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Here and There on the Turf Preakness and Derby Reflections. Three-Year-Olds of 1923 Inferior to Those of 1922. Now Claim Zev was Kicked and Sulked at Pimlico. Now that the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby are in the past tense there is one general deduction that can justly be drawn. That dsduction is that the three year olds of 1923 are distinctly inferior to the three-year-olds of 1922. At this time it does not seem any one of them is the equal of Whiskaway, Morvich, Rockminister, Lucky Hour, Bunting, or even Oceanic, Pillory or Surf Rider. One token of this is that both of these great races , of this year were run in significantly slower time than in 1922 with weather and track conditions about the same. All of this does j not signify that our three year-olds of this year are incapable of furnishing highly entertaining racing. They are, and will do so throughout the racing year. Only, seemingly, they cannot, ■ as a class, run as fast as the three-year-olds ; of 1922. Fortunate!y rate of maintained speed I is little considered or sensed by racing crowds j while a race is in progress. Of the thousands i who sa%- the Kentucky Derby decided, few had any idea whether it was being run in fast time or slow time, or cared. Zev, by his victory in the Derby, has taken a place for the time being at. the head of the ; three year-olds of 1923. It remains to be 5 seen whether or not he is good enough to hold j the proud place. There still are fleet ones to dispute his way and he will have to keep right fc up to the measure of that victory to hold his place securely. Those who witnessed the run . ning of the big race Saturday will find excuses - for this or that celt that finished behind him, but the colt that is capabe of tak ing up his weight and leading such a field 1 from end to end of a mile and quarter must be a good one. It was Zev that was out there , doing things while the others were striving » vainly to catch him. He was good enough to take the lead and hold it all through that long, race. Some of the others, for which excuses s are offered at this time, were unable to take e an early favorable position and then were ? bottled up for much of the race. The Derby at once demonstrates beyond all argument that Zev did not run his race in the e Preakness Stakes and brought out news about that race, one being the excuse that the colt hgd sulked. And there was reason for his s sulking. Sande, after the race, said that Zev v had been kicked at the post in the Preakness s Stakes and in other ways bothered until he e absolutely refused to extend himself. It seemed i from the stand that day that Zev himself f offended more at the post with his heeb than n almost any of the others. But Sande last Sat urday explained that Zev did not kick until 1 he had been kicked by Hobgob!in. The kick k he received did not inflict as serious a bodily y as it did a mental injury. It is averred it t s e ? e s v s e i f n 1 k y it t soured the temper of the colt and it was not because he could not run, but because he would not run, that he gave such a disappointing account of himself at Pimlico. It was al different at Churchill Downs. Zev was in good humor and he had nothing to dis- turb his temper at the post. Few horses can beat him away from the barrier and when he came clear in the first dozen strides there never was a horse close enough to him to bother him for the rest of the race. It was natural that Zev should have besn put down by many as nothing more than a sprinter, after his showing in the Preakness Stakes. He had beaten the best sprinters of older age that were mustered against him in the Paumonok Handicap. After the race he was worked out as part of his Preakness prep- aration, but the manner in which he finished the extra distance did not impress. The plan had been to send Zev to Kentucky right after the Preakness Stakes, but Hildreth had him returned to New York and there was a doubt whether or not he would be sent to Louisville. Then he won the Rainbow Handicap the Tuesday following his Saturday defeat. That was an even more impressive race than the Paumonok Handicap, but he tired badly when worked out to a mile and an eighth in 1 :55. So that even after that race it was generally agreed that sprinting was about all he could accomplish successfully. But Hildreth sent him out in the care of Dave Leary and everyone knows now just how he won. Hildreth does not make many mistakes and Zev undoubtedly showed him enough long before the Paumonok Handicap. But there was not the same cock sureness about the stable after the colt had failed in the Preakness Stakes. Then it must be remembered that Zev was giving away weight in the preakness; that is, he was giving away twelve pounds to each of the three first horses at the finish. In the Derby all were at even weights.
