Slants on Sports

Last Summer we motored up to Saratoga to sink a sawbuck on the ponies at the Spa. We learned that unless we had a fiver on the gee-gees in the sixth and a tenspot for our favorite to show in the seventh there wasn’t so much fun left for us.

But placing sawbucks, fivers and tenspots is the inalienable right of kings and others of their ilk today. Thus, when we picture the ponies rolling home at Hialeah these days, we draw our collar up a bit higher and think of that bankroll—that $22.85—that we shot at the Saratoga track.

Trying to discover how much dough we would have made had we placed some silver on a nag’s nose while looking over the dope sheet, we learned that Rosengarten, Litzenberger and Sammy Renick were booting them down the home stretch in the Southern specials. This trio scored so many times at Saratoga last year that they put the old timers to shame.

THREE CRACK RIDERS

Arriving at the up-state track in time to see the fourth race get under way, we sauntered over to our favorite bookie. "Hi, Bill," we greeted him, "place a two on Open Range in the sixth."

"Sucker," said he, "here’s your ticket."

"Anything now here with a good Jewish angle?" we asked.

"You bet! Our three best jockies up here at the track are Jewish riders from the sticks. There’s Eddie Litzenberger, the fellow who rode your hoss Open Range to win in the feature last week. Then again there are Sammy and Julie Renick and Charley Rosengarten, who rode triple and scored each time. This quartet has scored more often this past Summer than many of the old timers."

"Tell me," said this corner, "how old are these kids anyway? They don’t look as if they’ve been Bar Mitzvah-ed."

"I’m a what?" shot back Bill, our favorite bookie. "Oh, yes, those kids are all about fifteen or sixteen. Eddie’s only thirteen. Sometimes they run younger and sometimes they come as old as Sande, who was thirty-five before he quit the saddle. For all of that these kids are fine riders with plenty of experience, courage and hoss sense. What is more, they make the handicaps and weights very easily."

LITZENBERGER WINNER

At this time the call for the sixth race sounded. Open Range, with Litzenberger up, and Silver Stallion, with Charley Rosengarten on top, tore away from the barrier with Open Range on the pole. The rest of the field was stretched behind.

On the turn Silver Stallion, jockeyed by Charley, was leading by a length. As they neared the stretch Eddie gave Open Range an open hand. Sitting well up, he looked as if he were ahead of the horse.

Down the stretch the field came thundering, with Silver Stallion, Open Range and Sullivan in that order. In the last hundred yards the first two horses were fighting neck and neck. Two Jewish boys up and the crowd in a bedlam. As they passed the judge’s stand Eddie Litzenberger was a nose ahead of Rosengarten—Open Range the winner.

Basketball fans still have two weeks in which they can win tickets to the court classic of the year. Three pairs of tickets to the New York University-City College basketball game will be presented to the winners of The Bulletin Basketball Contest.

The rules are simple. All that is necessary to enter is to send a letter to the sports editor picking an all-Jewish metropolitan collegiate basketball quintet. Give reasons why you select your particular field. Also, name a second team. Reasons for choice of the second quintet are not necessary.

The players for the first and second team may be picked from St. John’s, City College, New York University, Long Island University, Columbia, Brooklyn College of Pharmacy and Brooklyn College.

All entries must be received before midnight February 21. The winners will be announced two days later. The New York University-City College basketball game will be played February 27, at Madison Square Garden.

N. Y. SANCTIONS BAER

Maxie Baer, the champ of the heavyweights, who was denied the privilege of setting them up and bowling them over in exhibition fights in this State, has just been granted that very right by the New York State Athletic Commission.

Deserting its previous stand, the rule of the commission now makes it possible for Baer to be knocked out in a bout less than the fifteen-round distance and still retain his title.

ALEX LEVINSKY AND CO.

None of the boys on the Rangers know about it and the story broke only when Alex Levinsky, the curly-headed Litvak now with the Black Hawks, discovered that Don McFayden, a teammate, was a lawyer.

"I’m a lawyer too," said Alex. "Nobody knows about it but that’s how I spend my time when I’m off the ice. I passed the bar examinations a long time ago."

"O. K.," said McFayden, who was just as surprised at Levinsky’s legal aspirations as the rest of the Black Hawk team. "Let’s form a partnership."

And this is just what Levinsky and McFayden will do when the Stanley Cup playoffs are out of the way.