Between Races: Harry Belks Horses Show Well; California Needs Loading Ramps; Hollywood Quick to Make Changes; Ranch Rider Cinderella Horse, Daily Racing Form, 1948-06-04

article


view raw text

BETWEEN RACES HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif June 3 Horses and People Bobby War ¬ ren veteran Caliente rider has estab ¬ lished himself as a trainer and has started out well with a public outfit Saddled his first winner in a horse named Straight On at first asking after near ¬ ly a years idleness J D Porter the deter ¬ mined apprentice con ¬ tinues with a sizable lead in the race for riding honors there Chicagolanders are beginning to pay atten ¬ tion to one Harry Belk an Arizona horse man making his first campaign in Illinois Belk showed up at Sportsmans Park with six horses and in 12 starts won four was second twice third once and earned fourth money once With stock of lit ¬ tle consequence he has continued his win ¬ ning streak at Lincoln Fields He may duck Arlington and Washington Park meetings unless he gets some better stock but the man has done quite well in any event Belk is a typical West Coast bush trainer hard hitting with a horse and is a man highly respected out this way for his ability Belk decided upon an Illi ¬ nois campaign just to see the country and get a change in scenery Quite a few Illinois folks race in Phoenix of a winter and they told Belk he might do better there because of the generous purses and they knew that regardless of the price tags on his horses they could run Portland Meadows is the newest American race course to be adorned by Russ Ellis Ellispaintings paintings Mrs Esther duPont Weir has purchased a sizable bit of acreage adjacent to Bran dywines private barn and also to Delaware Park and will develop into a yearround yearroundheadquarters headquarters for her thoroughbreds New van loading and unloading ramps are a new feature of the Delaware stable area this season And speaking of loading ramps Walter Hoffman Jr who has had charge of breeding the sizable array of R C Farm mares this spring reports a notable lack of such ramps at major Cali ¬ fornia farms Indeed only two farms in the state had them at last check John I Day of TRA is keeping tab on the money winning champions in reverse He is noting those that drop out of the fabulous first fifty At last count Marriage was at the bottom of the upper bracket with 216090 A year ago Jamestown was at the bottom with 189 685 We dont suppose it will be much longer before it will take at least 300000 to ones credit to be ranked with the upper strata of equine high finance Time was when a thoroughbred earning 100000 in a lifetime was deemed an eminent suc ¬ cess Post and Paddock British Colum ¬ bias contribution to turf journalism on the Continent celebrated its first birthday recently Post and Paddock is one of the last havens for personal journalism in that its editors speak positively and vigorously about this and that especially regarding provincial racing Post and Paddock made turf journalistic history re ¬ cently when in describing the last running of the 100000 Santa Anita Derby head ¬ lined the story Vancouver Colt Loses Derby The colt was a California bred but Vancouver owned towit Flaming Beau property of A E Simpson who re ¬ cently led a losing battle of stockholders to gain control of British Columbia Turf Turfand and Country Club Hollywood Park officials wasted little time in making two radical changes in the physical setup of the property after but a few days of racing It was discovered that horses were jumping shadows from a new film patrol tower which was located on the inner rail near the half mile pole Said tower like the one about a sixteenth beyond the finish line has a cantilever bridge structure pro ¬ jecting high over the track and permits the camera man to obtain a true head on view The afternoon sun puts the shadow of this home stretch tower directly into the infield but the one on the backstretch saw the shadow enlarge and extend as the afternoon progressed The shadow jump ¬ ing was seen by turf writers officials and the patrol judges and was confirmed by the film patrol itself Hence the tower was wrecked over the weekend and a new one substituted on the outer rail The other chance made was the tunneling of the stretch on the training track and overhead wires and pipes to the recreation ¬ al area in the infield placed underground It seems some horses were shying from the overhead piping during the training hours hoursA A A A AOne One of the most surprising develop ¬ ments of western racing this summer was that of Ranch Rider down at Caliente As far as the facts can be determined Ranch Rider was more or less an accident His dam Kizzie was imported to this country to serve as a polo pony but was side ¬ tracked and sent to the court of Eques ¬ trian the sire of Stymie Ranch Rider was sold to a Texas doctor for 100 He didnt race the horse but later Ranch Rider fell into the hands of Jess Barker who took the horse through the bush tracks of Arizona and Texas winning purse after purse with him There were no records kept however with the result that Ranch Rider claimed a maiden al ¬ lowance He defeated a nondescript field at first asking kept winning consistently and wound up beating the famed Italian importation of Rex Ellsworth Torero Barker has refused an offer of 10000 for the horse one of the best tests of merit Ranch Rider is now six years old and while his success in life came rather late a 100 castoff hasnt done too badly


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1940s/drf1948060401/drf1948060401_3_3
Local Identifier: drf1948060401_3_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800