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. T Ml * On the Trot By MORRIE KLRLANSKY Nine Named for E. J. Baker Pace Potential Sophomore Stars Vie £ Royal Melody May Be One to Beat I MAYWOOD PARK. Maywood. 111.. May _ 9. — The Maywood Park spring meeting * reaches a high spot on Friday night with £ the running of the Col. „ E. J. Baker Pace, a _- j ,000 early- closing 21 event for three - year - 2 old colts and geldings L at the standard dis-£ tance of one mile. At | least four of the nine starters, William Lach-L enmaiers California -0 owned Silk Byrd, Z Brown Valley Farms 3 Michigan-owned Royal 5 Melody. C. M. Saund- ers Ohio-owned Rapid Goose and E. C. - Moriartys Kansas-owned Chejtenne Goose. - are «onsidered top prospects for leading £ sophomore honors this season. In addition colts like Kane County, a Wisconsin-owned speedster, undefeated in his two starts this season, and Risky Song, a Kentucky-owned colt, have shown enough to merit consideration in the search for victor of this important test. The rest of the field is made up of Lucky Pence, owned by Mrs. R. C. Ackerman of Galien, Mich., who will be coupled in the wagering with Royal Melody; Hal Frost, owned and driven by owner Jacques Grenier of Long Beach, Calif., and Patrick Dominion, the lone Illinois representative owned by George D. Duncan of Alton.-Ill. With the exception of Patrick Dominion, who finished third in his seasonal debut a week ago, all other starters in this race have won at least two races this spring and Royal Melody and Kane County are still undefeated. It is interesting to note that the nine starters represent seven different states. They also represent some of the most successful modern bloodlines and their pedigrees are hard to fault by the severest critics. The feature is named for the venerable St. Charles. 111. patron in whose colors raced such champions as Greyhound. Winnipeg, Alguers, Kings Counsel. Her Ladyship, Doctor Spencer, Sister Mary. Cardinal Prince and others too numerous to mention. Royal Melody, to be driven by young Jack Ackerman. who in recent seasons made quite a name for himself with the excellent trotter Scotch Valley and other members of the Brown Valley Stables of Detroit, was one of the best two-year-old pacers last season. A winner of nine races the chestnut son of former free-for-all star Royal Blackstone acquired the remarkable record of 2:011,5 in a time trial. This season, this promising colt started three times at Northville Downs to tackle older opponents with splendid success. Winning his seasonal debut in B:MK, Royal Melody a few nights later soundly trounced a formidable field in straight heats timed in l:NH and 2:04, the latter mark the fastest clocking for a three-year-old pacer over a half-mile track this year. C. M. Saunders* Rapid Goose, a triple winner at Santa Anita for driver Jim Fitz-patrick. scored a fine 2:0425 victory at Maywood two weeks ago and in his last outing was a creditable third to such older rivals as Plutocrat and Hi Los Bomb. Like all the Goose Bay offspring, Rapid Goose is not a fast starter but makes up for this deficiency with tremendous finishing power. Cheyenne Goose, also a son of Goose Bay, was an easy winner in both of his Maywood starts and his win time of 2:051s certainly is not a true indication of the gray coifs speed potential. Silk Byrd, victorious in his first three starts at Santa Anita this spring, was somewhat of a disappointment in his two Maywood races when he tired in the homestretch after setting a rapid pace for the first three-quarters. As he has drawn the favorable rail position for Fridays important test, it would be un-. wise to hold his recent two defeats against hm. A model of consistency as a juvenile, Silk Byrd triumphed in 15 out of 20 starts to amass earnings of more than 1,000 while racing to a 2:0145 record at Du Quoin. Trotting Notes: The continued success of the current meeting enabled the May-wood Park management to make another purse boost effective Monday. May 13. The new purse structure is as follows: Conditioned C class races, ,000; open C class races, ,200; B class races, ,500; A class races, ,500; AA. JFFA and FFA races, ,000 . . . E. C. Moriartys excellent mare June Mite, by Volomite, is represented by four of her foals at this meeting, and three of them, Scotch Lass, June Darnley and Black Rico, have won races here. In previous seasons, two other products of June Mite, the trotter Jesse Chisholm and the nacer Bill Bloss also were victorious at
