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, , NEW YORKS LOSS TO BE KENTUCKYS GAIN j jr Louisville, Ky., March 25. The announcement that there will be no racing oil the metropolitan courses this year unless relief is obtained from the provisions of the drastic directors liability law, will have the effect of sending to Churchill Downs and other tracks some of the greatest race horses in America. Prospects for exceptionally line racing at Churchill Downs were never brighter. The outlook for sport of a superior kind never .approached the prospects for this spring. More than 1,200 entries have been made for the feature events, breaking all Kentucky records. Racing at Juarez will close April 2 and immediately there after horsemen who have been racing in Mexico will ship their charges to Kentucky. Several have already arrived with their stables and those who have been campaigning in Florida are shipping or preparing to ship to this state. Charles F. Grainger, president of the Ncw Louisville Jockev Club, says that the racergoing public will be treated to the highest class of sport at tho Downs beginning May 13 that that historic course has ever enjoyed. He says that while preceding meetings have been marked by extraordinary class, the spring session this year will far outclass all that have preceded it. Many improvements are being made at Churchill Downs and President Grainger is keeping a watchful eye on the work. A large force of men has been employed for several weeks and on account of the favorable weather decided progress lias been made. Everything will be in readiness at least three weeks before racing begins. One of the most noticeable chauges is the removal of the paddock to a point north of the grandstand and west of the long row of stables extending along the stretch and near the finiil turn for the finish. This will be surrounded by trees and a beautiful lawn. The roadway from the inain entrance to the grandstand has been widened twelve feet. The secretarys office has been joined to the pari-mutuel offices and in this department alterations have been made to accommodate two additional cashiers, making seventeen in all. In the betting ring, newly constructed mutucl machines will be installed, twenty-one in number. The booths will be patterned after the space in which the teller in a bank stands. They will be so constructed that congestion of the crowd will be impossible. One man will sell tickets and register the sale at the same instant. Tho machine will indicate the total number of tlpkets sold, showing in dollars the aggregate wagered. 1he betting, ring will feseniltle a counting housc " Among the many prominent turfmen having cli-gibles for the coining Kentucky Derby is R. F. Carman, a well-known millionaire of New York. Last season the members of his stable won more races than any other string of horses racing in America and in aggregate of money won he stood third in the list of winning owners. Horses, racing in his colors in 1910 won no less than 105 races and earned 1,-4-10 in stakes and purses. The three-vcar-old he is having prepared for the Kentucky Derby this spring is Meridian, a handsome bay colt bv Broomstick, out of that good race mare, Sue Smith. This youngster was bred in the Senorita Stud, which was left by the famous turfman, Capt. Sam Brown of Pittsburg to his brother. Capt. Harry Brown. The former won the Derby in 1005 with Agile, which was trained by the late Louisville horseman. Robert Tucker, a brilliant light of the turf in his line. As a yearling Meridian was pur-, chased by C. L. Harrison, who had tho unlucky Waldo prepared for the big race in 1910, and he raced the son of Broomstick as a two-year-old last season. When Mr. Harrison sold out a bnnch of his horses at auction Meridian was -among the number, and it was then that Mr. Carman got him, -paying for him ,100. Meridian, started a dozen times last seasou, winning three races and being placed in four other starts. His last win was at Montreal in the fall, when he beat a good filly like Edda with ease. Edda is the filly that beat the Kentucky Derby favorite, Round the World, in the Fort Thomas Handicap at Latonia last fall and won seven other races as a two-year-old in 1910. When Mr. Carman sent his stable to the Kenton County track last fall he left Meridian in the east, having in view the colts three-year-old engagements, and he now figures on sending him to Churchill Downs early for a careful preparation for the big race. The son of Broomstick is not new to the New Louisville Jockey Club race track, as it was over this course he received his first training as a two-year-old, Raleigh Colston having him in his barn then as a stable companion of the noted Waldo. Meridian- traces to blood lines that gave the turf the famous Henry of Navarre. His dam. Sue Smith, a stake winner, is out of Ethel Lee, also a stake winner. The latter was by Whistle Jacket, a son of the English Derby winner, Hermit, and her dam was Marmora, by Falsetto, she being out of Marmoset, by Glenelg. The next dam, Maroon, by Glen-eoe. gave the turf two good horses in Local and Baltimore, and the superior producers Ada Kennett and Scarlet, the latter the grandam uf Henry of Navarre. Individually Afcridian is a Derby type. He has an abundance of size and is on a more heroic build than is his sire, the brilliant Broomstick. The latter is a son of Ben Brush, the Kentucky Derby winner of 1.S90. and in his turf career Meridians sire won S75.825 on the turf. Ho also shares with Olambala the honor of the American record at a mile and a quarter, and was the first American horse to run that distance in 2:021. Tills is the Kentucky Derby route, which his son in the Carman stable will be asked to go at Churchill Downs May 13. Broomstick is now in Harry Payne Whitneys New Jersey Brookdalo Stud. Meridian will be R. F. Carmans first starter under colors in the Kentucky Derby, and the millionaire turfman will come to Churchill Downs with a party of New York friends to see the big race run. It is anticipated that tho 1911 Kentucky Derby will be witnessed by the greatest attendance in the long history of the race. The free field will again prevail and the general public can tiius see the running of the big race without the expenditure of a single cent, if it is so desired. The Churchill Downs management has an idea that the Derby field will be unusually large this year and may perhaps top the record of the big race in this respect. It is figured that because a filly. Round the World is favorite for the race, and no filly has ever been able to win it, that owners of Derby eligiblcs generally will be more ready to take a chance than if the favorite was a colt. It is also pointed out that in the last few seasons, winter favorites for this event have mostly met with disaster before the running of the race. Last spring., after being heralded all winter as a sure winner, Waldo went wrong on the eve of the race and never went to the post on Derby day. In his year, half a dozen other eligiblcs ;ere more talked of before the race than was Wintergreen. the winner . of 1909. and neither were Pink Star, the victor in 1907, nor Stone Street, the Derby wiuner of 190S, mentioned as having much of a cnauce three weeks before tho race. Back in the early days Derby horses of the Avinter type were much as those of recent times. Price McGrath thought he would win the inaugural Derby of 1S75 with Chesapeake, his Kentucky Stakes winner of the year previous, and R. Swim, the crack rider of those times, had the mount on him in the big race. Mr. McGrath did win that Derby, but it was with Aristides and not Chesapeake. Aristides piloted by the colored rider. Lewis, strode on to victory in front of Volcano and Verdigris, while far back in the ruck that day came Chesapeake and Swim, that son of Lexington being the races first great disappointment. Vagrant, the winner of 1870, was somewhat fancied for the race during the winter previous, but little is compared with P. Lorillards Parole, which was one of the warmest early favorites the Kentucky -Derby has ever known. He ran unplaced in the race, but it is only justice to note that he was a far superior race horse to Vagrant. Still his defeat in the race only shows the glorious uncertainty which lias always more or less attended this important fixture. During the winter preceding the race in 1S77, Leonard was regarded by all the wise people as a certainty, but he ran second, while Baden-Baden won. In 1S7S came Day Stars victory over Himyar, the latter having been proclaimed a sure winner of the Derby months before the race. Then there was Fousos victory over Kimball in 1SS0 and Apollos win from Ruunymcde in 1SS2, and Montroses in 1SS7, when Jim Gore aud Jacobin were supposed to have the race between them. But the worst jolt of all came in 1SSS when the. Montana-owned colt, SiKikane, dfcfcatod the first Futurity winner. Proctor Knott. The next biggest surprise came in 1S97. when the mighty Ornament went down in defeat before Typhoon. II., a gelding now pulling a milk wagon about tho streets of Indianapolis, lnd. Hindoo, Lord Murphy, Leonatus, Ben Ali, Riley, Ilnlma and Plaudit are a few of the early favorites which made good in the big race, but the surprises far outnumber the victories of popular favorites in this race, and for many years horsemen have been looking upon the Kentucky Derby as an open race. Aside from Meridian. Round the AVorld and Captain Cannody, whoso chances are generally regarded best, there are twenty-seven other eligibles for the race this spring and some of them are looked upon as likely material. Twice in Mexico Beach Sand has won at a mile, once in 1:40 and again in l:30i, and this handsome son of Rock Sand races in a manner to suggest that he will like the "Derby route of a mile and a quarter. E. R. Bradley also has a second bow to his string in Bell Horse, which was highly tried as a two-year-old and gets in tho big race with a maiden allowance. Then J. C. Milam will make a bid for the race with Labold. a stake winner in 1910. Wade McLomore is eomin" from Juarez with his good Texas-bred colt, Sterlin. and then there is Governor Gray, which may vet do all the things in racing that trainer J. T. Williams has expected of him. Then supposing .Marlborough should finally turn out to be the great colt that I. H. Wheatcroft once thought he was and Colston should also make good. There are still others in the race that may cut some figure when the event is decided May 13. Looking back over the many surprises tliat have marked the history of tho Kentucky Derby it is a wise man indeed that will essay now to certainly pick the winner, facing, as lie does, the failures in tiiis respect that have so often befallen the talent on the eve of the running of the event. But one tiling is certain, it will be a great race in 1911, as it always has been, and an enormous crowd will be on hand to cheer the victor as lie or she leads the field safely home. Never before has it been necessary to say he or she in connection with the probable winner of this race, but Round the AVorld has made such a designation this season imperative, and it may be that she will in May be crowned the Blink Bonny of the American turf.
