view raw text
i f n d 1 9 I 5 0 0 5 6 . 0 LAST STAND OF GELDING : i Kentucky Derby Only Big Three-f Year-Old Race Open to Him. However, Prospects Were Never Better for Unsexed Horses Winning It This Ye ar . LOUISVILLE, Ky.. March 8. The last stand of the gelding is the Kentucky Derby, the only race for three-year-olds of the best class that will admit him to participation this year, even, bids fair to be a memorable one, for Billy Kelly, tho superb gelding, the greatest unsexed two-year-old Ameri-. can racing has developed since Salvidere, the juve- nile hero of 190S, whose prospective meeting with Eternal, last year champion colt, invests the renewal of Churchill Downs great race of May 10 with - unwonted anticipatory interest, is not the only gelding of good class preparing to take part in it. 5 Ten or a dozen two-year-old geldings have been named for the Derby, and of this number Harry Payne Whitneys Blue Laddie, Cornelius M. Gar- - risous Be Frank. B. J. Brannons pair. Colonel Livingston and St. Bernard; Colonel Ral Parrs Esquimau. Frank D. Weirs Toto anil Mrs. Walter M. Jef fords Kerensky, to mention 110 others, are horses of high promise. All have speed of the high-est order, all have shown under colors some disposi-H tion to go on. ; On demonstrated form the best of the seven 1 is Colonel Livingston. This prepossessing son , of Handsel and Axis, she a fine daughter of Tom ; Cromwell and Plumeria, won 9,023 last year, whicli was something to boast of. After taking the Harold Stakes in Kentucky in the spring he went - ; up to Saratoga and finished third to Billy Kellv nnd Lion dOr-in the Sanford Memorial, ahd third : to Billy Kelly and Sweep On in the Grab Bag. Then he came back to Kentucky to win the Breeders Futurity and the Fort Thomas Handicap. He showed that he was something of a manager of weight by shouldering 128 pounds in the Fort Thomas to Lindens 112and and Sennings Parks 117. And later still he beat that reliable performer of maturer years, Opportunity, in an overnight race at threc-, quarters of a mile. Colonel Livingston is good to look at and an easy . horse to manage. He comes honestly by his qual-I ity. No three-year-old in the country has better , connections. Axis is a half-sister to Sir Wilfrid, a good class horse of his day. and the sire since lie took up stud duty at Henry T. Oxnards Blue Ridge , Stud in Virginia of Trojan, a Futurity winner; . Headmast, and other horses of note. A crime r against thoroughbred production was committed when , Colonel Livingston was gelded. He should have been left entire to carry on the blood of Hanover, which is threatened with extinction. 1 St. Bernard, Colonel Livingstons stablemate and , possible running companion in the Derby, did not make so much of a reputation as a race horse. Nevertheless, there are possibilities in him. lie is , the son of Ivan the Terrible and Beatrice K., she a daughter of Handsel and Miss Eddie, by Fordham, ; a horse of robust physique, unusual speed and ap-i parent stamina. He is the best son of Ivan the I Terrible that has raced since Hodge was in his ; heydey, and Mr. Brannon believes that he will go on as well as the next mans horse. MANY GOOD ONES BESIDES BILLY KELLY. Billy Kelly, of course, is tho best gelding that will come this way from the east to start in the Derby. Imt good class horses are lxith Be Frank and Blue Laddie, one of which is wintering at Mount Washington, near Baltimore, the other at Mr. Whitneys Brookdalc Farm in Monmouth County, New Jersey, whence came Regret a few years back to win a Kentucky Derby and upset the forty-year tradition that accomplishing such a feat was beyond the powers of any three-year-old of the softer sex. If Blue Laddie, a half English, half American son of Cylgad and Blue Girl, the champion American two-year-old filly of the season of 1901. hail stood up through the season and raced to the promise of his Havre de Grace. Pimlico anil Belmont Park spring form, .racing folk, iossibly. would be talking of -him now as they are talking of Billy Kelly. A horse of unusual size and bone and splendid balance. Blue Laddie matured quickly and won three of his first four races. In his first race he played with Esquimau, a two-time winner at the time. Then ho made a show of James W. McClel-Iands The Wanderer a 0,000 yearling in the Pimlico Nursery, and he would have won the Spring Juvenile another Pimlico special if he had not been left at the post. His last winning race was scored at Belmont Park over Hannibal, Richard T. Wilsons Olambala ! colt, which was destined a few days Iaer to win : the Keene Memorial, and at Saratoga in August to canter home first in the Special, the most sportsmanlike of American races. Blue Laddie, with Cresson as running mate, started in the Special. But , they should not have. Both were lame. Neither ; was ready. They started because Harry Payne - Whitney wanted representation. That James Rowe 1 believes Blue Laddie will train this year is evident from the fact that he has engaged him lllerally in stakes for tliree-year-ohls anil over to be decided J through the coming racing season, as he has the 1 promising colts Bayard anil Vindex. Be Frank, a son of Sir John Johnson and Frankness, u half-brother of Straight Forward and si near 1 relative of the Bowie Cup winner Everest, is nearly as highly thought of in Maryland as is Billy Kellv. 1 He is a sixteen-hanil giant of rugged construction 11 and splendid underpinning. After making a new record for five and a half furlongs at Saratoga in i August, iu a race in which he lieat the fleet-footed Tuscaloosa. J He Frank went down to Maryland and A won the Potomac Handicap. Laurels "lK-st mile special for two-year-olds, after being left at the 1 post. He wound up the season by beating sprinters c of good class iu a six and a half furlongs dnsli at i Bowie. Sprinting is not Be Franks game, either. 1 Be Frank is getting a special preparation for tho Derby and he is training handsomely. Kerensky, a son of Plaudit and Result, and Esquimau, a son of Theo. Cook and Northern Girl, were good geldings throughout the year. Esquimaus career last year was somewhat like Tippity Witchets of tiie year before. He began at Bowie on the first of April and wound up at Bowie in November, beating better horses than anyone dreamed he might vanquish earlier in the vear. He wintered in Virginia and is training at Pimlico. Toto, a sou of Hippodrome and Tripping, Avon six races last year, finishing a creditable year by trimming Linden at Latoniu. Frank Weir wintered him ia Cuba and thinks mighty well of Ms Derby hand.
