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New Jersey I By William Phillips Garden State Park Inaugurates 16th Season Valley Forge Handicap Looms interesting Race Fabius Faces Tough Assignment at Weights WeightsGARDEN GARDEN STATE PARK Camden N J May 3 Operations for the sixteenth year of racing at Garden State Park were off to an auspicious beginning this morning when horsemen flooded racing secretary Mathius C Ty Shea with a total of 15 entries for the Valley Forge Handicap At this time yesterday Shea was wondering if he would have as many as five horses in the open ¬ ingday stakes everybody seem ¬ ing to be shy of tackling Calumet Farms Fabius When the chips were down however and the money about to be passed the owners of horses nominated for the one mile and 70 yards fixture woke up with startling abruptness The resulting affluence of en ¬ tries has boosted the tentative value of the Valley Forge to 31200 although this figure is likely to be re ¬ duced by withdrawals before Saturday afternoon when it will be necessary for each owner to put up a 250 fee is they actually are going to run There is a 50 nomination fee to the Valley Forge but it then costs nothing to enter and an owner has an opportunity to look things over before making up his mind if he will make the final payment to start startMaybe Maybe there are more owners like Arthur Frenchy Bowen He checked to make sure it cost nothing to enter before making out a slip for Fabricator saying I am going to name him but I doubt if Ill run He had a rough time of it in the Laurel Handicap and came out with quite a few nicks and unless he looks a who lot better tomorrow morning I wont take a chance with him yet yetWeather Weather and Racing Strip at Best BestConditions Conditions for the beginning of the meeting are perfect and horses are working over the track like greased lightning The Valley Forge shapes up as a first class contest with Fabius standing far out on top with his impost of 124 pounds Weight is the great equalizer and despite the good winter form and sharp trials turned in locally by the Calumet colt he will have to run fast and furious to get the money We understand that Fabius never looked better than when he finished a handy second to his stablemate Bards town in the mile and a quarter Gulfstream Park Handicap If that is true then he certainly will be a tough foe to down weight notwithstanding notwithstandingOf Of those entered for the Valley Forge Mrs M Er langers Englishbred Rasper n is rated closest to Fabius by Shea who assigned the fiveyearold son of Owen Tudor 118 pounds Our thought too is that Rasper n could be very troublesome In his last race at Laurel he laughingly outran Cedrus under 121 pounds equal weight and ran a mile and a sixteenth in 143 The flashy dark brown horse wearied after setting the pace in the Bowie Handicap his previous outing but he had been conditioned by only one sprint before the Bowie and could have been short for that effort Passing over the several others who could be theatening we came to King Ranchs Beam Rider who we saw give a tre ¬ mendous effort in finishing second to Midaf ternoon last Saturday in the Excelsior Handicap at Jamaica The fouryearold son of Poised is asked to carry only 110 pounds and he needs only to show a similar perform ¬ ance as last Saturdays and it will require nothing less than a top runner to beat him himCarroll Carroll Strokes a Mean Pencil PencilThe The little man with the big pencil here at Garden State Park is Henry J Carroll He smokes big black cigars down to little brown stubs and that pencil of his is a big stick in the view of the horsemen Carroll is the assistant racing secretary and it is he who is chiefly responsible for the assignment of the weights over which horsemen habitually groan when they enter in a handicap jrace Carroll delves into the charts and past performances and prepares the original draft of weight assignments for all of the handicap races after which racing secretary Mathius C Ty Shea checks it over and makes the final adjustments Carroll serves in a similar capacity at several other race tracks and is himself the racing secretary and handicapper at Hagers town in Maryland Of all the racing secretary crews throughout the country the one working for Shea is probably the most colorful while at the same time being one of the most efficient Shea himself enjoys nothing quite so much as a practical joke and it is with difficulty some times that he maintains the stern veneer considered necessary for a person of his official position positionJimmy Jimmy Jones called from Churchill Downs this morning to inform Shea that Barbizon will be coming to Garden State Park on Monday Jimmy will allow himself time to recover from the excitement of either winning or losing the coveted horseshoe of roses on Derby Day and will try to be here Monday himself Barbizon won The Garden State here last fall the worlds richest race and he will point him this season for the 50000 added Jersey Stakes which event was captured by Calumet last year by Fabius The other two star threeyearolds Gen Duke and Iron Liege will be sent after the Derby to Pimlico where they will prepare for the Preakness John L McKnight is making his first appearance at Garden State Park Continued M Ftg FortySeven NEW JERSEY JERSEYBy By WILLIAM PHILLIPS Continued from Past Five since 1955 when he dispersed the bulk of his raging stock due tor ill health healthHis His health has improved greatly and he will take personal charge of Bo ¬ lero U his colt who won the Gulf stream Park Juvenile and the recent Youthful Stakes at Jamaica Bolero U was bred in Tennessee by Clarence Hartwick of Sickles Image fame and McKnight pur ¬ chased the son of Bolero in a package deal with three other runners as yearlings Eddie Yowell one of the many jockeys turned trainers is back at his usual quar ¬ ters with a large public stable Among his patrons are Harold H Polk and Mrs Zelda Cohen Nick Jemas was caught slipping clerk of scales Al Bonogura a fancy cigar this morning but Al informed the laugh ¬ ing Greek that a carload of panatellas would not be enough to tip the scales Nick fortunately is stringy fit and down to light riding weight
