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ENGLANDS CRACK THREE YEAROLDS Through thick and thin The Special Commis ¬ sioner W B Allison of London Sportsman had been tin ardent partisan of Friar Marcus for the classic races of this year and despite his defeat by Sammarco Thrace and Vervaine in a trial prior to the Two Thousand Guineas still stuck to him and predicted he would win that race After the colt was so signally beaten in that big event however lie knocked under to the logic of the situation and in the next days Sportsman said saidThe The big race is now over and hopes which belied our fears about the stamina of Friar Marcus have been disappointed It is not often that a highclass horse though speed may be his forte Is absolutely unable to win over a mile or a mile and a half especially in a slowrun race such as todays was All conditions were favorable for fast time but 143 is Pouimerus record Eveu so however Friar Marcus after commanding his opponents without any apparent effort snuffed out absolutely half way down the hill and it is now indisputable that six furlongs is his limit though tip to that point he is as brilliant as ever He was tlie gentleman of the party in the paddock and could not possibly have looked more lit to run His companion Sammarco is a bigger colt though not as yet so well furnished Both Let Fly and Sun lire struck me as having trained light and stale since Ncwbury and Suulirc In particular will IK dillicult to make any lietter between now and the Derby Pommern on the other hand has come on wonderfully since the last meeting and he came out from paddock Indirection without showing any nervousness as he then did More ¬ over lie cantered down in grand style as did Friar Marcus the two being out by themselves the iHst movers of the party Follow Up is a big fine colt but he too seemed to have gone the wrong way since Newbury Nothing filled the eye as more likely to effect a surprise than the powerful bloodlike The Vizier and he ran right well into the bargain The powerful lengthy Spring Thyme is a bit of a commoner in such company but be has a lot of Minting about him nnil might have been got by that horse or his sou Ugly Gadabout is still rather lathy and split up but lie Is useful as beyond doubt is the sturdy Rosseiidalc which made a gallant show in the race and finished fourth I never saw Sammarco dangerous mid Let Fly was flighty at the post Bethlehem whose name ought never to have been registered was Uying at too high game but he should win plenty of other races Swiftfoot seems to have had his fore and hind quarters made at twice and he ran no lietter than he looked Apothecary is a useful sort of colt with no serious pretensions to good class but for Tournament there may be a great future By Spearmint out of Sirenia lie is bred to stay and ho has fine size with capital limbs He is distinctly more back ¬ ward than the winner and there are even possi ¬ bilities that over a longer course he will reverse the todayIt form though Pomnieru won easily indeed today It seems clear enough that Pomnieru must hold all the other Two Thousand Guineas runners safe at Epsom with the conceivable exception of Tour ¬ nament and the only danger outside the Two Thou ¬ sand Guineas field appears to lie King Priam which certainly made a most favorable impression in the paddock before the Chippenham Plate He is a different animal from the beefy twoyearold that we saw beaten by Pommern at Kempton last au ¬ tumn The lumber has trained off him and if any ¬ thing there is improvement in the stralghtish near foreknee He is hard clean and muscular and quite a classic horse to look at Of course he won his race without an effort and the gallop will have done hiin no end of good Pommern has not won the Derby yet As for Pommern it may be of in ¬ terest to know that although Mr S B Joel is cred ¬ ited with being his breeder as he owned Merry Ag ¬ nes when the colt was foaled it was the previous owner Sir Alan Tohnstone who really mattil the mare with Piilymclus Sir Alan took a dislike to the mare because her then twoyearold Merry Mat disaplKnnted him badly and as a result he sold hor carrying Pommern to Mr Joel for I think 500 pounds and the covering fee The latter gen ¬ tleman never made a more fortunate purchase Charles Peck turned out Pommern in grand fettle and certainly the star of Polymelus as a sire of great winners is much in the ascendant Personally I had a sovereign each way on Friar Marcus for luck and I hope none of my readers did any more than this
