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On the Trot I Br MOMtIB KURLANSKY Fox Valley on Way,to New Marks New Chicago Area Week-Record Set John .Sitzmanns Mile a Highlight ■ MAYWOOD PARK, Maywood. 111., May! ; 3. — The Fox Valley Trotting Club, currently : conducting a 44-night harness meeting here, is well on the way to wipe all previous Chicago area records for attendance and mutuel handle off the boards. After the first 13 racing nights, the statistical department reported the following increases: Mutuel handle average, 74,-896, as against 33,203 for the corresponding period last year, which amounts to an increase of 32.9 per cent. Paid admissions are up 28.5 per cent since opening night, April 15, for. a nightly average of 5,874 harness fans. Although favored by generally fine spring weather, the meeting suffered one rain-out. On as many as five nights, out of the first 13, the mutuel handle went over the 00,000 mark and a new Chicago area record was set last week when the total for the six nights reached ,592,098, which is the highest total for a .single week at a Chicagoland harness meet-ing since the sport was introduced here in 1946. Saturdays program of nine races was watched by 8,122 spectators, who wagered a total of 61,622, second highest handle of the current session. While a combination of factors have contributed to the increasing popularity of night harness racing in metropolitan Chicago, the upgrading of the purses with a guaranteed minimum of ,000 for the duration of the meeting attracted a number of good stables that formerly by-passed Chicago on their way east after the Santa Anita meeting. Although the free-for-all ranks this early in the season are usually thin-spread, many of the top trotters and pacers awaiting the first Grand Circuit meetings beginning next month, the reservoir of good middle-class performers, the backbone of pari-mutuel meetings, stabled, here and at Aurora is plentiful. A direct consequence are full fields and hotly contested races. A typical example of the foregoing was Saturdays card. No free-for-all event was on the program, but the average race time for the nine dashes on the half holiday was an appreciably fast 2:06 for the regulation distance. In fact, it was the first time this season that every race winner beat 2:10, the slowest heat being timed in 2:09% and the fastest in 2:04%. The average time of 2:061/and is the equivalent to the official pacing standard for BB class and corresponds with the requirements for class AA trotters here. - The highlight Saturday was John Sitzmanns splendid mile in 2:04%, the Cold Cash colt defeating a bunch of BB-class pacers in superior style, and his time, while a new record for O. H. Boners homebred sidewheeler, was a full second faster than Denny Pointers 2:05%, in which the aged stallion scored against class A pacing opponents. All hands now, are looking forward to the forthcoming encounter between the two winners of the Illinois State Fair Colt Stakes — John Sitzmann, who annexed the rich event as a two-year-old, and Peter Vangundy, whose victory came in last years renewal for three-year-olds, in the series of 14-class pace stakes. While each winner Saturday raced to his best mark of the current season, several of the victors acquired new records. Most valuable of these was the 2:05% for Express Colby, Roy Griebels Hambletonian starter. The black Colby Hanover stallion smothered such capable rivals as Victor Morris, Edsel Hanover and Edward Hanover, among others, with a rapid second half to score his second victory in three starts this season for driver Chuck Rumley. Victor Morris, who in two starts prior to Saturday was a good second to Olmstedt and Tag Me, respectively, again finished second to the Marengo trotter. Bonnie Pete, owned by Billy G. Riegle and driven by brother Gene, was a repeat winner in a BB-class pace, and lowered his personal record to 2:05%, while trotter McDarnley chopped almost two seconds off his 1954 best mark when he captured the B trot for his second victory within a week. The Darnley gelding, although moved up a notch in class, was easily best in his heat, trotting the mile in 2:06%. The Meggitt stable continues to race in excellent form. Veteran pacer Moore Volo, in spite of a winning performance two races back, rewarded his scattered backers with the generous odds of 9 to 1 when he downed David Gulleys Maestro Pick with a stretch drive in 2:06% after having lost the lead on the final turn. Another member of the Ohio stable the pacing mare Linett, was responsible for John Sitzmanns new record of 2:04% as she made all the pace until 10 yards from the wire where she was passed by the Taylorville colt and the energetic Roxburgh Iola, but individually timed ihr 2 : 04%.
