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BeLiont Stakes Test of Champions Horse of Year Honors Were Given Nine Recent Winners War Admiral, Count Fleet, J Whirlaway, Citation and Assault on List of Greats BELMONT. PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., June 10.— The Belmont Stakes, which will have its 87th running Saturday, has long been billed by the Westchester Racing Association as "the test of the champion." This title accorded the classic mile and one-half event has irked some westerners more than somewhat, but the records amply justify it. Since 1936, when The Morning Telegraph and Daily Racing Form inaugurated their annual pool to determine the Horse of the Year and the various divisional champions, no less than nine winners of the Belmont Stakes have been voted the best of all ages and all divisions at the end of their sophomore campaign. Three others, while not being named Horse of the Year, were voted the three-year-old championship. The six who did not win the Belmont Stakes but were voted Horse of the Year were Seabiscuit, Challedon twice, Whirlaway, who won the Belmont in 1941 and was again the champion in 1942; the fillies Twilight Tear and Busher, and the colt, Hill Prince. It might be noted, without invidious comparison, that only one of this group to win the Kentucky Derby was Whirlaway, who also won the Belmont and Horse of the Year honors as a three-year-old. Challedon and Hill Prince won the Preakness, but were beaten in both the " Derby and Belmont. Incidentally, in 1938 California campaigners were voted both the championship and the three-year-old leadership, the five-year-old Seabiscuit being named Horse of the Year, while Stagehand was voted best of the sophomores. Stagehand, however, was sidelined before the Derby. Five Did Not Attain Crown Looking at the other side of the picture, the Belmont winners who did not gain the three-year-old championship since 1936 were Pasteurized, Johnstown, Shut Out, Bounding Home and Pavot. Of this group, Johnstown and Shut Out both also won the Kentucky Derby. Johnstown was beaten out for sophomore and Horse of the Year honors by Challedon, largely because of that colts victory over the older Kayak II. and Cant Wait in the Pimlico Special. Alsab, who was beaten by Shut Out in both the Derby and Belmont, beat him in the poll. A year ago, Andy Crevolins Determine won the Kentucky Derby, then returned to the West Coast. High Gun, who was to become the three-year-old champion of 1954, was still racing in comparative obscurity and did not win his first start of the year until a month after the Kentucky Derby had become history. When the King Ranch colt won the Peter Pan Handicap at Belmont Park on June 5, he was beginning to make amends for six straight de-* feats. After his victory in the Belmont Stakes a week later, this writer tbok a position far out on a limb and declared that the son of Heliopolis was the champion until some other colt succeeded in beating him at a mile and a half or more at equal weights. This position was not too easy to maintain when High Gun beat the moderate Palm Tree only a length in the Dwyer at a mile and a quarter, then was unable to catch Errard King and Helioscope in the Arlington Classic at one mile and was again beaten by Errard King in the nine-furlong American Derby. Three Straight Fall Victories Returned to Belmont Park, High Gun breezed to Landlocked and Sir Mango in the Sysonby Stakes at one mile, won the Manhattan at a mile and one-half under 123 pounds, the highest weight ever carried by a three-year-old in that event, then completed his campaign with a victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. These triumphs, however, only confirmed what High Gun had established in the Belmont Stakes, that he was the best of his age at the classic distance of a mile and one-half, until proved otherwise. The connections of Determine did not, or could not, attempt to prove that the valiant little gray colt could beat High Gun at his own game. This year, we have a similar situation. After winning the Kentucky Derby in brilliant style oyer Belair Studs Nashua, the eastern champion as of May 7, Rex Ellsworths colt was returned to California. So convincing was Swaps victory over Nashua, plus the fact that he was going away at the end of the mile and a quarter, that it will be almost impossible to pretend that the son of Nasrullah is superior to the Khaled colt on the strength of a Belmont victory. It seems to this writer that those who. are lamenting the absence of the California champion from the Belmont Stakes and Preakness on the ground that the classic cannot be a championship test without Swaps in the field may be "hollering before theyre hurt." To begin with, they are conceding the victory to Nashua by default and it is by no means certain that the Belaid colt is "home free" in the Belmont. It should be remembered that, not only is the Belmont a longer and more searching test than either the Derby or Preakness, but it also runs five weeks after the Churchill Downs classic. That five weeks is a, very long time, indeed, in the development of a 3-year-old, as High Gun demonstrated only last year. Many owners and breeders, difficult as this may be for some to believe, would rather win the Belmont than any other stake, and plan their training schedule with that stake in view. Some Reach Peak Later Some colts make their own Belmont Stakes plans, not coming to their best form in time for the Derby or Preakness. In recent years Counterpoint and One Count did not reach their peak form until the Belmont Stakes, while Capot, though he won the Preakness, was beaten in the Derby and Peter Pan Handicap and was not at his best until the Belmont. It is probably true, as has been suggested elsewhere, that the T-iple Crown, as such, is in jeopardy. The farflung nature of contemporary racing, with 00,000 races for three-year-olds in many racing states and particularly California, plus the fact that the comparatively deep track even more than the distance makes the Belmont a very hard race for a horse accustomed to faster tracks to win, make it unreasonable to expect western Derby winners to come to Belmont Park. But the Belmont Stakes is anything but dead, as the achievements of Granville, War Admiral, Bimelech, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Phalanx, Citation, Capot, Counterpoint, One Count, Native Dancer and High Gun since 1936 amply demonstrate. Of this roster, Bimelech, Phalanx and Native Dancer were the three-year-old champions of their years, the. others were all voted Horse of the Year. . The Belmont Stakes is still the "test of the champion," and, as suggested above, not the least of the reasons for this is the fact that it is contested on a racetrack with a reasonably deep cushion, which not only prolongs the soundness of the horses racing over it, but also tests their stamina to a degree impossible on the lightning-fast tracks that have become the fashion of the times inyirtually every other racing region in the United States.
