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CALIFORNIA DERBY HORSES. Under the changed conditions brought about by the hostile action of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors it seems probable that the California Derby, which was to have been docided at Ingleside next Saturday, will have to be ran at the Oakland track instead. On -either track it will be sure to attract a great attendance. From present indications it will be contested by the best field that ever started for the event, for there is no doubt that First Tenor, Formero, Olinthus, Survivor, Obsidian and Sam McKeever are all very good colts. Which is the best is an open question now. but the contest of next Saturday af tornooa should settle the problem. Formeros fine performance in defeating Adolph Spreckels and Dr. Sheppard a few days ago will no doubt serve to make him the post favorite, but weights and conditions considered it was probably no better than First Tenors race against Adolph Spreckels and Merops a few days previous. Olinthus is a big, fine colt that has in some quarters been put down as being averse to going a distance, but this seems absurd in view of the fine style in which he won at a mile when he was a two-year-old. Olinthus may not win, but the race will probably show that lack of speed rather than lack of ability to stay will account for it. Survivor was a good two-year-old here last year and he seems to be a bettor three-year-old in California. His mile in l:40i at Oakland is in some respects really the best performance to the credit of any of the Derby candidates. So far as public opinion and public form goes, one of these four colts should win the Derby, but races do not always go to favorites, and some one of the other probable starters may carry off the prize. Louis Ezells good filly, Espionage, is put down as a more than probable starter and will have a following, but it is too early in the year to expect a filly to prevail over seasoned colts in such a race as the Derby will be. Sam McKeever, at his best, would be a very formidable candidate, but it iB such a short time back since he was a very sick horse that it does not Beem probable that he can have fully recovered. Lucky Baldwins Los liedanos has shown fair form in some of his thcos, but he will have to improve wonderfully in order to have a chance. He has not started for a long time and it is said that he has received a strong preparation for .this race and that ho is really a better colt than he has ever shown in public. Obsidian is a fairly good colt but his mission will probably be to act as pacemaker for First Tenor rather than as a contender for the honor of first place. Lime Water and possibly one or two others may go to the poBt but their chances will be of the very remote order. So far as can now be told the starters and jockeys will be about as follows : Burns fc Waterhonses 1. c, First Tenor Thorpe 122 Burns and Waterhonses br. c, ObBidian Pig- gott 122 W. B. Sinks ch. c, Formero Spencer 122 J. G. Brown and Co.s ch. c, Olinthus H. Shields 122 P. Dunnes b. c, Survivor H. Martin 122 Santa Anita Stables br. c, Los Medanos E. Jones 12- F. Fosters b. c, Sam McKeever Rntter 122 Sunset Stables b. c, Lime Water Powell.. 122 Lt. H. Ezells b. f, Espionage Hennessy.... 117
