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SOME EPSOM DERBY POSSIBILITIES. "As a rule, two-year-old running serves as a fairly correct guide to the relative form of the same animals as three-year-olds, but this rule is by no means without exceptions, some of which are of a very remarkable character. Thus we last week saw Syd-monton take his place among Derby "jiossibles" by beating St. Nat, which was trying to give him five pounds, whereas S. B. Joels colt would on the 1910 book have lteon handicapped to give Sydmonton at least twenty-eight pounds. It is questionable whether there was any better two-year-old than St. Nat last year, and here is Sydmonton springing up from the depths into something very near equality with a champion. It is quite possible that if he had been sharpened up by a race this season at an earlier meeting St. Nat might have just held his own at Newbury, but, even so, he would come out only a few pounds better than Sydmonton. and it is to be observed that the pair of them heat .the rest of their field so easily that St. Nat would appear to have retained his form. So, then, wo may take it that .Sydmonton lias made abnormal improvement, and this is corroborated by the reports of him which had been In circulation for some time before his victory on Friday. After all, we have become fairly well accustomed of late years to these startling developments. Who dreamed of Minoru as a likely Derby winner until, he, too, had won the Grecnham Stakes at Newbury V Signorinettas Derby passes the wit of man to understand. Jeddah astonished most people when he won, and so did Sir Hugo. Memoir made a tremendous advance between her two and three-year-old season, as also did last years Oaks winner, Rosedrop. Yet with these and many similar examples staring us in the face, we always commence each new season with the idea that the classic winuers will be found among a select few of the past years best two-year-olds. Again and again this lias proved to be a delusion, for not only do backward two-year-olds improve out of all recognition, as Sydmonton seems to have done, hut the crack two-year-old winners not infrequently go right off their form in the winter and come out as three-year-olds hardly as good as they were the year before. Instances may be mentioned in Democrat. Raconteur, Floriform, Duke of Westminster, Galvani, Admirable Criclitou, Gamechick, Omladina and many others, which on two-year-old running were right at the top of the tree, and did little or no good afterwards. Spearmint was a stable companion of Admirable Crichton, and no one would have classed them together as two-year-olds, but we know what they turned out to be as three-year-olds. "Such experiences should always make us keep an open mind about the supposed good things for the classics. Even Bayardo did not prove to be a good thing, though, if ever there was one, he ought to have been. And now we may be destined to see the once despised Sydmonton win the Derby. This, however, is a very peculiar year, in which no conceivable result of the Derby would be altogether surprising. The possible winners among our homebred colts may he reckoned by the dozen, while beyond them there is danger both from France and America. As regards the latter country they certainly have not given Adam Bede a fair chance by sending him across the Atlantic little more than two months before the race, but he is said to have been forward in condition before he started, and he has done suinclontly well since landing to take his place in morning work with Joe Cannons first string of horses. Whatever may lie his fate in the Derby we may be reasonably confident that Adam Bede is a good colt, for lie belongs to a shrewd owner who would not have sent him to England untried. It may be that in keeping him in the States "long enough to find out his merits they have sacrificed what would otherwise have been an excellent Derby chance, but as the colt had only run once, when big and backward, and had been amiss during the remainder of his two-year-old season, it is easy to understand that Mr. Madden would wish to know the truth about him before deciding to send him to England. The Doucaster line of sires has always been remarkable for early successes at the stud, and the sons of Flying Fox have already proved that they uphold this tradition. It is a fact that Adam was superior as a race horse to either Jardy or Val dOr, aud there is no reason why he should not have done at least as well during his sojourn in the States as .Tardy has in the Argentine. From this point of view, a "speculator desirous of a fancy bet might back Adam to bring off a double event as sire of the Derby and Oaks winners, viz,, Adam Bede and Bashti. There are far more improbable contingencies than such a result, though Adam Bede must necessarily be handicapped by his recent ten-day voyage and the change of climate." Vigilant in London Sportsman.
