view raw text
64,978 Witness Round Tables Win Takes Will Rogers Stakes To Establish Himself as Wests Leading Sophomore JBy Staff Correspondent HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., May 31 The Kerr Stables Round Table, a bay colt by Princequillo and Knights Daughter, left little doubt as to his superiority over western three-year-olds when he galloped to a most convincing victory in the 8,450 Will Rogers Stakes at one mile here Memorial Day. Performing before a near record crowd of 64,798 persons, Round Table ran the eight furlongs in 1:34 under 122 pounds and hauled under the wire three and one-half lengths in advance of his nearest rival. Joe Price, who was found to have been stimulated in his last previous race took down second honors and Miquelet was third. Nine took part in the holiday feature and best of the others was Air Pilot. Few thought Round Table would be beaten and as a result those who wagered on him had to be content with a .90 return. The winners share of the purse was 6,150. Round Table Well Placed Early The speedsters Buford and Miquelet battled each other for pacemaking honors to the head of the homestretch, but Ralph Neves had Round Table well placed not too far off the leaders. Soon after straighen-ing out for the run through the final straightaway the Kerr colt took over, quickly opened a commanding lead and held it to the end though he was bearing out in the last eighth. He also raced wide on the first turn. Joe Price was last to get out of the gate and he made up a lot of ground to account for his share of the purse, but he was no serious menace to the winner. However, he was .good enough to have beaten Miquelet almost three lengths for second honors. Air Pilot, who ran an even race, was a little more than a length away in fourth position. After making all the early pace Buford dropped back and wound up sixth. Others who participated in the Will Rogers were Special Look, Irisher, Gaelic Gold and Lightning Jack, the latter winner of the Debonair Stakes in the mud earlier in the season. Round Table, who earlier this spring won the Blue Grass Stakes in track record time and finished third in the Kentucky Derby, now has turned in two big performances here at Hollywood Park. Only last Satur-! day he competed against older horses in the 00,000 Californian at a mile and a Continued on Page Fifty-Seven Round Table Asserts His Superiority in Will Rogers Continued from Page Eight sixteenth and finished a bang-up second-to Social Climber. Round Tables next major opportunity here comes in the El Dorado Handicap at a mile and one-sixteenth for three-year-olds on June 15. The attendance Thursday was the third largest in the tracks history, being exceeded only by the all-time attendance record of 72,186 on Memorial Day, 1948, and the 67,648 on Memorial Day, 1956. The number of cars parked on the huge Hollywood Park lot hit 26,254, second only to the 30,681 parked Saturday, May 26, last year on the day of the Californian.
