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Vantage, First Refusal !n Detroit Sprint Test VanBerg Entry Meets Greatest Sharbot, and Swiyet in Feature By DON FAIR Staff Correspondent DETROIT RACE COURSE, Livonia, Mich., June 15. — The Delta Sigma Delta Purse, a six1furlong condition race for four-year-olds and upward, will headline a good program Thursday at this spacious Motor City racing plant. The feature drew an overnight field of seven quick performers, representing six interests. The dash shapes up as one of the best attractions of the current Wolverine State season. Marion H. VanBerg, colorful Nebraska horseman, will send out an entry in the Thursday feature, the stakes-winning Vantage, and First Refusal. The apprentice allowance is claimed for both -the Cornhusker State-owned racers. Vantage will go post-ward under 117 pounds, while his stable-mate, First Refusal, is favorably weighted with a feathery 105 pounds burden. Young Johnny Sellers, one of the best saddle prospects to appear here in years and but three winning mounts behind jockey Lois Cook for local riding honors, will have the mount on one of the VanBerg stable starters in the Delta "Sigma Delta. Arrayed against the western duo will be Thomas F. Devereux homebred, Greatest, Continued on Page Ten Vantage, First Refusal In Detroit Sprint Test VanBerg Entry Meets Greatest, Sharbot, and Swiyet in Feature . Continued from Page One 122 pounds under the sprints conditions; C. and P. Farms improved Swivet, 113, and Tamarack Stables 1954 Rose Leaves stake star, Sharbot, pegged at 117 pounds. Also Mrs. George C. Whites Cols Daughter, 103 with the apprentice allowance, and Theodore D. Buhls Motor City-owned Jilted Gob, scheduled to make his 1955 seasonal debut, 110 pounds. jockey Tommy Barrow, who regained his top riding form the past week, is to guide Greatest; Manuel Gonzalez will be at the reins on the improved Swivet, and diminutive Bobby Robbin is engaged for Cols Laughter. Mike Basile, affiliated with the Tamarack establishment, will, of course, be up on Sharbot, and either Chuck Head-ley or Carrol Bierman is to handle Jilted Gob. The latter colt, a four-year-old son of Air Sailor and Jildac Rose, hasnt been seen under silks since early last autumn. During his 1954 campaign he started in nine races, posting a "three-two-one" record. The Buhl colt worked five furlongs here on June 3, whirling . along in :59%, handily, indicating that he certainly has his speed. Early this morning, Jilted Gob "blew out" three furlongs over the slow strip in :36M . First refusal, a six-year-old Discovery-sired stallion, was beaten off in the Alger Memorial, but he finished third to Bright Shoes and Second Avenue in an overnight event here June 8. In the latter race, the VanBerg star set the pace until passing the furlong marker in the stretch, then faded back as if short, beaten slightly less than three lengths. Perhaps First Refusal needed that race and he probably will give an improved performance in the Delta Sigma Delta. Last year he went to the post on seven occasions and came up with two victories over speedy company, ran second four times and was unplaced but once. Vantage, a six-year-old Okapi gelding, needs no introduction to Michigan racing followers. During the last two years, the VanBerg star earned well in excess of 00,000. He captured the 1954 renewals of the Chicago Handicap, Bidwill Memorial, and the Labor Day, picking up 7,412 for the season. j
