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Hazel Park I By Fred Galianl - Local Track Gets Strong Support From Fans Holiday Gate; Handle Topped 1956 Figures Little Doubt That Meet Will Be a Success HAZEL PARK, Mich., May 31 Memorial Day, the -turf s traditional big holiday, was no exception here at this sporty five-eighths mile track with 22,925 fans breasting the mutuel windows to a tune of ,197,505. Compared to the big features clicked off on machines in New York, California and New Jersey it does not seem too staggering, but it is a healthy sign in Michigan and represents a sizable increase over the corresponding holiday of last year. Both the gate, and significantly important, a paid gate, and the handle surpassed that of the 1956 Memorial Day. And it is important to note that the fields while on the small side, produced nothing but tight finishes. The featured Great Lakes Handicap was as tight as they qpuld come, with Rock Pilot, a front-running victor, in an all out desperate stand to nose out My Night Out. The latter, you may recall, was the Cinderella horse of the Florida season, running up a remarkable skein of straight victories, while escaping from the claiming ranks: The paucity of fields since the meeting has begun has had the management in -a quandary, so much so that they have taken steps to alleviate the situation. With close to 1,000 horses on the grounds, the fields have been late in assembling. An ultimatum was launched over the holiday, with horsemen who are reluctant to enter their charges being given fair warning that unless they co-operate they will be asked to vacate their stalls to stables who have stock ready to run. It is a contretemps at best, but one that will be ironed out shortly. At any rate, from the way the meeting has started, there seems to be little doubt but that the season will be a success. The Hazel Park slogan is "Detroits Friendly Track" and obviously the v customers find the small -fields to their liking and, unaware of the struggle it is to get the horses assembled, continue to give it their full support. Plenty of Chances for Claimers . Trainers who are looking for an easy spot couldnt find a better place than Hazel Park, especially if they have some cheap ,000-,500 horses. Where most areas have little trouble filling races of that classification, here at Hazel Park an owner of such type horse can pick and choose his spotSj, as there seem to be little of that calibre horse on the grounds. The other day only six could be mustered for a ,500 race. An owner or trainer with a couple of hard-hitting cheap platers might very well invest in a phone call to Horace Wade and try and snag a couple of stalls-. And with purse pots being given back to fifth place, its like finding money . . . Another whacky one came up here this past week when a starter in the first race had to be scratched for a different reason than usual. This time it seems a trainer had sent a vet over to his barn to give a horse a ball, but the groom led out the wrong animal. The vet, not knowing, administered the medicine to a horse who was slated to race a couple of hours later. Marion VanBerg, who is always right up with the leading trainers, doesnt put all his eggs in one basket. He has 30 head here, a dozen more at Ak-Sar-Beri and a trio at Chicago. The last division is headed by the stakes performing Estacion . . . Tricky Willie Causey, suntanned to a mahogany hue, checked in from Kentucky and is on the lookout for a couple of horses to train . . . Art Warner, dapper and debonair as ever, checked in for the holiday to run a couple of starters, then returned across the border to Woodbine . . . Dr. Dorin Rudneck, prominent Chicago surgeon who includes a number of jockeys among his patients, and his wife are here for a couple of days as guests of president Dick Connell . . . Gaby Chester Grafton is quite disturbed over rumors that his fellow mutuel worker in New York, Frank Powers, is planning to reenter the nuptial state. Gaby hopes that if the stories have a shred of truth to them, Powers at least will delay the ceremony until the Florida season. Gaby will do anything for a freeload, even to acting as best man. j Cowgirl Handles the Pony Express At least the horse motif is carried out here at Hazel when it comes to, the dispatching of the film patrol reels from tower to base. At other tracks the carrier employed may run, ride a bicycle or drive in a car. Here they have a pony express rider for the job in June Spicer, who has been shuttling the films on horseback for three years. Not being a bit coy about her age, admitting to 29, June is a graduate of the rodeo ring. A native of Oklahoma, she was raised on her fathers ranch in Wyoming and it was only a short jump from wrestling steers on the homestead to doing the same job for money in the arenas. From 1946 to 1951 she followed that trail, then came to the track in New Orleans as an exercise girl. June married trainer C. E. Spicer last year and the two of them have a horse or two which they carry in their public stable. In addition to ponying anywhere from five to 10 horses in the a. m. for other trainers, June continues on the job a film patrol rider in the afternoons. The Spicer stable Is really a working unit.
