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. OReilly on Racing Hattack Adds Dramatic Touch To Invasion of Belmont Park By TOM OREILLY BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., May 31. These words are being typed high up under the eaves of Belmont Park, Americas most beautiful race track. Below, the handsome, brown, carefully curried track encircles the great, green, flower-bordered and white fenced infield, with the waters of its tiny, man-made lake reflecting the blue of a cloudless Long Island sky. The sapphire lake is remindful of the racing colors registered by the late John Barry Ryan, Sr., an obvious admirer of Michelangelos famed chapel ceiling, in Rome "Sistine blue-red cap." Beyond the course, the skyline, changing from the deep green of bordering trees to the hazy blue of distant hills, is broken only by the golden cupola of Floral Park-Bellerose school, with its handsome Widener Hall, plus the tall smoke stacks and towering frame of a new addition to another insane asylum Creedmor State Hospital. Here, on both sides, familiarity should breed respect. Below, among the horse-happy horde of 45,000 that started arriving at nine oclock Memorial Day morning, everybodyhad the same idea find a winner. Even ten stories above them, you can hear the rumble of their conversation and long experiencesays they are all asking the same question, "Wha dya hear?" Everybody is looking for a tip, and between the second and third races-they receive a tremendous one right out of the clear sky. A helicopter, its whirling blades making an angry Donald Duck-Jike noise, settles gently in the infield and out steps diminutive Willie Hartack, up from Delaware Park, to ride Boston Doge in the big Carter Handicap. Enviously, the complexions of thespians in the crowd must match gardener Billy Grants box hedges. This is certainly the most dramatic entrance before an applauding New York crowd since the memorable opening night of the Pulitzer prize winner, "Green. Pastures," on Broadway. An actor, pjaying Moses, sounded a trumpet, before shouting, "Gangway fo de Lawd! God! Jehovah!" And out stepped modest, lovable old Rex. Ingram, in the role of "de Lawd." Tip Has Effect on Fans The tip is refreshing and undoubtedly has a profound effect on fans who spent the night pouring over charts and figures concerning the 11 horses in the Carter. Studying weights, comparative times, distances and track condition in the familiar surroundings of their apartment homes, on stools in all-night eateries, in barns and on baronial estates, these so-called "kitchen handicappers" are impressed by Willies dramatic arrival. Hartack is only 23, but he is on the way to becoming a millionaire. No matter what the figures say, he must be mighty sure of success to ride up here, so dramatically, for this lone ride. It is with these wonderful people in mind that Frank E. "Jimmy" Kilroe, official handicapper of the New York tracks and conceded to be the best in the Americas, was asked, "What is the most difficult sort of race to handicap?" The brown eyes flashed, seriously, as the tall, dark-haired, 48-year-old Kilroe j pondered the question. Ik was a busy morning and one of the stewards was calling for him to come to lunch. Kilroe is the soul of courtesy, however, and likes to answer direct questions with honest answers. Wrinkling his brows, he opined: "Races for fillies and mares are the most difficult. They dont seem able to hold their form as consistently as other horses." Kilroe did not smile when the interviewer suggested it was the same with hu-Continued on Page Fiity-Five OLEN SLEDGE The Oklahoma owner has Jimmy the One entered in todays feature race at Ak-Sar-Ben. OReilly on Racing Continued from Page Three mans the distaff side causes the most trouble. -He was still thinking of the horses. These he treats with reverence. Humans are never consistent. "Of course, if you run into a mare like Gallorette, youve got a jewel," he smiled. "But then you only meet Gallorettes once in a million." "Stakes horses are the easiest to handicap he. continued, serious again. "To become- stake horses they must show good form. Fred," he turned to Fred Parks, his assistant, "what would you say are the hardest races to handicap?" "Overnight claimers," said Parks, "and those races where horses come in from all over the country and you cant get a true line on them. The tough ones are those in which there are several horses who have never run in similar company. You cant find a common denominator around which to compare them." Kilroe nodded in agreement and ob- served: "A great deal of it is luck. You get a run of luck and the horses perform the way you more or less expect them to. Then you can run to a streak in which nothing seems to make sense. It is not an exact science." Maybe the best handicappers, after all, are those guess-your-weight guys on the Coney Island boardwalk. Win a box o candy, lady! It beats work!
