Weighing In: Looks like Tossup between Heliopolis Colts Will Turns Bother High Gun in Carter Cap? Chase, Daily Racing Form, 1955-06-30

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Weighing In By Evan Shipman- 1 Looks Like Tossup Between Heliopolis Colts Will Turns Bother High Gun in Carter Cap? Chase Horsemen Shortsighted at Delaware AQUEDUCT, L I., N. Y., June 29. Jimmy Kilroes impartiality in regard to the chances of King Ranchs High Gun and William Helis, Jr.s, Helioscope for next Mondays renewal of the seven-furlong Carter Handicap reflects our sentiments exactly. He has assigned both brilliant four-year-old sons of Heliopolis 133 pounds, of three over scale, for this, the American turfs richest sprint. "You pays your money and you takes your choice!" As between the two remarkable young thoroughbreds, our partiality has always leaned toward High Gun, but in this case, that personal I preference is tempered by the suspicion that Helioscope may be slightly favored by the peculiarities of this highly individual strip here at Aqueduct. As far as the distance of the Carter is concerned, we believe that High Gun will find himself as much at home over the seven panels as will the speedy Helioscope, but it is possible that Helioscope will adapt himself-more readily to the flat turns at Aqueduct than will the larger, bolder-going King Ranch colorbearer. This theory of ours and it is nothing more than that, mind you received a certain amount of confirmation when trainer Max Hirsch sent High Gun out for a work between races the other afternoon, and we beheld his charge equipped with a -strange rig that must have been designed expressly to hold him in on those turns. Some called it a "double check," but, tous, the resemblance was closer to a mariingale. In any event, High Gun had a rein on each side, extending from the ring ofjiis bit back to the girth, the function being to keepv his head straight and at the proper angle. Horse Wont Have Check Reins Monday High Gun is certainly not going to be equipped with those reins, call them checks or martingales or what you will, when Eddie Arcaro mounts him in the Carter next week. They were simply there "the other afternoon as an aid to the exercise boy, and w,e do not for a moment wish to exaggerate their importance, or even to imply that High Gun "had to" be thus controlled. In all the races that we have watched High Gun in action and, come to think of it, they were invariably at Belmont Park with its wide, sweeping turns we have never seen the colt make what we call "a wrong move." On the contrary, he has always appeared to our eye as a "handy" colt, one that a jockey can place very much as he wishes. However, there is no denying High Guns great power; he has grown to be an imposing animal, one whose latent strength can be compared with that of a Native Dancer or a Nashua. Early in the month, when High Voltages stable-mate, Misty Morn, smashed a long-standing track record for a mile and a sixteenth at Belmont Park, we hailed that performance in what we now admit to be overly enthusiastic terms. The. Wheatley Stables three-year-old daughter of Princequillo is a nice filly right enough, but she is by no means the phenomenon you may have been led to expect from our purple prose. Had she been, Misty Morn could have won the recent Providence Stakes at Narragansett from Mont-peliers Blenheim II. colt, Saratoga, on her merits. By that statement, we mean, of course, that she should have beaten the colt because of her great advantage in the weights for this New England fixture 17 pounds, or a dozen pounds more than the sex allowance. Actually, Misty Morn did win the Providence Stakes at Saratogas direct expense. Horsemen Warned to Support Stanton Jumps For several years now, we have warned steeplechase owners and trainers that if they did not adequately support Delaware Parks generous program of through-the-field stakes, that association was more ,than likely to erase steeplechasing from its annual program, an eventuality that this branch of the sport can ill afford. In addition, we have hinted strongly from time to time at a certain hostility to the jumpers "at .Delaware; a-state of mind in some quarters that would be only too glad to see the last of a type of sport that does not pay its way in terms of the pari-mutuels. We have already called your attention to the vote taken by owners and trainers following which the two main features of the Delaware meeting the Georgetown and Indian River -Stakes are now raced on the little, "inside" course instead of the spectacular "outside" course for which they were designed. That, to our way of thinking, was a short-sighted decision; reading it, we saw "the handwriting on the wall." As a sequel, we were not surprised when the association decided to present the Georgetown as a "non-wagering" event, the race preceding the regular program and at a time when racegoers coming by train from Baltimore and Philadelphia j could not see it. Under ordinary circumstances, we would be tempted to condemn Delaware Park roundly for its cavalier treatment of the Georgetown, this renewal promising to be a bitterly contested race at the weights, in spite of the small number of starters and actually fulfilling that promise when Mrs. Ogden Phipps excellent Ancestor and Coveted defeated the highly favored Shipboard in a driving finish. As it is, we cannot but feel that the horsemen left themselves "wide open" for a blow that they should have anticipated, and against which they should have been well armed. It is a truism, we suppose, that you get sick of helping people who will not help themselves.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1955063001/drf1955063001_56_2
Local Identifier: drf1955063001_56_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800