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Here and There [ 1— 7— the Turf on 2 2 2 Recent Defeats of Sallys 4 £ 5 Alley. 6 6. Churchill Downs Opening 7 Next Saturday. The two recent defeats of Sallys Alley have 1_ created a situation perpbxing alike to her ad 2 2- mirers and the general racing pubiic. This 4 4 would not be true if she had been fairly and 5 5. squarely beaten. But in each race there were 6 g. features favorable to the filly. When the ut- - 7 terly unreliable June Grass defeated her at a mile in new track record time she was trying to concede him twenty-two pounds by the scale of weight-forage. As she ran that day 2 2 3 she could not do it. Nor could any othsr three-year-old at Pimlico have done it — that 5 day. June Grass is an exceedingly fast horse 6 6 when in the mood to race to his highest ca- 7 I pacity. He is seldon in that mood, but when he is he is hard to beat by any mans horse. Considering that she was eased up when pursuit was hopeless, her race was as good a Preakness Stakes trial as could have been de- r sired. If ridden out her mile would have, at 1 1 least, been done in 1 :38, which would have | •1 3 been admirable. Her defeat in the Pimlico 4 4 Oaks told nothing for or against her. She 5 5 c was left at the post. When that occurred she was beaten then and there. Besides, she was apparently ridden with entire lack of good 1 1 jockeyship after being left. Sallys Alley may not win, or even be placed, 3 in the Preakness Stakes or Kentucky Derby, 4 but there is nothing in her two defeats that says so. The most pertinent reflection seems I 5 to be that Dame Fortune may have concluded i 6 owner Kilmer has had enough of her smiles. He certainly has had aplenty. 1 i 2 With the successful and interesting Lexing- : 3 ton meeting out of the way, the greater and 1 1 more important meeting at Churchill Downs will open Saturday afternoon. In advance it t is replete with promise of high-class racing. Many of the best horses in the West have been saved to enter their 1923 campaign there This applies to all ages. One radical change , will mark the occasion. From that far off day 1 : when Aristides triumphed so gloriously in the ; first Kentucky Derby, that most coveted of f American races, has, until this year, always s been decided on the first day of each spring meeting. Now, to avoid clashing with the Preakness Stakes and to give the Derby can - didates a longer period for training, it has been 1 set back a week and the Clark Handicap takes . its place as the center of interest on the open-ing day. Historically the Clark Handicap dates as far back as the Kentucky Derby, but started as a two mile dash for three year-olds. Its S 0,000 added makes it interesting to all own ers of good horses. Many of the eastern stars I are entered, but if none of them arrives in time to start it still promises a vastly entertaining contest. Black Servant showed at t Lexington that he is ready for racing again I and probably a handicap star of the first magnitude. - Capricious, but exceedingly fast. . Whiskaway will attract vast attention. Then n S I t I - . n there are such other high-class racers as Best Pal, Firebrand. Audacious, Minto II.. Dr. Clark. Startle. Bet Mosie, Lady Madcap. Cho Cho, to say nothing of a number of Derby horses, all on the ground and ready to race, ho it can be set down in advance that the Clark Han dicap will furnish a race worth a journey to witness, Besides all which the Debutante Stakes will ; introduce the best two-year-old fillies of the Kentucky campaign to date.
