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GOSSIP FROM KENTUCKY TRAINING GROUNDS GROUNDSLouisville Louisville Ky February 1 Many of the trainers ut Churchill Downs and Douglas Park are pleaseil witli the prospects of the spring meeting here begin ning a little later this year than in some forme seasons and nearer the middle than the first ol May as was the case last year Beginning racing here a little later this year appeals to horsemen as insuring better weather The severe December auO January just passed through has made training oper ¬ ations a little backward this year in Kentucky anil as a consequence a few extra days at the end of the spring training season will count a lot with trainers Wliile beginning the meeting a little later may lose to the sport a few regulars who will go on to Balti ¬ more instead of coming here this will IK more than made up by the increased general attendance Ol cmrse if the meeting was looking to bookmakers as of old for supi ort it might make a big differ ¬ ence but under the present system of auction and mutuel pools the layers cut no figure figureIf If Lexington Is granted oily seven days by the Itacing Commission the Kentucky Derhy can be run on May This is only six days later than the big race was run last spring the Derby of 100 being decided on May 3 while In 1908 It was decided on Tuesday May 5 5A A Oldham has a nlaideu Kentucky Derby candi ¬ date in the bay colt Charles F Grainger wuich will be taken up the coming week and turned over tu trainer W S Hopkins who will prepare him for his meeting with Waldo Boca Grande Fighting Bob King Olympian Joe Morris and other Derby cracks The green threeyearold is now a colt towering above sixteen hands in height and is built all over on heroic lines He only raced once as a twoyear old on November 2 at Latonia Mr Oldham has loaned his useful old racer Colonel Jim Douglas to a friend who is driving the sou of Henry Young to a buggy Tue horse is now eight years old and no effort will be made to train him again Mr Oldham has his dam Itainy Day by Troubadour in foal this year to Sempronius and probably will breed her to Cesarion springJ the coming spring J T Ireland was here a day or two on a brief visit but has decided not to ship the big string of horses he took up at Lexington recently to Churchill Downs or Douglas Park until late March or early April Ireland is farming quite extensively near Lexington and he will stay there for a time to get everything in shape on his landed estate He thinks hfs filly Cherryola will be a useful racing tool this year She has wintered finely As a twoyearold she started twentytwo times last year winning eight races and being placed in nine other starts In the string he will finally bring here are about fifteen twoyearolds twoyearoldsJ J W Guest the oldtime turfman came to Louisville yesterday for his first winter visit from his home at Crab Orchard and was swapping stories around tliii hotels last night says the Courier Journal It has been twentytwo years now since the veteran turfman came to Louisville with the great race horse Terra Cotta He brought him hero to nut in the rich Turf Handicap to which was added that year a Derby stake of 5000 The fa ¬ mous Hankins confederation was then in existence the trainers of which were Eugene Leigh and Tom Kiley with the lightweight jockey George Coving ton doing the riding In Tennessee they had pur ¬ chased for 10000 the noted horse Egmont witli a view of winning this particular race and in future books on the event had bet a fortune on the son of Enquirer That was the year Hankins and his part ¬ ners won the Kentucky Derby with Macbeth II and were racing such famous horses as Huntress and Little Minch One morning Terra Cotta worked a sensational trial and the horses great showing alarmed trainers Leigh and Kiley who realized that their 1000 K Egmont was surely up against the real thing and if they landed their big wagers on the son of Enquirer they must get Terra Cotta out of the way Leigh always resourceful at once hunted up ColoneV Guest and before the sun went down that night Terra Cotta was In the Hankins barn though it took 15000 to get him there Egmont went on and won the Turf Handicap and the Chicago con ¬ federation won a fortune Leigh essayed one of the biggest coups in his racing career when he took Terra Cotta east to run a little later that season in the Suburban Handicap The horse was Iieaten a nose by Elkwood in one of the most sensational finishes in the history of that great race and to this day many turfmen who saw the finish closely hold the judges made an error in the placing of the hprses and Terra Cotta really won It made a difference of 100000 in the bankroll of the Hankins confederation and was the first big setback that tlio Chicago aggregation experienced in their successful career Terra Cotta had bad luck in many of his races but he was undoubtedly a highclass horse Guest has since that day been interested in a number of good horses one of which Heron was a lot above the average Still he owned but one Terra Cotta It is only once in a mans lifetime that a sensational horse like that crosses his path The veteran turf ¬ man says there are still a few thoroughbred mares in Ills country but their owners are breeding mules from theni and it is likely that Crab Orchard will never send to the races another Terra Cotta CottaW W F Kedmon who sprung the good horse Run ning Account on the Canadian turf last summer is listed to be in attendance at the coming spring meet ¬ ing here witli a select string Years ago Itcdfnon raced a stable of horses for the Louisville turfman George J Long but dropped out when he and the owner of Bashford Manor parted company and Run ¬ ning Account last summer was the first winner lie had saddled in a decade Kedmon bought Running Account in Tennessee in 1KS 1KSOne One of the most promising twoyearolds Peter Coyne is training for George J Long at Churchill Downs is a handsome bay colt by Arcites sire Alvescot out of Azucena by Pardee a mare that raced brilliantly in the Bashford Farm stable colors when John Morris was chief trainer of the big estab ¬ lishment Aziicena raced creditably with such horses as Bannocklmrn Etbelbert and Kinley Mack The future of this colt will be watched with interest in recognition of the esteem in which his dam was hell when she was racing racingO O Turek who is so far as is known the only Bohemian trainer of race horses in America is the owner of a pair of promising twoyearolds which he is figuring on bringing to Louisville as soon as the Oakland meeting ends They are by the Hamburg stallion Inflexible and out of richly bred mares Tnrek has named them for Bohemian societies of San Francisco one being called Schol and the other Xlata Brana The last named interpreted means Golden Gate
