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I : t , CRESCENT CITY DERBY ANTICIPATIONS. Chapultepec Sure to Be Favorite Unless Uncle Is Sent on from California. New Orleans. La., February 29. — Interest In the running of the Crescent City Derby is at a stand still, and will continue to be until it is definitely decided whether Uncle is to be sent on for the event or not. This will not be known until after the decision of the Derby at Los Angeles. Some of Cha-pultepecs recent work at distances over one mile has caused considerable head-shaking among the horsemen, as he has shown a disposition to stop badly. This, however, is no doubt due to the fact that the colt has had few engagements, and naturally enough Burlew and ONeill would not care to keep him right on edge all the time. One can gamble safely that Chapultepec will be delivered to the post March 14 fit and ready to go the mile BSd a furlong Derby route in better than track record time. The colt has not the build of a stayer, but his speed is so great that he ought to rate along in front of any ordinary field of horses and beat them easily over medium distances of ground. This will be the eleventh running of the Crescent City Derby. It was inaugurated in 1S98. when it was won by J. W. Schorrs Presbyterian, ridden by W. Martin. While the Derby has been w. n by but one really high-class animal, yet it has been credited to such good performers, besides Presb. -teriitn. as Witful. Ostrich. Right Royal and Montgomery, the Latter earning first money in the race last season. Barring Montgomery, by far the best horse that ever started in the Crescent City Derby-was Sidney Lucas, which finished second to Prime of Yerouia in 1900, and subsequently won the rich American Derby at Washington Park and two or three other valuable stakes of the Washington Park Club. Sidney Lucas was a horse of remarkable quarter and loin development, of power and constitution. He came pretty nearly filling the bill as the iron horse of his time, as he demonstrated as a two-year-old. when, at the Benning fall meeting, Thompson Bros., his owners, won two races in one afternoon with him. He had not attained his full three-year-old development at the time of the running of the Derby here, else he would have had a practical walkover in the event. Two of the most sensational of the Crescent City Derbvs were that of ISftft, won bv King Barleycorn, and of BBS, won by S. C. Hildreths Witful. King Btirlej corn was a sulky horse. He had sulked in two or three of his races prior to the running of the Derby, so that Heffner and his friends got a liberal price about him and gave the betting ring a scorching. Wit fills Derby will ever be memorable as having been run in the year of the flood. It began raining early in the morning. The water came down in bucketfuls all day long, and by the time tlte Derby came on the entire city, as well as the race track, was flooded to a depth of from two to three feet. At the Derby start the inside horse was in water up to his belli. Even the lawn in front of the. stand was flooded and the only dry spot on the grounds was in the betting ring, the floor of which was raised a few inches above the surrounding surface. Dcrbys the world over have a peculiar fascination for the public, partly because of the prestige given them by the great Epsom Derby, the prototype of basse, all. and which is now well .along in the second century of its existence, and partly because usually big changes occur in the development of race horses from their two-year-old to their three-year-old form. and Derby tests thus bring about new and different conditions from two-year-old performances. The Crescent City Derby will, therefore, as in previous years, prove an attraction which will draw out the star attendance of the winter season whether Little comes on to measure strides with Chapultepec or not. As the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to tbe strong, and as Derbys in particular are deceptive affairs and replete with surprises, it may be that the big crowd which will witness the decision of tin- coming event may be treated to the sensation of seeing Chapultepec defeated. At any rate, it w-ill furnish a fitting culmination of a season of g K d racing at the Fair Grounds track. A glance aver the lists of stake winners in Racing Forms Racing Manual, recently issued, and which, it may be said by the way, in jammed full of information invaluable to tbe horseman and handicappcr. as well as to those of the public at till Interested in turf sports, calis to mind a big majority of the great horses of earlier days which have since become famous in the stud. It also suggests some interesting turf history. When racing ceased at Jerome Park in 1S04 many of the old stakes since then revived at Morris Park and Belmont Park, were allowed to lapse for a matter of three or four years. It was owing to the Indefatigable efforts of Mr. Yo.shiirgh. official handicappcr for the Jockey Club. that some of these most famous events, such as the Juvenile. Withers and Belmont Stakes and the Hunter and Jerome Handicaps, were carried along continuously, being Immediately transferred to Mor-ris Park. It was not definitely decided to abandon Jerome Park until after the stakes had closed, and Mr. Yosburgh was in a quandary as to the Withers, named in honor of D. D. Withers, which of all others he most desired to retain with an unbroken record. He solved the difficulty by putting the race on at the Morris Park fall meeting, run over the Withers mile, as a three-year-old handicap. It was won by Johu W. Rogers Lueania. This was i:i I8BV, lames R. Keens has the honor of winning lite last Withers decided tit Jerome Park, as he bad previously won one of the most sensational when flail ad I hi If I was pulled to allow his stable companion. Dan Sparling, to win. Domino capturing the event in 1SK4. Incidents leading up to the Withers of Dan Sparlings year. 1810, created intense excitement. George Lorillard then had the strong st stable on the American turf, and had for several years swept the boards in the three-year old events especially. Irged on by snin ■ of his friends, Mr. Keerie sent agents westward to find him a colt capable of coping with Mr. Lorillard in the big three-year old races at Jerome Park and Saratoga. Eventually Mr. Kiine bought Spendthrift and. as Dan Sparl ing had shown no public indications of high-class form. it was generally thought that Mr. Keene would send Spendthrift after the Withers. He was sharply criticized for not making a declaration, as horses were not coupled in the betting in those days, but it was optional wiUi an owner to decisis or not. so that Mr. Keene acted within his rights under the racing rules. Spendthrift, of course, was pulled when his rider saw that Dan Sparling could win in order to avoid penalties in the Belmont and other future three-year-old stakes. S. B. Beesss.
