view raw text
New Jersey - By Fred Galiani Will iams Tells Feathers on Birds Yarn Taults Riding License Issued May, 1252 Prepare for Hurdle Season at Monmouth MONMOUTH PARK, Oceanport, N. J., June 25. The Lighter Side Lou Williams, who has been around the tracks for many a meeting and kidding folks for just as long, recalls this one which took place some 20 years ago at Bowie. Stabled at the track in the pines was a triumvirate of trainers, all of whom were addicted to putting the rib on one another. One day Lou was discussing a purchase of turkeys and one .of the trainers started asking questions. heyre good birds," said Lou, ubut, of course I dont buy them except FOB." Puzzled, the other wanted to know what FOB meant. "Feathers on Birds of course," replied Lou, "you dont go and buy a horse unless you have him galloped and see what he looks like, do you? Well, thats what we do with these birds." The other trainer fsaid nothing and walked away. A few mornings later there was a horrible commotion under the gullible ones enclosed stable. There were horses rearing wildly all over the place as the trainer was running two big gobblers up and down shedrow. Come to think of it, we forgot to ask Lou how fast they did go. Last week we told you about the jockey who lost a race at Rockingham because of a sense of modesty. In the heat of the stretch drive his pants started to slip off and, rather than be barefaced before the crowd, he reached back and yanked them up, with the result he lost the race. Well, Judy Johnson, who is racing here and at Delaware, had a somewhat similar experience at Pimlico in the annual ladies race some years ago. She finished second without mishap, but just past the finish line, her riding breeches split right down the middle, but completely. But being a resourceful woman she merely rode her horse to the three-quarters pole, dismounted and took off the saddle cloth. Then wrapping it around her middle, she blithely rode back to unsaddle, to the applause of an appreciative audience. Track Guard Has a Way With Thoroughbreds Tommy Tault is the oldest licensed driver in the United States, and he can prove it. He went to renew his permit the other day and noticed that it was issued to him in May, 1252. Beat that . . . Guard Frank Willmunder went the outriders one better the other morning catching a runaway horse merely by shouting at him. The riderless fugitive went by Frank at his station at the gap, when the guard yelled at him, "come back here." Unbelievingly, because a loose horse is as elusive as a greased pig, the beast turned around and came trotting dociley over to the guard. The latter -didnt even bother, to take the reins, but just patted him until a pony boy f rorn the stable came over and picked the horse up. Which is why trainers go gray and reiterate, "Horses can make a fool of you." Chris Wood, Jr., director of hurdle racing here, is in Chicago lining up some prospects for the jump season wHich begins on July 12. The Arlington Park Hurdle Stakes was run yesterday and Wood undoubtedly lured some of those entrants. The condition books for the hurdle season have been released, with 10 events included, although if the response from horsemen of the hurdle set is large enough, additional races will be offered over the small fences, the National Maiden event, worth ,500 on July 15, and the 5,000 Midsummer Hurdle Handicap, on July 29, the richest race of its kind on any sumirier shedule . . . Frank Catrone is due in with a draft of the Circle M Farm horses, for whom he trains, on Monday . . . Trio Stables Smooth Stride, who was unplaced in the recent Tremont Stakes at Aqueduct, has been returned from New York by Merritt Buxton and will await engagements in the Tyro and Sapling here. Although Monmouth Park does not have any trouble with pigeons roosting in their rafters, at Narragansett Park, the scene of our last appearance, the birds do much to the discomfort of the patrons. Bud Burmester, -the Ft. Worth, Texas, breeder, offers a solution to the problem to the Rhode Island track. Writing from his St. Albans Stock Farm, Bud cites the case of the Bew-ley Building in that city, which solved the pigeon problem, it seems they employed the use of oversized feather dusters, red in color, and hung them at the trouble spots around the building. According to Bud, this has worked because for some months now the Bewley Building has been devoid of pigeons, and the red dusters are still swaying in the breeze. Since the camphor buckets they are using do not seem to work well up at Ganset, it may be worth giving the dusters .a try. Plan to Display Townsends Track Scenes Lee Townsend, whose water colors of racing scenes are gaining in popularity each season, will have a display of his work at the track here in the early part of next month, and a similar show at Saratoga in August. Lees display this past winter at Princeton was most successful and John Finney and Tyson Gilpin have urged him to etxend his shows, which he is going to do. Lees work is distinctive in that he does not restrict himself to horses, but portrays different phases of race track life in a most competent manner .. . John G. Ash, old-time horseman, is confined to Veterans Hospital, Pittsburgh, where he is to undergo a lung operation. . . . Charles R. Fleischmann, long-time devotee of the sport throughout the world, was a visitor Friday for the second time, but plans more frequent excursions to the Shore track before leaving on a tour of Spain and Portugal early in August.
