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CONNORS CORNER e„ a** co*™ JAMAICA, L. I., N. Y., May 7.— Saturday is the final day of this meeting and the statistical boys will spend a busy 24 hours between the close here and the opening- of Belmont Park on Monday. Saturday will be something out of the ordinary for the three-year-olds will be relegated to the sidelines, and the older horses will take over. However, despite the old proverb that competition is the life of, trade, an exception could be made for this week end, if not an exception an effort to avoid duplication. The featured offering here is the Grey Lag, a race over a distance of ground. The salient offering at Pimlico is the Dixie, also an offering over a distance of ground. Baltimore and New York are less than 200 mile apart by any media of transportation — plane, auto, train of bicycle. The handicap division is lacking in numbers and quality. Today the fashionable trend is to retire "a three-year-old to the stud and as a result the handicap ranks is the sufferer. This trend, according to some of the veterans, could be reversed by the racing associations and the outcome could be accomplished with a modicum of trouble. The offerings for three-year-olds dominate the first half of the yearly racing calendar. The final six months belong to the two-year-olds. The three-year-olds are treated to a half dozen Derbys, and other such races until July or a week or so later. Then the two-year-olds move into the spotlight. Stake offerings for two-year-olds clog the racing calendar and each carries a higher monetary value than its predecessor. The winning of one is often a replica of a previous offering. Men who have the interests of racing at heart have suggested that such useless duplication of two- and three-year-old racing be curtailed and instead some worthwhile prizes for older horses be offered. However, that matter has not yet been acted upon. Monday is the opening of the Belmont Park meeting and the Toboggan Handicap is the featured offering. How many will answer the bugle in this" event is a matter of conjecture. However, the running this year will be around the turn. This is no novelty for the Toboggan for in the long history of the stake, the race was conducted on the main course and around a turn, Deplore Conflict of Grey Lag and Dixie Handicap Division Is Lacking in Numbers Mondays Toboggan to Be Run Around Turn a matter of eight times and all these were at Belmont Park. A novelty in the history of theToboggan is that Eight Thirty, that stalwart in the George D. Widener •menage, is the only horse who accounted for* a running of the Toboggan around the turn and on the Widener course. That was in 1941 and 1940, respectively. The previous years that the race was contested on the main track span from 1922 to 1927, respectively. Mr. and Mrs. John R. H. Thouron returned from a trip to Lexington and Louisville and reported that the foals she has at Jonabell Farm are good lookers and well set up. Fourteen youngsters of fashionable breeding are at Jonabell in addition to some older horses. Mrs. Thourons breeding interests are by no means confined to these shores, for she has two foals in England and one in Italy. The youngster foaled in the Mediterranean area is from the mare Petitioner. This matron will go to the court of Ribot this year and also next year. Petitioner is a seven-year-old daughter of Petition from Steady Maid, she by Felstead, and was bred in England. According to present plans, the mare will be returned to this country late next year, that is following veterinary inspection which attests her being in foal to the Italian champion. Simon R. "Brother" Flatherty was a visitor yesterday afternoon. The visit was his first since his discharge from the hospital following surgery. .-. . Wally Butts, athletic adviser at the University of Georgia, returned to Athens this morning. He planed up here to lend moral support to his namesake, a starter in the Comely Stakes, for the Harbor View Stable. . . . "Chips" Heath-erington, one of the veterans of racing, he is one" of the few Americans to ride in the English Grand National at Aintree, is associated with trainer Sol Rutchick as stable agent. Chips took over his new post yesterday. . . . Trainer Arthur White reported this morning that jockey Bob Ussery would be astride Piano Jim in the week-end Grey Lag. The Walter M. Jeffords starter will be making his New York seasonal debut.- James F. Hines of Cleveland,* Ohio, who has several horses with trainer Eddie Holton, was among yester- days visitors. The visit was his first-to Jamaica. . . . Bob Boyle, one of the veterans of the racing wars, made his spring debut yesterday. He had been sidelined by an attack of virus and decided that one ounce of prevention was better than a couple of visits from the medics. Hence the prolonged vacation. . . . Trainer Sherrill Ward reported that Idun, owned by Mrs. Josephine Bay Paul, is training steadily and will be seen under the colors at Belmont Park. . . . Lou Wolf-son, the Miami Beach and New York financier, was among those present yesterday. He was on hand to * witness the effort of his colt Wally Butts in the Comely. . . . Don Ameche, of the teevee and motion picture fields, was among yesterdays visitors. Trainer Max Hirsch shipped Black Hills and Call the Witness to Pimlico this morning. The King Ranch-owned colts are eligible for the Preakness to be contested on Saturday, May 16. . . . Trainer Woody Stephens vanned One-Eyed King to Pimlico this morning. The Cain Hoy Stable representative is eligible for the Dixie. Jockey Manuel Ycaza will do the riding chores. . . . Jockey Ismael Valenzuela canceled his Thursday engagements for an appointment with the dentist. Following the last race Wednesday, Valenzuela had a lip as big as-some of the Ubangi natives due to a glancing blow by Hasty Shopper in the third race. Valenzuela fell off backward from this Jacobs-owned miss and suffered a glancing blow which chipped one of his front teeth in addition to the oversize lip. Valenzuela will be among the missing from the local riding colony for tomorrow he wings westward, by jet plane, for Hollywood Park where he will ride on opening day. . . . Jockey Dave Erb will go to Pimlico Saturday to ride Langton Breeze for Mickey WalsTi in the Dixie. . . . Y Jockey John Ruane has been assigned the mount on the Greentree Stables Pop Corn in the Dixie.
