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ABOUT SOME EPSOM DERBY HORSES According to latest advices considerable interest is already developing in the outcome of this years Epsom Derby although the race will not be run until June 5 On the third day of April five horses Lomond White Star Cylgad Coriander and Jingling Geordie were backed to win substantial sums This led Augur of Sporting Life to say Until sayUntil the Easter meetings have been wiped oft the shite it is unlikely that there will be much bet ¬ ting on the City and Suburban or any of the re ¬ maining spring handicaps but an unusual amount of interest is apparently being taken in the Derby for which no fewer than five horses were supported yes ¬ terday During the winter in what little wagering took place Lomond has always figured at a half or full point shorter odds than White Star the brother to last years winner This preference for Mr Hul tons colt can only have been based on the assuuip tion that he was likely to make greater relative im provement from two to three years of age than his presumably most dangerous rival for as I have so often pointed out there is absolutely nothing to choose between the pair either on direct or col ¬ lateral form formThe The deadset which has been made against White Star in some quarters is not easily accounted for Twelve months ago it was believed and reasonably so that Sunstar as a son of Sundridge would not stay the Derby course but on the day he dispelled all such illusions and that too after practically breaking down at a critical period of the race It cannot therefore be on the score of breeding thit White Star is expected to fail where his own brother succeeded so handsomely That White Star had a better juvenile record than his elder brother is nlso undeniable for while Sunstar was beaten both by Pictri and Wrinkler for the Champagne Stakes and afterwards could only manage a deadheat with the sprintingBorrow for the Hopeful Stakes the young ¬ er colt accounted for the Doncastcr event and sub ¬ sequently passed a higher test In the Dewhnrst Plate White Star was no doubt prejudiced in the eyes of many people on account of being beaten by his stable companion Absurd in the Middle Park Plate but he was so palpably unlucky both at the start and during running for that race that the form may be safely dismissed as totally unreliable unreliableFrom From the above remarks I do not wish it to bn understood that I consider White Star as certain to follow in his brothers footsteps on June 5 or that I regard Lomond as his inferior It is simply my de ¬ sire to point out that Mr J B Joels colt has at least as good credentials as the other and that he is fully entitled to the rank of equal favorite which he has recently assumed Should all go well with the pair in the meantime this years race for the Derby should develop Into one of the most interest ¬ ing of recent years for if all we hear about one or two of the less favored candidates be true the bet ¬ ting will not be confined to the respective repre ¬ sentatives of Messrs Ilulton and Joel Cylgad Cor ¬ iander and Jingling Geordie were the other horses befriended yesterday and of this trio Mr Buchanans colt but for his waywardness would be decidedly the most attractive attractiveW W K Vamlerbilts French candidate for Derby honors Montrosc II has Iwen freely spoken of as likely to trouble the English colts this year but unless his recent form at Maisons Laffitte was all wrong no great danger need be anticipated in his case According to our representative across th Channel the son of Maintenon was considered to be lit enough to do himself every justice and odds were willingly laid on him Nevertheless he was beaten by an animal which had failed to win a race as a juvenile and as the distance was only a mile and a quarter Moutrose II would appear to be lacking in stamnia The going however I learn was exceedingly heavy for Maisons Laflittc and per ¬ haps that may have upset the Derby colt so it may be as well not to condemn him too severely At the same time doubts are expressed as to the likeli ¬ hood of JIontro e II being sent over to Epsom and for the time being we may safely leave him out of calculations calculationsAlthough Although he had no means of knowing It when Augur wrote the foregoing about Moutrose II the case of that colt had already been definitely settled a dispatch from Paris of April 5 saying Much sympathy lias l een expressed in sporting circles with W K Vanderbllt on the destruction of his hopes of winning the Epsom Derby with Montrose II The horse looked well in the pad ¬ dock at Maisons Laflitte yesterday when stripped fortthe Prix Legrange in which he was beaten by Shannon after running brilliantly for a mile mileAfter After the race a veterinary examination re ¬ vealed the fact that the horee was suffering in his respiratory organs and later in the evening the operation of tracheotomy was performed on him It is said therefore that there is little likelihood of his fulfilling any classic engagements with the possible exception of the French Two Thousand Guineas run on May 19
