William L. Brann’s Escadru flashed fine form to win the Peter Pan Handicap at Belmont Park.

“This led to the belief that the son of *Challenger II and [the *Sir Gallahad III mare] Escalade might possibly be the horse to knock Calumet Farm’s Citation from his throne.” Those hopes were “dashed to smithereens in the Belmont Stakes, for Citation once again proved that he has both speed and stamina by racing the 11⁄2 miles in record time, leaving all rivals, including Escadru [who finished third], strung out far behind him.”

• “Seldom has a sport’s debut been as successful as the introduction of modern night harness racing to Marylanders the night of June 21 at the ‘old Ross Farm’ at Laurel.” A throng estimated at more than 10,000, predominantly from Washington and environs, crammed into the roofless grandstand or sat on benches out on the apron at Laurel Raceway as the first of eight races went off about 8:15 p.m. “It was a crowd of amateurs, actually, all curious to understand what was going on, but relaxed and enjoying themselves.” 
  The new barn area was overrun with horses, forcing a number to stable at nearby Laurel Race Course. Among the winners the first night was a 19-year-old gelding who took the second race, and 11-year-old stallion Watson E. Direct, who scored in the $1,000 Inaugural.
  
  
• Havre de Grace’s summer meet took a hard hit, with the consensus being that Laurel’s night sport definitely cut into its attendance and betting. Other factors included poor rail service to the track, and the main highway between Baltimore and Havre de Grace being torn up by construction.  “The combination of the bad summer meet, with a poor spring meeting where bad weather and minus pools on Citation hurt, left the track decidedly hard hit.  Maj. Gen. Milton A. Reckord, president, and Charles J. McLennan, general manager, after taking stock of the 1948 record, have decided to ‘sit tight’ on 1949 until they know what all neighboring states are going to do on dates. . .”
  Havre de Grace’s last meet ran in 1950.
  
  
• Harry LaMontagne’s mare Conniver and W.L. Brann’s champion Gallorette put on a show in the Brooklyn Handicap at Aqueduct, as the Maryland-breds ripped the field apart in the stretch to finish one-two, Conniver winning by a head. A 4-year-old daughter of Discovery bred by Alfred G. Vanderbilt and out of a *Challenger II mare bred by Brann, Conniver made her stakes debut less than a month earlier when she just missed nailing Stymie in the Aqueduct Handicap.
  
  
• Raise You, a daughter of Case Ace and Lady Glory bred by Country Life Farm but foaled in New Jersey, ranked as one of the top 2-year-old fillies of the year after taking the Polly Drummond, Colleen Stakes and New Jersey Futurity at Monmouth.
  Raise You left her mark on the breed as dam of champion and influential sire Raise a Native, one of her six stakes performers.