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r ♦ ► New England By Fred Galiani Gansett Meet Going Along Steadily ,130,598 Handle on Saturday Decathlon to Go in Nursery July 2 NARRAGANSETT PARK, Pawtucket, R. I., June 13. — As was mentioned previously, Narragansett is usually a slow start- i«rr -fvQ/»lr 4 1 1 n i T* T"n Oof- ings only picking up in attendance and handle as the meet rolls on. For the first full week, on the face of it, wagering and crowd figures seem to be low and percentage - wise under the first meeting of 1954. The latter would be called the corresponding meeting, but actually that is not true. Gansetts -first meeting last year was in the month pf August, so it is not a fair or exact comparison when you put figures for different months of the year on the line. Thus the most indicative line would be to get something near to a real yardstick. Some research into past files revealed that the last time Gansett ran in June was back in 1950. In that period, for the first seven days, the average handle was 26,905 and the attendance came to 13,534. Now on the face of that, it can be said that the current Gansett meeting is on the upgrade. Every day this past week the mutuel figures were better than the corresponding time in 1950. Despite all thjs cater- -wauling in some sections, Gansett is still faring well. Saturday drew a total of 18,844 fans, with the weather being on the rainy side, as correctly handicapped by the weather bureau. Yet even with this, the wagering for the afternoon totaled ,130,598. And the best of the session is yet to come. The first of the stakes is the King Philip on Saturday, for three-year-olds and upward at one mile and a sixteenth. Only 21 nominations were made for the race but only five, at the most, are not on the grounds and consequently a good sized field is in prospect. The big event of the meeting is the 5,000 added Providence Stakes, a week from this Saturday, in which three-year-olds will go a mile and an eighth, but far more attention is being directed to the succeeding week end, when the Narragansett Nursery will be renewed. This five and a half furlongs spin is slated to be the next appearance for River Divides unbeaten Decathlon, and testing him again will be Murlogg Farms Dark Charger, recent victress in the Polly Drummond.x The latter was a determined second in the Bay State Kindergarten in which Decathlon set a new track record. M. M. Hettingers The River, who was beaten by both of them, served notice that he may be toughto handle next time when on Saturday he was a handy winner of the juvenile event. Ridden by Allen Fairbanks, who was scoring the first victory of his career, The River stepped five furlongs in :59, to equal the track record set by Apogee back in 1936 which has withstood numerous onslaughts since then. Fairbanks, a 23-year-old lad from Newark, N. J., was winning his first race on his 23d mount. He started riding this past winter in Florida. The Nursery has all the prospects mf being a banner contest. L Grover Noel, who was injured in a f training mishap Saturday morning, had a close call, almost losing the sight of his right eye. Grover was ponying two horses on the track and the pair of them jammed up, causing his mount to stumble and throw him. He was then kicked, enough to break his nose and require stitches in his cheek and nose. But you cant keep these horsemen down. He was out of the hospital and at the track Saturday afternoon, his right eye swatclied in bandage . . . Mr. and Mrs. Lou Smith travelled down from Rockingham Park for their usual week end attendance at the horse park . . . Irving Gushen made his first appearance of the season coming down . from Swampscott to see his Soldier Son win in the Blackstone Valley Handicap. Joe Buteau, who was badly injured in a spill at Lincoln Downs, is in high spirits despite his being paralyzed from the waist down and is confined to a wheel chair. He is in Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and would welcome visitors and letters . . . Joe Cunningham, state steward at Suffolk Downs, has been appointed to the post of patrol judge for the Rockingham meeting . . . Tommy Boham, who recently arrived from New Jersey, got his first winner of the meeting when he sent out T. Ferraras Tonys Gem to win Saturday . . . Jerry Schwartz, of the, Lincoln maintenance clan, deserts the bachelor ranks August 21 when he weds Miss Carol Frankel of Forest Hills, N. Y. at the Hotel Plaza, New York City. Young Schwartz spends the summer on the clean-up crew at the track here, but in the fall returns to his studies at the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine . . . Walter Jeffords has named his Subalidar, who set one of the many Garden- State track records in winning the Camden Handicap, for the Governors Handicap and Policeman Day to the Providence Stakes. If they keep their engagements, New England fans will get their first view this year of the former riding champion of these parts, Tony De-Spirito, contract rider now for the Jeffordses.
