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ENGLANDS TWO-YEAR-OLDS An Estimate of the Relative Standing of the Leaders in This Years Racing. Not for some years has the two-year-old running been so involved as it was this past racing season and, even suppose we are able to size up correctly the relative merits of Town Guard, Drake, Twelve Pointer, Papyrus, Pharos, My Lord, Legality, Cos and Duncan Gray there is still the doubt as to whether any of them will train on into good three-year-olds. Certainly the experience of recent years suggests the reverse, and Golden Corn is a typical example of a tip-top youngster failing to make good in her second season. Golden Corn stood out by herself as a two-year-old, but no animal can lay claim to that distinction in the racing season just completed, a state of things which, following the old rule, may mean that all are moderate. In any case it will not surprise me in the least to find cn Two Thousand Guineas day a colt capable of beating the "cracks," just as St. Louis did this year. However, leaving that point for the moment, let me deal with the two-year-old form as it stands. I will say at once that, in my opinion, the best five youngsters are Town Guard, Drake, Legality. Twelve Pointer and Papyrus. Had Town Guard retired for the winter before his sensational defeat by Papyrus there would, I think, have been little diversity of opinion as to which was the best, but, although almost everyone is agreed that Town Guard could not have been himself on that fatal day, one wonders if he will be himself again next year. Lp to York, where Lord Woolavingtons colt won a couple of races, including the Gimcrack Stakes, in a canter, he did, in my opinion, stand out as the best of his year, but he cannot be easily excused his failure at Newmarket, and at that I leave him for the moment. Drake comes next for criticism and he, too, damaged his reputation when just beaten by Friars Melody at Goodwood. Here again the form could not have been correct, and it was explained to some extent, if not altogether, by Whalleys admission that he did not ride one of his best races. Drake is undoubtedly a very good colt indeed, though his many excellent performances did not impress me so much as did those of Town Guard, and it will cause" me no surprise to find him next year a sprinter pure and simple. A couple of youngsters I like much are Legality and Twelve Pointer, even allowing that the former is a little queer tempered and, perhaps, not blessed with the best of heads. Both have fairly and squarely beaten the speedy Pharos, the former over three-quarters and the latter over a mile, and it will take me some time to forget the manner in which Twelve Pointer galloped away from his rival in the last quarter in the Houghton Stakes. If Twelve Pointer goes on all right during the winter and does not go "up in the air" he will, in my opinion, hold his own against the best next year and will, therefore, have to be consid- ered for the classics. He has proved able to do what few others have done, namely, to go fast and stay, and it was a fine performance to give Kimsan many lengths start at Sandown and then achieve almost the impossible by getting up in the last 150 yards to score quite comfortably at the finish. There is something to be said for Cos and Duncan Gray, but of the youngsters with the best form I prefer Twelve Pointer, Town Guard and Legality, though they may be caught up by some of the backward ones. "Vigilant," in London Sportsman.
