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LATONIAS MAIN RACE The Latonia Championship Stakes Now Calling for Attention. Pick of the Eastern Stables Expected to Come West to ! Meet All Comers. NEW YORK, N. Y., September 2. As the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, a feature of the Churchill Downs meeting, will draw some of its most formidable contestants from the group of good two-year-olds that raced at the Saratoga meeting so will the Latonia Championship, the most important of the three-year-old stakes to be run in Kentucky. The Latonia Championship is a 5,000 added race of one mile and three-quarters for three-year-olds. Instituted in 1919 its first winner was Samuel C. Hildreths Mad Hatter. The winner in the following year was Cleopatra, which bore the silks of William R. Coe of New York and Wyoming, and last years victor was Sporting Blood, which raced under the silks of Bud Fisher. All three of these horses were of Kentucky origin. Major August Belmont bred Mad Hatter and Sporting Blood at his Nursery Stud of Fayette County, Kentucky. They are sons of the celebrated Fair Play, the sire also of the more celebrated Man o War. Cleopatra, a daughter of Corcyra and Gal-lice, was raised at Arthur B. Hancocks Claiborne Stud, which has four or five potential candidates for the coming Championship in different stables. The Championship candidates most highly thought of are Montfort Jones Rockminister and St. Henry, Gifford A. Cochrans June Grass, Mrs. Payne Whitneys Gaiantman, Letterman and Pirate Gold; H. II. Hewitts Startle, Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sunreigh, the Quincy Stables Ray Jay and Relay, Admiral Cary T. Graysons Hea, Clendennin Ryans Black Fox, Edward F. Simms and Henry Olivers Lucky Hour, My Play, Missionary and Southern Cross; Harry F. Sinclairs Little Chief, Mrs. Wilfred Viaus Firm Friend, Frank J. Farrells Horologe, C. W. Clarks Whiskaway and Harry Payne Whitneys Bunting, Olympus and Rocket. These colts and fillies appear to constitute the best class of the remaining seventy-three Championship eligibles, with the exception of Commander J. K. L. Ross Spanish Maize, which is racing in Canada ; Dan Lehans Margaret Win-sor, winner of the last Latonia Oaks, and George F. Bakers John Finn. STRONG EASTERN OPPONENTS. In Whiskaway, Olympus, Bunting and Rocket, Relay and Ray Jay, Letterman and Gaiantman and Little Chief the Atlantic seaboards thoroughbred breeding industry, which has not so far been strongly repre sented in a Latonia Championship contest, has a strong array of. talent from which to pick candidates, or a candidate. Whiskaway, Bunting. Olympus and Rocket were bred by Mr. Whitney at his Brookdale Stud, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Bunting, a son of Pennant and Frillery, won last years Fu-, turity and last springs renewal of the Chesapeake Stakes at Havre de Grace. Rocket, a son of Broomstick and First Flight, finished second in last falls renewal of the Kentucky Championship at Churchill Downs. Startle beat him. Olympus, a son of Royal Eagle and Paradise, won last years Tremont Stakes at Aqueduct, and beat the redoubtable Boniface at Havre de Grace last spring in an overnight race that was part of his preparation for the Kentucky Derby, in which an attack of influenza prevented him from starting. Gaiantman, the contender in last falls Belmont Park Futurity, and Letterman, son of Superman, were bred by the late Henry T. Oxnard at the Blue Ridge Stud of Fauquier County, Virginia. Little Chief, winner of last years renewal of the Whirl Stakes at Yonkers, is a son of Wrack and Medora and a product of William Woodwards Belair Stud of Southern Maryland. Ray Jay and Relay are sons of Assagai, he a son of the celebrated Spearmint. They hail from Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sun Briar Court Stud of Broome County, New York. Sunreigh, a brother of Sun Briar, the head of the Sun Briar Court Stud, was bred in England and raised at Sun Briar Court. GOOD LONG -DISTANCE RACERS. Ray Jay and Relay, both of which have shown a decided liking for long-distance running, are stake winners. Relay defeated a band of good two-year-olds at Pimlico last fall in a renewal of the 0,000 Walden Stakes, a gallop of one mile, and after he had won at Pimlico last spring and defeated Modo, Leterman and Fifty-Fifty in a renewal of the Southampton Handicap at Jamaica he whipped Knobbie in a quick run race of one mile at Belmont Park. Ray Jay, beaten In the Belmont Stakes by Pillory. Snob IX and Hea, went over to Aqueduct and defeated Letterman, Oceanic, Serenader and Lady Baltimore in the Dwyer Stakes. Relay struck himself in his race with Knobbie at Belmont Park and has not appeared under colors since. Both he and Ray Jay are training satisfactorily now, with the Latonia Championship Stakes as their immediate objective. Mrs. Viaus hope, Firm Friend, a son of Friar Rock and Bold Girl, is a Californian. He was raised at the Wikiup Ranch of John H. Rosseter. He is a half brother of Audacious, a high-class handicap horse last year, which was recently assigned to stud duty at Claiborne Farm. Mrs. Viau paid a big price for Firm Friend at Saratoga last summer. He is a colt of high speed and is learning to carry on over a long distance of ground. Simms and Oliver Championship candidates did not race at Saratoga. Lucky Hour is beginning to gallop at speed over big distances after a long let-up. Lucky Hour, a son of Hourless and Lucky Catch, was one of the sensations of eastern two-year-old racing last fall. He trained brilliantly at Havre de Grace for last springs Kentucky Derby, but fell sick with influenza about the time he was to have been shipped West Lucky Hour could have been got ready for the Kentucky Special if he had not, on tho occasion of his first appearance on the track at Jamaica for work after nis recevery from influenza, been kicked in the forehead by Southern Cross. His frontal bone was fractured by Southern Cross heel and a quick operation was necessary to save his life. He is all right again. My Play, a brother of Man o War, went West for the Derby in the place of Lucky Hour and was making a challenge for the money, when he spread a hoof and fell lame. He has grown out a new hoof and is in splendid condition. The Simms and Oliver confederation do not flatter themselves that they have in My Play another Man o War, but they are confident that ths son of Fair Play and Mahubah will make a first rate reputation before he goes in winter quarters again. Southern Cross, a son of Luke McLuke and Pamphyle, polbly is a high-class three-year-old. He f aped a mile in 1:38 flat, beating a big b:f 1 a long way on the occasion of his first av pearance under silks at Saratoga. Southern Cross has a fetching way of going and is a splendid looker. Hea, a son of Sea King, he the sire of the Kentucky Derby winner of 1920, Paul Jones, was the contender in last springs renewal of the Preakness Stake. Pillory, out to the last ounce, beat him a nose. Hea was slightly injured on the cars coming up from Benning track, where he trains, to Saratoga, but ho is galloping briskly.
