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California f By Oscar Otis = Longden Leisure Lady Win Goose Girl Seaneen Sharp Points for Los Angeles Silky Sullivan Created His Own Press PressHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif May 14 All hands admit that veteran Johnny Longden is riding in as good a form as he ever showed in his long career and for further proof you need look no further than Tuesdays 15000 Goose Girl Stakes which Longden won by sheer ability with Agoura Stock Farms Leisure Lady in a blanket finish over Speedkhal Nevada Bond and Honora Longden loves to race in front and he did just that with Leisure Lady in the 6 furlongs dash but was hooked wiien straightened out in the stretch by both Nevada Bond and Speed khal But Longden although he had Leisure Lady setting the pace also had something left for the drive and he rode like one possessed to keep her iri front to the wire which he did in the rapid tiriie of 111 flat The winner a threeyearold daughter of Call Bell could turn out to be a firstclass stakes horse if she can sustain her speed to a distance of ground Cer ¬ tainly her courage was not suspect after the drive she withstood to annex the Goose Girl In case you might have forgotten the Goose Girl was the first of a series of weekday stakes to be decided on Tuesdays instead of the traditional Wednesdays In other words Tuesday is when the Los Angeles Dodgers start a series here in town Tuesday marked the first open conflict between Hollywood Park and the Dodgers who played the afternoon in the nearby Coliseum It was a day that Hollywood had awaited with some considerable interest The result Well the crowd was up more than 1000 from the comparable Tuesday of last year and marked the first time at this meeting such an uppage has been shown against last year If this can be taken as a criterion maybe we should get the Dodgers to play in Los Angeles all the time quipped a smiling vicepresident Jim Stewart StewartIrishBred IrishBred Faces Two Major Tests TestsVeteran Veteran trainer William B Finnegan has the Irish bred Seaneen ready for the 50000 Los Angeles Hand ¬ icap at 7 furlongs Saturday and remarks I dont believe hell stay farther than a mile and a furlong with really top company and perhaps a mile and one sixteenth fits him best But we have some kind of con ¬ fidence in him for the 100000 Californian on the 24th which is at his distance a mile and a sixteenth and in which he will be weighted at 107 pounds This horse didnt gain too many headlines at Santa Anita last winter but Jie was so consistently in the money in the big stakes that he earned somewhere in the neighbor ¬ hood of 90000 during the winter Which is not a bad season for any race horse Of course up at Golden Gate he proved himself as a good horse by shattering the long standing record of Count Speed Cat one time a world record for the mile and a sixteenth by going the distance in 140 140We We cannot pass over without a bit of comment the observation of our good friend in Kentucky Hugh J McGuire that Californjans associated with Breeding and racing must be given credit for exploitation of their industry It is not by accident that when Silky Sullivan came along he became the most talked of horse in a generation We agree with the first sen ¬ tence but most emphatically differ with the second For Silkys tremendous publicity and popularity was an accident and in many ways his rise to fame was freakish The owners flatly and repeatedly stated they were by no means convinced he was a good horse The great majority of the turf writers and experts firmly believed that Old Pueblo was a standout three yearold in the West WestColt Colt Glamorized by Racing Public It was nobody but the men in the grandstand who did so much whooping and hollering for Silky Sullivan that forced the turf writers to follow suit It was not for instance a California promotion that saw Time Life and Sports Illustrated magazines fly by a camera crew from New York to do a picture feature on Silky It was not a California promotion that some 150 people showed up bearing placards saying We Still Love You Silky and the like when the colt unloaded at Baltimore for his Preakness try It was not a California exploita ¬ tion when Walgreens drug in Louisville featured a Silky Sullivan Sundae on its menu No this is a clear and very rare instance when the public grabbed the horse and ran with the ball to mix a metaphor and we turf writers simply followed in the wake wakeBut But as or exploitation of the breeding industry in this state califomians do a pretty good job of it and thats because they are at once enthusiastic and are part of a vigorous dynamic growing empire which has an utter and absolute confidence in its star of destiny racing breeding and everyother wise Curiously enough slurs and innuendos about the California horse from writers east of the Rockies many of whom like the late Joe Palmer wrote the barbs just for laughs spurred the efforts of California breeders and race track operators just that much more Lou Rowan president of the California breeders tells me he con ¬ siders the enthusiasm naive or not to be one of the strongest bulwarks that California has tending toward the building up of the industry out this way Besides remarks Rowan being enthusiastic makes it just that much more fun and without fun the whole racing in ¬ dustry would be rather dreary indeed indeedA A careful tabulation of the times of the first three days of racing liints that Hollywood Park is a trifle duller than last summer but we dont expect the situa ¬ tion to prevail for more than a few weeks The depth of the cushion remains the same about two and one half inches but there has been a resurfacing job done since last season and the prolonged morning overcasts of recent days have tended to prevent the track from attaining its true norm While it never rains at Holly ¬ wood Park and the track is always fast well almost always there have been a few freak storms and showers in the last 20 years recorded the speed quo ¬ tient of the track can nevertheless vary from day to day dayIt It all depends upon the overcast or lack of it The same amount of water is sprinkled onto the track every night If the overcast burns out early this water evap ¬ orates more quickly and the track tends to become firmer But if the overcast hangs on until late after ¬ noon or as it ocasionally does all day more moisture will remain in the cushion The amount of dampness in the cushion is the true key to speed variations from day to day and week to week in the Hollywood rating
