view raw text
Here and There on the Turf Kentucky Derby Horses. Many Good Candidates. Wise Counsellor on Top. Parkes Good Form. In all likelihood the Kentucky Derby will be run early in May. That has been the usual date for the big mile and a quarter chief race of the Kentucky Jockey Club. May is still four months away, but even now there is much speculation as to the probabb field for that rich race. There were thirty potential candidates for this event that won in excess of 0,000 last racing season, and they are only a small part of the number that will be named. Of course, at this time, John S. Wards Wise Counsellor, Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt II.s Sarazen and George D. Wideners St. James . must bo given the call over the others. Each of these has been wintering exceeding we!l and, while there may be a doubt of St. James being brought to the post for so early an effort, only an accident can prevent the other two from racing. Sarazen is at Belmont Park, white Wise Counsellor is at Churchill Downs, the scene of the Derby, and he will have all his preparation in Kentucky. It is the intention of Max Hirsch, who is training Sarazen for Mrs. Vanderbilt, to take the son of High Time and Rush Box to Louisville 01112 time before the Derby date, so that he will have the advantage of being trained over the ground on which he will be required to race. Sarazen has not yet known defeat and, although Hirsch has had many a good one, he rates this gelding as just about the best racing tool the turf has seen in many a year. Not particularly impressive in appearance and just a bit undersized, he has belied his looks in all of his races. He has shown Hirsch that he is a great weight carrier, a horse of extreme speed and this astute trainer is convinced that he will race as far as any mans horse. These are all the attributes that are needed for Derby requirements. But John Ward is just as firmly convinced that hs has the champion three-year-old in Wise Counsellor, Eon of Mentor and Rustic. Though this fellow did not have any engagements in the rich two-year-old stakes of the East, he wound up his campaign a good second to St. James in money earned during 1923, and St. James was only beaten in that regard by Zev. That is to say, Wise Counsellor was second on the list of two-year-olds, St. James was second in the list for every age, and in the final count, while Wise Counsellor was also beaten in money won by In Memo-riam, Chacolet and Vigil, but each of these is of more mature age. Wise Counsellor looks every inch a champion, in addition to being a colt of rare speed. He is just under sixteen hands and! it would be hard to find a horse of better lines. In his short career he was only sent to the post five times, and four times was a winner, finishing second on the occasion of his other start. In the fall of each year there are several mile races for the two-year-olds that are calculated to give a good line on Derby pos- sibilities, and that line would give Wise Counsellor the call for the 1921 Derby. His last race was his most impressive, when he ran the mite of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on November 17 in 1:37 under 122 pounds. This established a two-year-old mark for the distance and back of him finished Mad Flay, Chilhowee, Battle Creek, Gonfalon, Happy Thoughts, Bracadate, Worthmore, Bobs Mary and Mr. Mutt. In his previous race, ths Queen City Handicap, at a mile, at Latonia, he won under 125 pounds, and the others he j defeated besides those that opposed him at Churchill Downs were King Gorin II., Cloister, Delectable, Peter Malcney, Black Gold, Col. Gilmore and Bob Cahill. So much for Wise Counsellor. He had not been engaged in the big fail fixtures of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico or h3 might have added them to his remarkable list. But there was another celt which triumphed in the mile of the Pimlico Futurity, when Edward R. Bradleys Beau Butler was first in a big and select field. For that contest the others were Rustic, Aga Khan, Transmute, Modest, Senator Norris, Gonfalon, Sunspero, Fluvanna, Diogenes, Bob Tail, Nellte Morse, Lord Baltimore II., Fabian, Sun Flag and Sun Pal. That was Beau Butlers first race, and while he was beaten later in the Walden Handicap, at a mile, over the same course, hz qualified handsomely as a Derby possibility in the Pimlico Futurity. The Walden Handicap was run in two sections, and one section went to H. G. Bed-wells j Senator Norris, while the other was won by Stanwix, from the Rancocas Stable. 1 Both were under comparatively light weight, I but each showed promise that would warrant a preparation for both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes this year. Senator Norris is a son of that successful young sire Cudgil and Cypher Code, by Dis- guise. When he won his Walden there finished back of him such good ones as Lady Belle, Big Blaze, H. T. Waters, Sun Flag, Bracadale, Beau Butler, Gonfalon, Sunmagne, Nellie Morse, Dazzler, Lord Baltimore H. and Aga Khan. Stanwix is a chestnut son of Ballot and Miss Crittenden, making him a brother to Lord Brighton. He carried 108 pounds in his Walden victory and the rest of the field back of him was composed cf Sunspero, Mr. Mutt, Mad Play, Transmute, Modest, Fabian, Bob Tail, Baffl.ng, Runningwild, Elvina and Rinkey. These are soma of the new three-year-olds of Derby class, besides Wise Counsellor and Sarazen, and there are still others. One :.f these is Frank J. Farrcils Time Exposure, by High Time, thz sire of Sarazen. It was not until comparatively late in the year that Time Exposure found himself, but he went into winter quarters a particularly brilliant threc-year-cld prospect. Like Sarazen, Time Exposure is a gelding and with that barring Inn. from the Preakness Stakes it is Hkyy that William Knapp, his trainer, will make a try for the Derby with him. Time Exposure has shown on frequent occasions that he has real Derby quality, and it would not be surprising if he was right up with the b;st of the three-year-olds of this year. After all there are some excellent prospects for the Derby, although 1923 was not remarkable for a great number of good two-year-olds. In all of this St. James has not been discussed for the reason that it is not expected he will be pointed for the Derby. Should it be decide 1 to send him after that race his two-year-old racing would suggest that his chance for victory would be second to none. Little Ivan Parke is starting out the 192-1 racing season in a fashion that bid? fair to enable him to head the jockey list again at the J end of the year. His three victories out of five mounts Thursday would show that he is keeping up his pace exceedingly well, and just so long as he is imbued with the ambition that put him at the top last year he has a wonderful chance to repeat. He is a natural born rider and all he needs is the opportunity to make his way through this year, just as he went through 1923 with such success. .
