view raw text
Here and There on the Turf "Old Slims" Ambition. Kentucky Season. Time Exposure. A New Trainers Success. Zev has piled up such a princely amount of winnings that long since all has been forgotten of the effort to bring Willis Sharps Kilmers Exterminator to a greater figure. Last spring it seemed inevitable that the son of McGcc and Fair Empress would top Man o War, the super horse that set a new mark at which to shoot. All winnings were compared with the Man o War accomplishments, but now it will be Zevs mark that will be the target at which to shoot. There is no possible chance this year for any horse to even approach the winnings of Harry F. Sinclairs great three-year-old, and it is doubtful if his figures will be surpassed for many a year, even in this day of immense purse values". But it is interesting to know that an effort will be made to have Exterminator race again. He is being prepared for a campaign at Tijuana during the winter, and should all go well with him he will reach his goal of passing the Man o War record, even though he will have no chance to catch Zev. There are few thoroughbreds in American racing history more popular than Mr. Kilmers old gelding, and he earned his popularity in long years of honest and brilliant endeavor. If he is brought back he must be brought back to something approaching his former greatness. It would be better never to make the attempt of having him come back than to have him back racing among tha cheap horses. He has done too much for the turf to suffer the indignity of descending to the selling plater ranks. If ever a horse earned the right to honorabh pension and a life of ease to the end of his days it is this same Exterminator. The old fellow has bsen rested most of the summer, after having gone amiss in Maryland last spring, and for some time before being shipped back to Maryland he was working along at Mr. Kilmers Sun Briar Court at Binghamton, N. Y. His exercises there suggested that he would race again creditably, and it is for that reason that the Tijuana campaign has been decided upon. It is great news that Exterminator is coming back, but he must come back in fashionable companj, or he must not be brought back at all. Kentucky has entered the last lap of its 1923 season with the opening of. the Churchill Downs meeting. There are ten days of sport at Churchill Downs, taking the racing year in that state to November 17. It has b:en by long odds the most successful year in the history of racing, and there are still some truly important prizes that are to be decided. Early in the year there seemed to be a good chance for New York and the East to dominate the big classics, but after Zev had started off so auspiciously by winning the Kentucky Derby there was scant nourishment for the invaders, though the Kentucky Oaks was also brought back to New York when it went to the Greentree Stable. There will alwa3s be a sporting rivalry between the East and Kentucky, and it is well for racing that this rivalry exists. It lends a zest to the sport and excites a local interest and a local pride that means much. This is the spirit that is healthiest for the turf, and it was so thoroughly shown in the running of the International race when Zev defended the honor of our thoroughbreds against Papyrus, the Epsom Derby winner. It was also shown in the running of the Latonia Championship. That was a race where the sectional feeling ran high between New York and Virginia, and then along came Kentucky with In Memoriam to beat both Zev, the New Yorker, and My Own, the Virginian. In that great race it will always be remembered that while several of the Kentucki-ans remained loyal to In Memoriam many others were more financial interested in the fortunes of one or the other of the invaders. All these Kentuckians forgot all about any financial interest when In Memoriam charged on Zev in that stretch run and came on to beat him handily. All they knew was that a Kentucky colt was making good over a New Yorker and a Virginian. That meant more to- the Kentuckians than anything else, and just as long as that spirit can be fostered a big thing is being done for racing. The thoroughbred has no native heath he belongs to the wide world but there is the pride of having produced the individual. That is just where this sectional feeling counts. And it is a feeling that means much to the breeding industry. Frank J. FarreU has a particularly likely juvenile in Time Exposure, the chestnut son of High Time and Photo. This colt has been a long time coming to hand, but Willie Knapp has him at himself now, . as his last four races will testify when he was winner of each. This colt is by the Keene-bred sira of Mrs. Vandcrbilts Sarazen. While he has not shown enough to warrant the belief that he mil be the equal of his brilliant relative, hz is surely a colt of promise, and the way he is racing these fall days suggests that he will be a three-year-old of considerable merit. I In his race at Pimlico Wednesday Time Exposure was put to a severe test, and it was one that he met like a real good horse. In a field of nine starters he stumbled badly as he left the barrier and grabbed himself as McAtee tried to rush him after his opponents. The others were away running and Time Exposure had a big gap to close, which is something to accomplish over a track that has difficult footing and in as short a distance as six furlongs. The son of High Time circled around his company in real race horse fashion, and he had to race seconds faster than the time of the race would indicate to make up the ground that was lost by his misfortune at the break. It would not be surprising if Time Exposure found his way to a place among the topnotch three-year-olds of next year. It is pleasing to note in discussing Time Exposure that Willie Knapp is another trainer that recently graduated from the saddle who is making good adequately as a trainer. His scora was a double Wednesday when the Time Exposure victory was followed by a victory for Horologe. Both winners met with racing misfortune that demanded fitness to be home winner. Each had to be good enough to offset this bad racing luck, and Knapp had them in a condition to make that possible. Pony McAtee, the rider for the stable, is another of the Farrell outfit that strictly belongs, and right now with such promising material in his racing establishment there is every promise that the silks will return to the prominence they enjoyed on the turf a few years back when the late Frank Weir presided over the stable.
