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New Jersey By William Phillips Joe Jones Gives Weight in Valley Forge Gelding Exemplifies Sire Stymies Forte Jacobs Star Shuns-Hard Racing Surface GARDEN STATE PARK, Camden, N. J.t May 11.— The mile and 70 yards Valley Forge Handicap, seasonally one of the racing highlights of the Garden is to is to State Park spring meeting, have its fifteenth running on Saturday. There is no Nashua in the field of 11, he being reserved to make his appearance the following Saturday in the nine-furlong Camden Handicap, but from every aspect it shapes up as another in a long line of interesting renewals. Mrs. Ethel D. Jacobs Joe Jones is slated to be the starting highweight over nine rivals with a 119-pound assignment. This is the same weight he shouldered in the Valley Forge last year when he reached the front, only to lug in-and lose a nose decision to Wm. G. Helis Helioscope in an intensely exciting duel that was a prevue to the bitter stretch battle later staged by Helioscope and High Gun in the Suburban. Joe Jones is a six-year-old gelded son of Stymie. He has been beaten by just about every top handicap horse campaigning, but like his sire before him, he also has beaten nearly every one of them. Stymie was to be known as the "iron horse" because of his dogged persistency and ability to go on year after year while his rivals dropped by the wayside. Joe Jones apparently has inherited this determination and he, along with Alfred G. Vanderbilts Social Outcast, could well be called the iron horses of the present generation. Joe Jones this year has won the Bowie Handicap, the Southern Maryland Handicap and the Lincoln Special, and his earnings already have edged slightly above the 00,000 mark. In his last start he finished fourth under 120 pounds, beaten two lengths by the mighty Nashua, in the Grey Lag. May Deepen Cushion for Handicap Hirsch Jacobs caused a bit of a furor when he advised the Camden track management over the phone from New York that he would start Joe Jones in the Valley Forge only if the racing strip is not too hard. Joe Jonesr performed below par and won only one overnight race in five starts last winter over the exceedingly fast Santa Anita strip, and Jacobs is not anxious to encounter the same type of track this week end. Joe Jones has tender feet and he* often displays a tendency to lug in. He did this lastf year in this same race, and just recently almost lost a nose decision to Find for that reason in the Lincoln Special. A few other horsemen have complained that the Garden State course is too stinging, and it is probable that track superintendent Emil Weiler will dig up a deeper cushion for the program this week end. It is to be piesumed that Mrs. Jacobs Searching did not perform better here in the Colonial Handicap two weeks ago for this reason, as indicated by a repudiation of that effort when she turned the tables on Myrtles Jet and Gandharva to win the Correction Handicap at Jamaica last Wednesday. Joe Jones is rated seven pounds above his closest rival for the 9,650 Valley Forge, but the race is anything but a one-horse affair. Darby Dan Farms.Skipper Bill, Carl L. DuPuys Gaidar, Calumet Farms Commodore M. and Eugene F. OConnells Marys JBubble, to name just a few, all appear threatening. Skipper Bill has shown through several seasons that he has a distinct fondness for the Garden State Park course, and he appears razor sharp off his last two sprint outings. The six-year-old son of Errard is fully capable of holding his speed for a mile and 70 yards and he will be difficult to catch. Gaidar comes from a creditable victory at Gulfstream Park, and before that the smallish son of Rustom Sirdar finished second to Swaps when the Californian established a new world record for the mile and seventy yards. Trainer W. C._Prickett believes that Gaidar is a vastly improved horse" over last year, and he has honed up his speed for his Jersey debut. Betsy Ross Next for Pretty Plunger Tommy Kelly announced after Ada L. Rices Pretty * Plunger won the feature sprint here Thursday that the daughter of Hill Prince would be a starter in the 5,000 added Betsy Ross Stakes here on Memorial Day. . . . "Willie Hartack cancelled his mounts here Thursday to rest up and gain a new perspective. He had been blanked , out on the programs Tuesday and Wednesday. . . . Pres- ton M. Burch decided not to start Brookmeade Stables Lawless here this week and has returned the sophomore to Belmont Park. . . . Trainer Jim OBrey drove up from Maryland this morning for a look-see at the ; local scene. . . . Humphrey Finney will~.be hosted by Mr. and Mrs. F. Wallis Ai-mstrong at Garden State on Saturday. Finney will first visit his son, a senior at Princeton, and be a week-end guest of the Armstrongs at their Meadowview Farms, Inc. . . . James and Joan Edwards, owners of the Audley Farm, have arrived from Fairmount Park for an inspection of the horses • they have here with trainer B. B. Williams. Edwards is president of the Southern Illinois track and is dividing his time between the farm, his racing stable, Fair-mount Park and the mattress business. . Tommy Heard Jr. reports that Jumping Brook bucked his shins in the running of the William Penn last Wednesday.. The juvenile son of Rippey is highly regarded by the stable and Heard believes he may have -finished closer- to his stablemate. Balaklava II.. but for being crowded twice during the running. . . . Hunter Lyons Busy Harvest, who was disqualified from second for sloughing C. B. Carters Burma Charm in the William Penn, has been placed on the stewards listT The Florida-bred colt has only one eye, and the stewards have required him to be schooled" without a closed blinker. . . . Jockey Donald Brumfield accepted Jiis first -mount of the meeting on Friday. He was named on Margaret McCallums Sachet in the fifth race. . . . Frank A. Bonsai shipped Pentagon Stables Salix here from Laurel. ... A. A. Maus Tan Hide was returned to Aqueduct by trainer Harold Williams after an unsuccessful essay here. j
