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- California I By Oscar Otis Baby Alice Wins Hollywood Oaks Centennials Match Offer Sporting More Information on Swaps Hooves HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 22. Baby Alice, a three-year-old filly by Revoked who has been knocking at the door in stakes, broke into the select ranks Tuesday by capturing the 5,000 added mile and a furlong Hollywood Oaks from a fast - closing Auntie Bell and Llangollen Farms speedy Endeavour n. filly, Week-End. Baby Alice, like a good many of the starters in the Oaks, is a graduate of claiming ranks, having raced last summer for as little as ,500 at Del Mar. However, as a three- v year-old at Santa Anita, she became quite consistent, winning three allowance races in four starts, and it was only natural by the time Hollywood rolled around, she would be tried in stakes company. Baby. Alice raced in the Oaks for the partnership of Juzeler and Collins, and while the Collins half of the stable is familiar, Juzeler is a new man. Trainer Allen Drumheller advises; he is a wheat farmer from eastern Washington. The Oaks was raced in 1:49, first mile in 1:36, which may or may not be taken as impressive. Everybody was running at a rapid clip on Tuesday. Some lustre was taken from the race when the overnight favorite, Solid Miss, came down with a fever and had to be withdrawn. Be that as it may, Baby Alice earned 5,050 for her partnership owners and the victory unquestionably launched thewheat farmer into racing on a happy note. A chance of a meeting between Swaps and Nashua at Denvers Centennial track for a purse of 00,000 would appear tenuous, at best, but we still cant help admiring the progressive spirit of the Centennial people. For of all the proposals made to bring Swaps and Nashua together in a special meeting, the one from Denver is the most sporting because the purse would be over and above the already announced schedule for the meeting opening July 1, and while a meeting between these two horses at Centennial would pay partially for itself, through a gate and some extra wagering, we dare say that a lions share of that 00,000 would have to be paid out of the pocket of the racing association, or the individual directors. If that was the case, the cost would be charged up to advertising, or to just sheer sportsmanship. If it were charged against advertising, we dare say it would be worth it, for it would dramatize to the -world the wonderful racing set-up where, as Centennial styles it, "the mountains meet the plains." Shipping a horse to a so-called "smaller track" for public interest is not new, for you may remember that when Citation was three, he was sent to Tanforan late in the fall on the sporting premise Jthat a potential champion should have the opportunity to prove himself on both coasts, as well as in the Middle West. Citations foray into California at that time was quite unprecedented in the modern turf history of the state. JBut whether or not Swaps and Nashua actually meet in Denver is quite beside the point. The mere bona fide offer, under the circumstances outlined above, is quite enough to convince that the thinking of general manager Ivan Thomas and his associates in Centennial is in the grand manner, and this thinking, projected into other phases of Centennials operation, is bound to have many beneficial effects in the seasons to come. Local turf writers are prone to keep to promise hed drive to the barn and Continued on Page Fifty-One California By OSCAR OTIS ConfnueJ from Page Seven careful tab on the "state of business" of West Coast tracks, and their mid-meeting- check-up of last week en showed that both attendance and play were running- slightly under the comparable season last summer, and nobody can explain it. At the same time, figures recently calculated by the Security First National Bank of Los Angeles show that southern C-lif0"1 recently topped the 8,000,000 in population. Racing is not keeping up, attendancewise, with the growth in population. There is a theory that increasing traffic congestion in the Los Angeles area is at least partially to blame for the dwp, although all tracks have traffic problems as well as Hollywood Park and Santa Anita. Hollywood Parks management has made much use of Swaps as a "between races" parade attraction, arid the officials have asked owner Rex Ellsworth and trainer Mischa Tenney to show him on the track of an afternoon by citing the number of letters received from people asking for such a display. Tenney has willingly obliged and says the between races jogs up and. down the stretch serve a useful purpose in "further schooling the colt." This corner happened to be down in the tunnel underneath the grandstand the last time Swaps went on display and the colt was just a wee bit late getting to the paddock. Tenney whistled and Swaps came running to him from a distance. It was an astonishing revelation in thoroughbred discipline and obedience training. If Swaps can be faulted on theoretical conformation, it might be his most noticeable deviation from classical build, his tendency to stand with his front feet closer together than might be desirable. We noticed it the last time he paraded and remarked about it to Tenney. Nor were we surprised when Tenney confided that, quite in addition to his trick front leather shoe, a balancing job was necessary with the plates on both front feet to keep him from just ever so slightly nicking himself when in motion. It was more of a graze than a nick, actually, but it was nevertheless too close for comfort. Before the balancing job, Swaps also had a tendency to throw his right front foot out ever so little in striding, but the delicately weighted shoes cured that, too. Trainer Tenney has graciously invited us to the stable to watch the step-by-step process when he changes shoes on Swaps in preparation for the Westerner, and following this observation well have a more complete story ,on the. Swaps shoes to pass along to our readers.
