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Here and There on the Turf Zev Qualfies for the Big Races. His Paumook Handicap Victory Significant. Sallys Alley Not Disgraced by Defeat. Chittagong Qualifies for the Derby. And now it is Zev. When the Rancocas Stable three-year-old won the Paumonok Handicap at Jamaica Wednesday he demonstrated why he is one of the most talked of eligibles to both the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby. Hildreth sent this handsome brown son of The Finn and Miss Kearney to the post a particularly fit colt and the manner in which he finished out the mile, to which point he was worked after running the three-quarters of the Paumonok Handicap in 1 :12, left no doubt of his readiness to go any distance in reason. Zev carried 109 pounds, ten pounds below the three-year-old three quarters weight for May and it would be hard to find a better band of sprinters than those that opposed him in the race. He raced as fast a sprinter as Rocket, winner of the Toboggan Handicap of last year, into defeat and still hat! speed left to withstand a menacing stietch challenge from Dominique, one of the best sprinters of recent years. Then, after all that, he went on to complete a mile in 1:41%. making it a satisfactory trial for the big stake races that are before him. Zev has the cut of a good horse. He is bred to run both fast and far and he is sure to be an important factor in the three year-old division of 1923. It is reasonable that Hildreth should think well of Zev, his sire, The Finn, is also the sire of Kai-Sang, probably the be. t throo-j ear-old that was raced list year, although he never met Lucky Hour. This young stallion, which was sold by Montfort Jones and John E. Madden last winter to W. R. Coe for 10,-000, is one of the most promising stock horses in the country. Hildreth fitted Zev, as well as most of the others in the big Rancocas Stable at Hairy F. Sinclairs New Jersey farm, and he surely prepared them well, judging by the brilliant performance of the son of The P~inn and Miss Kearney. Plans have been made for the shipment of a part of the stable to Pimlico, where stalls have been reserved, and it is probable that Zev will be seen at the post for the Preakness Stakes. Sam Hildreth has a fashion of keeping his horses going after he has them ready. He races his horses big and strong and, on all past performances, it would be the appropriate campaign to send Zev after the big Maryland Jockey Club race before sending him on to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby is the race for which Zev has been most frequently mentioned and is his real goal, but with the Preakness Stakes on May 12 and the Derby on May 19 there seems no good reason why the colt should not try to duplicate the double victory that was ■cored by Sir Barton in 1919. While Zev was qualifying so handsomely for the big races of the year at Jamaica Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sallys Alley met with a reverse at Pimlico when she was beaetn by Gif-ford A. Cochrans June Grass. It was in the Ashburton Purse, at a mile, that the queenly daughter of Allemuer and Sal volatile met defeat, but it must be said on her behalf that | she was giving away great lumps of weight I I and June Grass had to hang out a new track record of 1 :37% to beat her. Sallys Alley, ■ three year-old, had to she dder 112 pounds to the 110 carried by June Grass. Under the scale of weight -for age the weights would have been June Grass 127 pounds and Sallys Alley 107 pounds. Instead of this difference of twenty pounds in favor of the filly she gave June Grass two pounds actual weight, which would mean twenty-two pounds by the scale. It takes a remarkable race horse to give away such weight successfully to a horse like June Grass, and Mr. Kilmer should not be disap | pointed in the showing made by his magnificent filly. In fact, she has increased hei j standing in the minds of good judges of the : worth of a race horse. The big advantage that comes from educa-1 tion was demonstrated at Jamaica on the i j opening day in the result of the two races for two year olds that were decided. Reply, win- | I I | j : i j ner of the opening race, had been educated by racing at New Orleans, while Sue Donovan, not yet beaten, raced both at New Orleans and Tijuana. And in the first race Donaghee, the only other one that had been to the races before, finished in second place. It may be that there were better two-year-olds in the race than cither Reply or Donaghee and this may be shown before the end of the Jamaica meeting, but the results of Wednesday demonstrated with peculiar force the importance of racing education. This applies with force to Lucky Play, the half brother to Lucky Hour, that was third in the Reply race. This colt is surely a runner and the prediction is made that the next time he meets Reply he may turn the tabhs on the filly. Mad Play, from the Rancocas Stable, was another probably destined to better things later on. To return to the candidates for the big races for three year-olds, it must not be forgotten that there was one other that was a winner on the opening day at Jamaica. This was Benjamin Blocks Better Luck. His was only a five and a half furlong dash, but he ran fast and finished gamely to beat as good a filly as Fly by Day. This race could hardly be taken as anything likely to give a line on the Preakness Stakes or Kentucky Derby qualifications, but Burlew has been sending him along for a considerable time this spring and he at least should be fit. Another Kentucky Derby candidate, Chittagong, gave an encouraging display in running a mile in 1 :39% and winning the fifth race at Lexington with a half dozen other Derby candidates behind him. Two of these. Bright Tomorrow and Lord Granite, were so knocked about in the race as to practically have no chance, wherefore the race is not to be counted against them, but the merit of Chittagongs performance is undeniable. He is now among those with an obvious Derby chance.
