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DICK WELLES. "Dick "Welles, Rome Respess great three-year-old, and by many considered the greatest thoroughbred ever produced in America, with his two American records, will be campaigned in the east next year," says the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune of Dec. 1. "Dick Welles is to make his bow to east- ern patrons of the turf at Saratoga next summer. He will not be entered in any of the early spring handicaps in the east, at which time he is expected to be campaigned at Chicago. " Yes, I will race Dick Welles in the east next season, said Rome Respess yesterday. T dont propose to have him ready for those early spring handicaps in the east, but I will have him at Saratoga, if nothing happens. I expect to race Dick at Chicago early in the season and go east from there. " Will he be open to meet all comers? " Well, if he is the kind of a horse he was this year, yes; but one can never tell about a horse, you know, and I would prefer to wait until I see what sort of a horse Dick is next year before I issue any challenges. I will say, however, that if he is the kind of a horse he was this year he will be sent after everything that is around, . and I shall not mind a route, either. Last season Dicks training was such as to make a mile or a mile and an eighth the limit for him. I know he could have gone farther, but it would have necessitated a change of training, and I did not want to take any chances on that. " He is out on the farm now, turned out. I am going to build a special stable for him, on which the doors will never be locked. He will have his own paddock and will be at liberty to go in and out of the stable whenever he pleases. I believe that if he spends the winter this way it will make him rugged and healthy, and he has never been short on either. " Will you have candidates for the American Derby? " Yes, but only two. I have two two-year-olds which I expect to start in the Derby next year if they turn out all right. They are the colts Copperfield, by Handball Marie Shanklin, and J. Ed Grillo, by The Commoner Merry Nell. The latter has never started. He was ill most of last season, and when he got right this fall I concluded to lay him up until next year. If they show the right sort of form both of them will start in the Derby, but one of them is a sure starter. "
