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i ■ kandhm Ascot Park By Dick Kumble ■ Billmike Interesting Gold Cup Prospect Gelding Owned by Single G. Corporation Group Comprises 100 Local Businessmen ASCOT PARK, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. May 3.— An interesting venture in nearby Cleveland is the Single G. Corporation, a group of 100 local businessmen who invested invested 0 0 apiece apiece to to purchase purchase a a i ■ invested invested 0 0 apiece apiece to to purchase purchase a a stable, or a horse, to be specific. They intend to win the Ascot Gold Cup, and local rumors have not dimmed their hopes. Though it is not the first organization of this type, it is quite interesting, to say the very least. The steed who will sail their silks is Billmike, a seven-year-old altered son of This England from Head Sea, by Head Play, who was bred by oy N. n. a. B. Capps. capps. Billmike Billmike has has by oy N. n. a. B. Capps. capps. Billmike Billmike has has kandhm finished in the money in nine of his 13 tries this year, and was purchased privately by the men of Single G.. who turned him over to trainer C. E. Bellinger. Billmike has already defeated the Ascot Gold Cup elig-ibles Mas Importante and Coronation Boy, and established a track record at Sunshine Park when he ran one mile and three-eighths in. 2:23, which was more than five full seconds faster .than the previous standard for that rarely-used distance. Billmike is essentially a stretch-runner, and must qualify here at 1 9-16 miles according to racing secretary Charles Henrys conditions. The Single G. Corporation is named after that famed pacer, and it will present quite a problem to .the local track photographer should Billmike capture the big race. The winners circle would look more like a Manhattan subway in the rush hour. Behrens Rugged Little Competitor Standing in the jockeys room last Thursday morning we noticed the track physician, Dr. Francis Clarke, administering tenderly to the damaged countenance of rider Ronald Behrens, who surprised us, saying he would ride that same afternoon. Behrens suffered a severe laceration below the right optic, and he received 10 stitches, but casually regarded it as a bruise of "some sort." Behrens, from Massapequa, New York, is 22, and rode on the "big apple" earlier in his career. Just five years exactly from the afternoon he handled his first winner, he scored an impressive triple, stitched cheekbone, et al. A good ride on Raymond Loughlins Overside, a six-year-old son of Khorasan and Ovala, returned his followers 37.80, largest return here in two years. Behrens formerly was under contract td Frank H. Merrill Jr. who led this countrys trainers, and he also rode for Mrs. Wallace Gilroy. His first winner was the latters Gracious One in an allowance race, and he also scored numerous victories with Sampan. Ronnie, a 110-pounder, plans to campaign in northern Ohio all summer. The eight-year-old Fighting Fox — Revoking gelding, Pardal, who races here for R. A. Davis, has been con- fused quite often by newspapermen with the English stallion of the same name, who sired Pardala, the five-year-old mare who won the Black Helen Handicap at ■ Hialeah and Matriarch at Monmouth, before running into Round Table in the rich Gulfstream Park Handicap. Pardal, he of the British Isles, would have the Roman numerals H. attached to his name should he be brought here, but the local chap, whose credentials are far- less assuming, still expects no false acknowledgements from the Fourth Estate. . . . "The Voice of Ohio Racing" is Van Lane, the the Cleveland man who drives a flaming red sports car that causes numerous gasps along the roadways. Lane, sports director of radio station WDOK in Cleveland, is in his fourth year here, and has nine sports shows daily, on four stations, one each in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Sharon, Pa. He started announcing racing at Waterford and Wheeling in West Virginia, before happily returning to his hometown. Lane credits his local "live" announcer, Chuck Bang, with some- consistently fine descriptions. Bang is assistant publicity director at Tropical Park in addition to his chores behind the mike in Ohio. Purse Minimums Raised to ,400 Some of the better known local horsemen are Doc Baker, Pete Maxwell, perennial leader on these grounds; . W. P. "Bill" Bell, who did well at Sunshine Park last winter, and former rider Benny Myres, who works for Harry Husmans Potato Chip Farm. . . . The minimum purse has been raised from ,000 to ,400.. . . . Dr. Eugene J., who shared a division of the recent Akron Handicap with Lady Yolande, won the Bowie Breeders Stakes in 1956,- and captured this years Washington Purse at Laurel before shipping here. . . . The first separate retention barn built in this state, located at Ascot, is considered among the nations finest, according to members of the Ohio State Racing Commission. . . . Ascot which employs two chutes, covers an area of almost 100 acres, just south of neighbors Thistle-Down, Randall, and Cranwood. . . . His many friends in the press box mourn the loss of Leonard Utterbach, Ascot track superintendent, who passed away suddenly last week. . . . Tony Bellardi, co-owner of the good three-year-old stakes prospect, Benedicto, works as a bartender for general manager Peter J. ODonnell at Miles Park in Kentucky. . . . Press box steadies Loren Tibbals of the Akron Beacon-Journal and George Lewis of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, have provided some interesting afternoons for this writer at Ascot. The greatest local prize, the Ascot Gold Cup, is less than two weeks off, scheduled for May 17th, the day of Continued on Page Fifty-Three ASCOT PARK ] By DICK RUMBLE * , Continued from Page Nine the Preakness. The race seems to be developing into a battle between Luther Shel-tons sons, Derral W. "Newt" and the younger Mike Shelton, have qualified no less than four of the seven horses who passed local tests with flying colors. Newt has the probable favorite in the four-year-old Iron Hand, a sturdy son of Beau Max and Velvet Glove, who was foaled at the King Ranch. He also has Effortless and Ikurrin in his barn, and they are eligible, getting first preference with local scores. Mike has been successful with Coronation Boy, who is a genuine threat. The others who are prominent include Wabash Reward and Lethnot, of Mrs. Martin D. Owens* string, and Sylvia Stables Edward. Jimmy McCutchens Mas.Importante eliminated himself by breaking a leg while Harry Husman and Billmike must be given consideration. _
