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RJjfeii California By Oscar Otis Ruidoso Downs Bids for Coast Patrons Taniguchi, Neves Riding in Top Form Early Del Mar Reservations Best Ever HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 1. Horses and People: Gene Hensley, of Ruidoso, phones to say the opening there on Memorial Day was big and it looks like the natty little trade high in the pines is in for an-other record - shattering year. Ruidoso gives the quarter horses a better opportunity than most Southwest tracks and has many of the best which competed at the recent Los Alamitos meeting on the grounds . . . Moreover, Ruidoso is making a pitch for weekend patronage from southern California, advising that it has a good aii-port available for private" planes ... La Mesa Park at Raton also had a record-shattering opening on the week end before Decoration Day. . . . Allen F. Brewer Jr., the Kentucky horse artist, paid his first visit to California last winter at Santa Anita, liked it so much he is returning for an extended stay at Hollywood Park, with scheduled arrival about June 9. Brewer is delivering oils of Bobby Brocato to owner, Travis M. Kerr and of the Irish and most successful sire, Sullivan, to Mrs. Ann Peppers . . . Godol- phin Darley, new European representative for Santa Anita, not only is cracking continental papers and those in England and Ireland with items about Santa Anitas turf course, but also is on a tour personally presenting the Santa Anita program, with all its rich stakes and appeal, to every owner and breeder of consequence . . . Whatever success Darley may have in getting individual horses or stables from Europe to Santa Anita this winter is incidental to the point that Santa Anita has launched a long range promotional program aboard which eventually is bound to pay dividends. Note Balance in Gold Cup Weights Analysis of the weights of Johnny Maluvius for the 00,000 guaranteed net to winner Gold Cup added value of 62,100 discloses a nicely balanced field . . . Bardstown tops the roster at 128, which, if he flies out for the race, would be the practical equivalent of more than 130 pounds, for rule of thumb is to allow five pounds for transcontinental flight George Taniguchi and Ralph Neves are riding as if inspired, both boys having a high percentage of winners as measured against mounts accepted. . . . Portland Meadows, we hear, has found that snappy parades and posts as advertised are popular. The Randall boys up North have decreed only 26 minutes between races. . . . Lloyd Wright, former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, will fly out from Washington to make his address before the NASRC delegates. He is in the Capitol on an extended stay for cases before the U. S. Supreme Court. As a backstretch safety measure, a cyclone fence has been built adjacent to the rail at Longacres . . . Makes it impossible to get onto the track by scooting under the top strip, although access to the track may be had at any regular gap . .. Don Smith, president of Del Mar, has launched his membership "drive" for the surf and turf private club well in advance of previous years, explaining, "more than half our turf club members come from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, with a city like Dallas having extremely heavy representation. We want to tell folks what Del Mar has to offer before they make definite plans for the summer," like going to Europe, for example." . . . Advance reservations at Del Mar, by the way, are the best in the tracks history. We predict a daily average handle of 50,000 . ." . Kentuckys plan for a "cooling out area" in which to obtain samples, coupled with a mobile lab which will give the result of the tests within two hours, is far from new. We saw such an area in operation at Phoenix several years ago, and it not only put everything in the open, so to speak, where there was no chance of a mistake, but percentage of samples obtained was the highest ever known. But Phoenix at that time did not have a mobile lab. One Inconsistent Paddock Regulation The stewards tell us there is no ban on photographers exploding light bulbs in thetheatre paddock except in two-year-old races, but Willie Molter, who saddled Round Table in the Calif ornian agrees that the flash activity in the paddock just before the race did Round Table no good . . . Why should there be a prohibition for two-year-olds only is more than we can understand, for there are some older horses which are of nervous temperament and it doesnt strike us as fair to these horses to be subjected to undue excitement . . . The theatre paddock, a brilliant idea for the public, is at the same time the most unnatural of settings, and this writer was responsible for at least one safety innovation, at Golden Gate, where we noticed that the lead ponies in back of the horses being saddled i.e., on the track distracted them because the thoroughbreds couldnt see just what was behind them, although obviously knowing something was there ... By decreeing the pony boys stand away from the paddock, the trouble was quickly solved . . . The NASCR convention technically gets under way Sunday between the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon at the Beverly Hilton with registration of delegates.
