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WAR PENNANT FORMIDABLE ELIGIBLE Commander Ross Has a Strong Hand in Him for the Rich Latonia Championship Stakes. LOUISVILLE, Ky., August 21. Four candidates for the coming .0,000 Latonia Championship Stakes hooked up in the Travers Stakes "at Saratoga, AVnr Pennant, AAar Zone, War Rocket and Cirrus, and while none of them won the 2,500 affair, all showed to good advantage, with the exception of the last named, which, according to reports, went to the post a trifle sore. War Pennant, the lone eligible in the rich event of Commander .T. K. L. Ross, sent his stock skyward by his performance in tin; Travers, as he finished second to Hannibal over the route of one and one-quarter miles, and the time for the race was 2:024. What makes his showing all the better is the fact that he had up 320 pounds, and this is within two pounds of his allot ment in the Latonia Championship Stakes. As soon as War Pennant showed a return to his good form tins summer many shrewd horsemen made the prediction that he will prove formidable in the big race at the Covington course. He was highly regarded by Commander Ross and trainer Guy Itedwell, both contending all along that if he had been himself last spring lie would have made the best three-year-olds in the country hustle to beat him. Redwell worked on him with might anil main in an effort to g t him ready several months in advance of the Latonia Championship Stakes, so that he would have plenty of time to put him through the hard work necessary to fit him to go over the long route of one mile and three-quarters. RACE -APPEALS TO COMMANDER ROSS. It is just such a stake as the Latonia Championship that Commander Ross loves to go after, as lie is the type of sportsman who likes to see the best thoroughbreds in the country contest against his horses, and ho was much disappointed when lie discovered that neither Sir Barton, winner of the recent Kentucky Derby, nor Hilly Kelly, his stableinate, which finished second to him in that event, were eligible to it. Had he owned these two crack three-year-olds at the time nominations were being made for tills years race he would have had them both in, but the entries had closed long before he acquired either of them. A. K. Maeomber nominated War Pennant for it, and tills had much to do with his transfer to the Ross establishment. The wealthy Canadian could not afford to be left out in the cold entirely, and it begins to look now as though he made an excellent selection in purchasing War Pennant to represent liim. The former Maeomber colt is bred well enough to have plenty of staying qualities, lie being a son of Jim Gaffney Maltha, and he has speed and gameness thrown in with his ability to go a long route. 1 1 is race in the Travers evidently will do him a hit of good, as it was his first start over such a distance since he began doing so well after a long lay up. At the end of the first mile he was within Ihree lengths of Hannibal, and the latter was fairly winging as lie ran this distance in 1:30. During the final quarter War Pennant did not make up much ground, but neither did he lose any, and it is no disgrace for a horse to be lieu ten in the time the Travers was fun. ELIGIBLES SOON COMING WESTWARD. It will be but a few weeks now until the more important eligibles for the Championship Stakes head westward, as their trainers want to put on th.- finishing touches of their training over the cuirss where the big race will be decided. In addition to that quite a few of them have also nominated their Latonia Championship hopes for the Lexington Cup Handicap, to be run at Lexington in li-ss than a month from now, and the Twin City Handicap, one of the big features of the coming Iitonia meeting. The former will be at one and one-half miles, while the latter will prove still better at testing the stamina of the thoroughbreds, as it will -be at one mile and fire-eighths. , Harry Bieirogel, assistant to general manager Matt Winn at Latonia, lias just returned from a sojourn in Xew York, Saratoga and ricinity, and he said that the Latonia. Championship Stakes is uppermost in the minds of the horsemen in that section, eren those who have no representation in it. "Stakes wortli 0,000 are too rare not to get people .excited over them," Breirogel said, "and I look for more people to make the trip from New York and other eastern cities to Latonia next fall than go to Louisville to see the Kentucky Derby run annually. I know personally a large number of per,s.oi--wUo-- vc th-jir. first visit to a Ken-tiicky race track in the autumn this, year at Latonia, and the stake is the magnet that is attracting them. We will be at our wits end trying to neco odate them all, as I look for more people to be at the Latonia race track on the day that the Championship is run than have ever seen a Kentucky Derby, but our plant is a pretty big one, anil we are making it larger each meeting."
