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■ml ... ■■■■i*....Liji. i.L l . ...i...i.i.uaM ™ 1 California ByOscar Otis Swaps on Horns of Well Known Dilemma Last Three Races Only Held Meritorious Hint Full Coast Support of Crown Races HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif,, June 2.— Earlier in the week, this corner commented that Swaps seemingly was on the threshold of true greatness, but ... . his his path ahead ahead toward toward ■ml ■■■■i*....Liji. i.L l ...i...i.i.uaM path glory glory .is is a a his his path path ahead ahead toward toward glory glory .is is a a rough one and the. stable is on the horns of dilemma, to mint a phrase. As was pointed out, theres no place for the colt to run in his own age group until the 0,000 Westerner, and trainer Mischa Tenney is not too happy about thinking toward starting him against older in the 00,-000 Californian a week from Saturday. But there is just a chance he he might might have have to to start start in in this this ™ 1 he he might might have have to to start start in in this this three-year-old and up allowance race at a mile and one-sixteenth for want of something better to do and keep fit. The reason is comparative lack of opportunity for a really top three-year-old in the Far West at this time of the year Folks have been wondering if Swaps could improve over his last three races, which includes the Kentucky Derby, and trainer Mischa Tenney believes he can. "Youll remember in that six-furlong allowance race at Churchill Downs preceding the Derby he was rank down the backstretch," mused Tenney, "but he ran much more smoothly in the Derby itself. And in the Will Rogers last Monday, he really seemed to settle into a rhythmic stride even while under rating on the backstretch. This horse failed to turn in a really good race until the last part of that seven-eighths stake at Santa Anita in the winter. In the first part of that one, he was all over thej*ace track. I think hes just beginning to learn what it is all about and what is expected of him." Chicago Rematch With Nashua Unlikely In the meantime, westerners were having, a bit of merriment over wire stories from the East quoting unnamed stable sources close to Nashua as saying that Nashua would like nothing better than to meet Swaps in the Arlington Classic. It was quickly pointed out here that Swaps was not eligible for the Classic, although, at -this moment, it can be said that he has every intention of starting in the American Derby at Washington Park, a race to which Nashua is not eligible. But at the same time, we cant go along with the proclaimed thinking of those western writers who have "sounded the death knell" of the prestige of the Belmont and Preakness Stakes simply because two western horses — Determine and Swaps — won the Kentucky Derby,, and then elected to pass up the other two legs, in the Triple Crown. * Assuming that California has a horse, and so it proved with Swaps, it has worked out that skipping the Preakness and the Belmont has had serious repercussions for the horse, for under no circumstance can Swaps endow himself with the possible prestige in the West that he could by having started in both the Preakness and Belmont. The money simply isnt here for a three-year-old as prevails the other side of the mountains, either, if you want to look at the matter from a businesslike basis. The trouble has been, the way we see it, that California heretofore has never quite the confidence in its own thoroughbred product that the horses themselves have deserved. There has been a lot of talk, of course, about how good the California horse . has become, but such talk has seldon been backUd by the hard cash on the line for nominations in major eastern stakes. Western Racing Gets Ample Coverage Nothing that has appeared in the column comments in Daily Racing Form in the last month has occasioned the soul-searching as Charlie Hattons remarks the other day quoting Browie Leach of Churchill that western horses could not earn their rightful prestige in the West because of lack of daily newspaper coverage in the East, a lack explainable by the difference in time between the two coasts. . This is right only to a degree, for while the average fan may not be quite up to date on the stakes racing out this way, we found no such ignorance among the Kentucky breeders during our last trip to the Blue Grass: These people were ex-tremelywell informed as to not only the outcome of the stakes, but were far more realistic in their appraisal of their intrinsic merit than folks right here in the West. And the non-recognition of the West in the East, sudh as it may be, has acted as a spur to both western racing and breeding. The goal of Southern California tracks right along has been to outdo -the East in most everything, while the faith of the breeders in the ultimate destiny of the production industry in this part of the world is well known throughout the nation. And, to be fair about it, the West Coast pays little or no attention to races which are "big stuff" on the Atlantic Seaboard. As we say, it works both ways. Summarizing, it is our firm conviction that in the future, owners of good two- and three-year-old prospects will automatically take out insurance for themselves by nominating, in the case of twos, to races like The Garden State, and with threes, to the Triple Crown. In that case, if the horses turn but rather well, they will have a freedom of action which, as in the case of Swaps, would have been most desirable. If things do not turn out as well as expected, the owners would be out only their nomination fees. J J 1 " i • * CJ JJj 3 1 ilv * ■» r ~ f * i V IV rs T »-T • Mi! ■ .* i .
