Rocky looks over the 1955 opposition Jack Dempsey, the old Manassa Mauler, thinks that Nino Valdes, Archie Moore and, Don Cockell Should compete in an elimination tournament for the right to battle Rockey Marciano for the heavy- Weight champicnship. . He expressed the opinion that Moore, the lightheavyweight champ, is getting the runaround from Marciano’s handlers. three challengers. Meanwhile Marciano (above) studies photos of his ‘Our kids clubs played host to Marilyn Bell’ By STANLEY PEARL, AGE 11 TORONTO Marilyn Bell! Probably the only girl in the whole world that would rather Swim 40 miles than speak in front of a group of : people. Marilyn came to our Children’s Clubs of the United Jewish People’s Order recently and I think she liked the clubs and the way they are operated. I was lucky enough to Interview her for the Vochenblatt (Canadian Jewish Weekly) and our own club’ papers. When 1 asked her what was the Main object that made her swim ke Ontario, she replied that she felt a Canadian should ‘have the chance to swim. (She sure was that Canadian!) “One of the things,” she told me, “that inspired me on to vic- Ory was when Gus Ryder put on € board that the “Canadian Re- lay Team had come in first, why don’t you?” After our interview, Marilyn Went around to visit all the clubs ra had her picture taken with € children in each of the clubs: : and crafts, dancing, sports, nd two dramatic clubs. h. Then we went into the banquet 1 where all the children had sathered to take part in the pre- dan etions to Marilyn. Our presi- nt, Michael Schwartz, ‘greeted eon and told her we knew how ¥ Uch the work that “you and Gus BY helps the crippled children Lakeshore Swimming Club. The Singers were there and sang Tee songs. hen’ first, which I think was the er Was the Boasting Song, about ae fellows who are always try- ane tell each other what great 'S they’ i i , Dast ey’ve done in_history’s guts had us rolling on the floor ith laughter. Then the Youth Ingers sang Hard, Hard Times, zena Tzena, which was beau- Zalman Yanotsley;. Maxine Shecter and Mark Meslin are shown presenting the mural of her great swim to Marilyn Bell. Chuck Fine is holding the mural. tifully done. We all enjoyed the: Youth Singers, especially Marilyn. Then Joyce Penner presented | Marilyn with a bouquet of roses. Marvin Silver read a poem to her; by Edna Laxer, which was very beautiful. Last on the. program) were the three people who raised the most money for the Gus Ryder Fund for the Lakeshore Pool. They were Maxine Schechter, Zalman Yanovsky and Mark Meslin. Bach of them spoke _ beautifully, and Zalman read a little poem which: he wrote himself. All of us enjoy- ed the presentations. When talking to Marilyn, she said that usually when people think of long distance swims, they think of Florence Chadwick. My reply was, now, when I think of long distance swims, I think ,of Marilyn Bell, and I think all the kids at the Club that morning gore is our correspondent anley Peart (right) interview- "g Marilyn Bell. ve agreed! V’s look sharp in exhibition game Penticton V’s, carrying Canada’s hopes in the world hockey cham- pionship tournament which opens in Germany this month, looked sharp in their farewell appearance against Kamloops Elks here Mon- day this week, dominating the play throughout and winning 4-2, While the V’s outskated their opponents they were a little weak around the goal mouth and missed many scoring opportunities. They also failed to demonstrate mastery of the European style of play (passing and stickhandling, with a minimum of bodychecking) _ and the game was a rough one. V’s open against the United States at Dortmund February 25. Gert Whyte's SPORTLIGHT E vou bet on the bangtails there ,* must have been occasions in your life when, in the process of tearing up a handful of mutuel tickets, you swore that racing was crooked and your sucker days were over. Next Saturday, likely as not, you were lined up at the buyers’ wicket, two bucks clutched in your hot little hand, with several tip sheets, a Greeri Sheet and a program sticking out of your coat pocket. As Mark Twain once wrote: “It is difference of opinion that makes horse races.” * x * In some races it’s the bettor, not the jockey, who is taken for a ride. How many races on each card are fixed? Cynics say all, in- nocents say none. The truth probably lies in between. There are so many ways to fix a race that it would be a miracle if an eight-card program didn’t in- clude a couple of fixes. What about the saliva and urine tests, obligatory at all tracks? Don’t they guarantee that every- thing is on the up-and-up? Not a bit of it. Read friend. on, * * * Life magazine last week feat- ured an article by Dr. John McA. Kater, former chief scientist for the Thoroughbred Racing Pro- tective Bureau in the” United States, showing how new. drugs defy detection, making a farce cut of the tests used at tracks. “Anybody who knows the right drugs can hop as many horses as he wants to, at any track in the country, and never be caught at it,’ he writes, and describes dif- ferent methods: The timid horse, who can run in morning workouts but won’t give his best in a race, loses his inferiority complex when one grain of apomorphine hydro- chloride is injected under the skin half an hour before” post time. By post time he feels like Bannister. The sluggish horse can be rais- ed to a peak of efficiency for a race by an injection of Metrazol. The fast quitter, who usually runs four furlongs and then folds, can be persuaded to run a couple of more furlongs at top speed if he gets a dose of calcium gluconate. And for turning a beetle into a champion (for one race, anyway) there is the old standby, adren- aline in oil. + * * ~ Dope crooks are not the only crooks operating at the race tracks. And doping is only one of a dozen ways to fix a race. Crooked jockeys can upset the form sheets. Andy Lo Turco; who rode on the big tracks for 15 years, has written a piece for a national magazine in which he gives dates and names of horses he “pulled” and also describes how he con- spired with other jockeys to win on slow horses. Lo Turco appears to have writ- ten himself ‘into a mess of trouble, for Spencer Drayton, di- rector of the Thoroughbred Rac- ing Protective Bureau, has launched an investigation into every race in which Lo Turco had a mount. * * * Trainers and owners, too, can throw the poor two-buck punter for a loss. A sucker looks over the form sheet, picks the class horse, lays his bet. A thousand other suck- ers do likewise. The “chalk” players, seeing the horse is a fav- orite on the board, rush ‘to bet on him. By this time the horse is down to even money or less, Then the trainer or owner, giv- ing instructions to the jockey in the paddock, says: “Don’t use the whip on him today. I just want him to have a nice workout.” And the horse, which is being groomed for a race the following week, gallops leisurely around the track, finishing fourth or fifth against plugs he could have beat- en by three lengths. The frustrated «bettors curse the jockey for “not giving the horse a ride’ and tear up their mutuel tickets. * * * The overnight switch isn’t ex- actly crooked, but it succeeds in picking the pockets of the gull- ible. . It works like this: The entries released the night before a race list the horses, weights, distances, conditions and scheduled riders. Newspaper selectors, curling up that evening to pick tomor- row’s winners, note that a green jockey is listed to ride a good horse. They cancel out the horse in their calculations. Next day the suckers, finding the horse isn’t touted by any of their favorite selectors, are dis- couraged from betting on him. Meanwhile the owner or train- er makes a last-minute switch in riders, puts a star pilot aboard his animal, gets down a good bet and cleans up. Although he has doublecrossed the selectors and the public, he has kept within the limits of the rules. * * x And don’t think the palmed battery is a dead stunt. It is still used on many small tracks. In this one the jockey simply carries a tiny battery in the palm of his hand, gives his mount a jolt when needed, then throws the battery into the infield be- fore rounding the turn into the stretch. x x x These stories make racing look pretty rotten. The fact is, all professional sports which en- counter gambling attract crook- ed elements. Remember the 1919 World Series baseball scandal. And the recent basket- ball “fixes.” Not to mention the situation in boxing at the moment. Racing has its decent people, too. Efforts are being made to give the public a better break. But as she stands today, bub, you can’t beat the races. Betting what you can afford, for enjoy- ment, is okay. Try to make a liv- ing off the nags and you'll wind up walking home in a barrel. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 11, 1955 — PAGE 11