tells us that while the mutuei handle is off some, the attendance is holding up well and he is of the opinion that this reflects industrial conditions in nearby Detroit and environs, rather than a lack of interest in the sport. A A A We took McLennan on a new tack and got some interesting news of his Cowpens farm at Townson, Md., where Mrs. McLennan, the former Mary Hirsch, is major domo. Mrs. McLennan has three mares, two of whom just returned from Kentucky where they had been sent to be bred. Merry Jester, a mare that Mrs. McLennan formerly trained, was sent to Harry Isaacs Intent at the farm of Charles A. Asbury, while Dover Road paid a visit to the King Ranch farms Prophets Thumb.TkJver Road now has a yearling colt by High Lea. On the farm is the mare, Chinella, who is Mrs. McLennans first broodmare. She now has a filly foal by Brookfield. Mrs. McLennan was elated to learn that Chihellas first foal, a filly by My Request who was sold to the North Downs Stable of Toronto, after wintering at Columbia, was turned over to trainer Vincent Stott and she broke her maiden and a track record at Woodbine Park. McLennan added that his wife has become a real farmer on their 165-acre place and also raises Herefords and other farm products. AAA McLennan pointed out that this was the first year during the four-year life of this track that a stakes program had been planned to offer such features on every Saturday and holiday. Headed by the 0,000 Michigan Mile scheduled for July 10, the program includes 13 added-money Detroit Attendance Holds Up Well McLennans Have Modest Md. Farm Stanley Greene Training 75 Head features with a total stakes disbursement of 92,500. The other stakes include the 5,000 Frontier Handicap up for decision on July 24 and grade down in value to the ,500 MRA Futurity for two-year-olds foaled in Michigan. This is the only stakes with a value of less than 0,000. McLennan noted that attendance and mutuei handle had improved each year, and if memory serves it has always held in this area that the meetings gain momentum as they advance in the season. AAA Quartered here with 15 horses for Detroit automobile man Jerry Lynch is trainer Stanley Greene, of Leesburg, Va. Greene is from a family of horsemen, and their earliest recollection of him dates back to his teen-age period around the minor ovals in Maryland and West Virginia, and he was then already an accom- plished conditioner. Topping his string here .are the stakes winners, Sonic and Raintree. The former was purchased from King Ranch, but was cut up considerably while breaking from an outside post posi? tioh in a mile race on the opening day of this meeting and will be on the shelf for a while. Raintree was purchased from Hal Bishop. Greenes brother, Marvin, is at ThistleDown, .where he trains a public stable that includes the horses of C. B. Fischbach, of Akron; J. N. Fishback, of Madison, Va., and Allen T. Simmons, of Akron. The latter owner also operates Idle Hour Farm at Lexington. Stanley Greene has taken first call on the services of jockey Howard Craig and he plans to send some of his charges to ThistleDown at intervals to compete in feature races at the new plant near Cleveland. AAA Waldo Andrews, vice-president at Hazel Park, is a regular visitor at this course also. Andrews returned recently from a trip to Caracas, Venezuela, where he found racing booming to the extent that the government is planning to spend some 56 million bolivas on a new modern course. The Boliva, Andrews tells us, sell for about three for a dollar. Nicolas de Las Casas, one of the first large scale operators of a racing and breeding establishment an Ven-ezulea and a frequent visitor to Keeneland and Saratoga sales, plans to return to this country in August to inspect various race tracks and also to procure additional racing stock. American trainer Jack Labelle is leading the conditioners in the South American republic. . AAA In Brief: Jockey Larry Hansman, fully recovered from injuries sustained in a spill, reported to trainer Grover Noel who is training the horses of Henry Forrest . . . The life of. one of the horses quartered in the stable destroyed by fire here recently was saved when he followed the stable mascot, a goat, from the blazing structure. He was Gold Flash who won for owner Charles Blazer on Thursday. A wag interjected that in the race the goats were all behind Gold Flash . . . Lois C. Cook is currently leading the riders here and added to his advantage with four tallies on Thursday . . . Stanley Greene is nursing an injury to his leg sustained when he slipped from the stand where trainers congregate at the seven-furlong marker during morning hours. Mrs. Greene and their 15-month son, Stanley HI., are expected from their Leesburg, Va., home . . . Charles Goddard, assistant to state veterinarian F. Hugh Wilson, is undergoing a checkup at a Detroit hospital . . . Trainer A. G. "Lex" Wilson sent T. D. Buhls two-year-old Bare Facts to the Michigan State College School of Veterinary medicine at Lansing for diagnosis of a throat ailment.
