Evening star., 1963-05-09

We Have Visitors
A Breed Apart
BY MORRIS SIEGEL

NOT ALL OF THE thousands Of visitors currently in
Washington are people. Some are horses.
They could care less about monuments hoping to
catch Caroline at play seeing Congress- visiting the mint
even samping drink at our recently egazed standup
bars
The horses are here to take money out Of town. This
is ample evidence that they weren't invited to Washing
ton by the Visitors and Convention Bureau
They in town the special guests Of Rosecroft
Raceway Johnny Miller host Mr. Miller has them stabbed
at his oxon Hill suky plant and will introduce them to
the public formally tomorrow night
THE OCCASION Is THE fourth leg of the Harness
Tracks of America Pace Mr. Miller has number Of door
prizes for his distinguished guests They all add up to an
$1,000 purse for the little stroll of mile around his race
track.
Rosecroft feels it got real bargain when 1t was Sc
ected to be host to the distinguished party for only $OOO
Most of the same group of equine visitors will be IN Chi
cago two weeks hence at similar gathering There tneyu
Sashay around the SportsmanS Park oval for $5OOOO
Not all in the Rosecroft party will make the Chicago
invitation list This Snooy affair." this final leg OF the
HTA Pace where only 10 best get to attend the grand
ball It's like the Miss Washington contest Some 100 start
out but only dozen or so remain for the windup
THE NAMES OF SOME of our horsey visitors are sim
ply enchanting There's Adoras Dream Lehigh Hanover
Coffee Break and Rusty Range to but few in the
field of II.
Meadow Battles strong bay horse started out in the
original select group three weeks ago. but Meadow Bat
ties, named after Cliff Battles football Hall of Famer,
pulled up lame after two races and currently is disabled
Del Miller the most formidable triple-threater in the
harness business-he an drver-sough to
substitute Cliff himself for his ang nameSake but eg
bilty rules killed his attempt.
The field Is limited to 4-year-ods, an age the real
Battles has Tapped many times Just being four years old
is not quite enough in itself to qualify for the HTA Pace
There's also $500 qualifying fee.
When entry fees announced, 50 started out for
Anril in
way to Chicago May "a for the big $4,000 blowout
THIS is THE BIGGEST thing that could possibly
happen in the life Of 4yearold PAGER according to
Stan Bergsten executive secretary of the HTA and the
horses agree with him.
Until the HTA Pace was originated in 1857, the poor
4yearoldS felt oStraczed Stan wept 1t too big
Jump from three to the freefora competitions which
usually feature the older horses.
AS a result the 4-year-olds did very little until the
HTA Pace started for them They Just didn't do much
except wish they'd hurry up and become 5-year-ods,"
the knowledgeabe Mr. Bergstein said.
THIS YEARS CAST includes the who's who of the f.
yearolds There's the 3year-od champ of 1862 the nine
leading money winning 3year-ods of last season. the
fastest colt and gedng mile tracks and the fastest colt
and fly on half-mie tracks last year.
The ownership list also is pretty impressive There's
not baseball tycoon in the lot Let the thoroughbred
pie have the of the Pirates and Nets harness
group will stick to their plain folks who do nothing
exciting than own chicken farm earn living at
being construction worker.
That's what Herschel Qullen, who owns Adoras
Dream, and Bill Eggers the Rusty Range man, did be-
fore their seeds started to rake in the dough them
Needless to they enjoy topbracket income tax
today.
The PAGERS awarded points after each qualifying
and only the top 10 point winners survive to the
finals Rusty Range, the Eggers beaut undoubtedly was
the least regarded entry in the field He at Buffalo
April 27 and returned $780, week later at Brandywne he
backed down to even money.
The benefits Of the bargain Rosecrot feels got when
1t awarded the classy will to specta-
tors Twobuck mutue tickets will still two bucks Friday