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New England By Fred Galiani Pipe of Peace Makes Good Over Route Ronnie Eastman Hits Winners Circle Woollard Has All FloridaBred Stable StableLINCOLN LINCOLN DOWNS Lincoln R I April 30 Satur ¬ days Hartford Handicap won by J P Venutis Pipe of Peace merely added to the confused handicap situa ¬ tion at the local course The Sat ¬ urday affairs overnight events have invariably drawn the same horses and seldom has the result been the same Pipe of Peace winning his first race in 15 starts had finished behind Opera Light the week previously and had been unplaced to the same horse while winding up behind Burnt Child on two other occasions In all these races the weight spreads were not too pronounced Dis ¬ tance of course is a definite factor and Pipe of Peaces preference for any route has been well known to fol ¬ lowers of New England races Yet with the same familiar horses going to the post every week end it tends toward monotony The only difference other than the new winner was that for once the finish wound up without the aid of the camera In most of the handi ¬ caps at the meeting Gordon Morrow has come up with a photo finish the lone saving aspect of the weekend features New faces are very much in need In this respect New England is not as fortunate as New Jersey New York and Maryland where there is a constant flow of handicap and stakes horses from track to track for the various features which have a greater monetary value a major selling point of course New England cant match the money game and so the unhappy but monotonous situation exists existsIt It took four years but Ronnie Eastman finally made it back to his New England habitat and selected the perfect site to break His maiden The 21yearold lad from Methuen Mass hit the winners circle for the first time on April 17 on a horse called Bills Hygro It was a long trail because Eastman has 102 mounts and one year and a half of riding behind him The Merri mac Valley section of New England has brought forth numerous jockeys over the years for too many to re ¬ count and Eastman is just another tin the long line A schoolmate of Mickey Thomas who rode with success around here in recent years Eastman came from the golf links to the race track A graduate of Methuen High Eastman also caddied at the Merrimac Valley Golf Club a rendezvous for numerous horsemen during the Rockingham Park session While there because of his light build and stature he was noticed by trainer Dutch Neilsen who brought him to the race track and introduced him to Fred Wyse WyseA WyseV V A Victory Worth Waiting For ForEastman Eastman stayed with Wyse for a year or so arid then moved to Ohio In the Buckeye State he was associated with Chuck Scarvelli for whem he rode his first horse in October 1954 Since then he passed the century mark in mounts but had to wait for two more before notching his initial victory At last he seems to have caught on In 15 subsequent mounts he has had an N other winner and been in the money for the moqt part Now under contract to Dick DeStasio for whom he rode at Sunshine Park this winter Eastman has elicited praise from horsemen who see a future for him As in the case of most apprentices who are brought along slowly the majority of his mounts were of the sort who had little chance of winning but provided perfect test ¬ ing ground for a budding rider Eastman has gained a lot of experience and more important confidence He does 106 pounds and whips with both hands He may prove to be one of the better bug boys on the cir ¬ cuit As previously noted many rider have come out of the New England sector As an example at the re ¬ cent Bowie meeting the leading rider Tony DeSpirito and the kingpin of the bug boys Tommy McGovern both call New England home homeLucy Lucy Taylor secretary in Gordon Morrows office is still in a critical condition in St Josephs Hospital Providence Lucy who was hospitalized and operated upon for a gangrenous toe suffered a subsequent stroke last week He may not be the oldest man on the grounds but Napoleon Tremblay most probably is the longest married The past week Nap custodian of the stewards room celebrated his fiftyninth anniversary and come this August he will be 81 years old But I feel like 40 he says Ted Dooley is distributing stall applacation blanks for the coming Narragansett Park meeting The Pawtucket track opens June 28 for a 24day stand Charles Ralph Jellison who made his first appearance last week was last at Lincoln in 1948 The 31yearold jockey hails from Harlow Town Montana and has campaigned most on the West Coast Jellison started riding in 1944 and booted home his first winner in 1947 1947Suffolk Suffolk Offers New Distance Series SeriesGordon Gordon Morrow has instituted a new series of dis ¬ tance races for the coming Suffolk Downs meeting Termed the Olympian Series the races are handicaps for threeyearolds and up who have started for a claiming price of 3500 or less since June 30 1955 The races will be run both over the dirt and turf courses ranging in distances from about one mile and a sixteenth to about two miles Dart Forward who won the second race as an oddson choice for G E Woollard was a victorious Floridabred Woollard and trainer Tony Cataldi are doing well indeed with gator bait stock this season The allFlorida fourhorse sta ¬ ble has won three races garnered two thirds and two twofourths fourths in 11 starts V V f M 5 f f
