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PRIZES FOR FILLIES Eastern Candidates for Valuable i Three-Year-Old Features. Happy Thoughts, Fluvanna and Others Form Formidable Band from Atlantic Coast States. NEW YORK, N. Y., March 30. The East has not been faring as well in the competition for Kentuckys rich prizes for three-year-old . fillies as it has in the Derbys of Churchill and Latonia with its good colts and geldings. In the last three years the score with the West has been two to one in the Kentucky Oaks, one to two in the Latonia Oaks. William Woodwards Nancy Lee and Mrs. Payne Whitneys Untidy won the Kentucky Oaks of 1921 and 1D23, the late H. H. Hewitts Startle scoring in between. Mr. Woodwards Flambette won the Latonia Oaks of 1921, D. Lehans Margaret Winsor arid I. Weils Tip Toe Inn getting down in front in 1922 and 1923, notwithstanding formidable eastern bids. But the conviction is growing along the Atlantic seaboard this spring that the East will come through in the impending Oaks races of the Blue Grass belt with a double. If the West has a group of fillies that will demonstrate they are deserving to be rated with such as Fluvanna, Happy Thoughts, Initiate, Margin, Tree Top, Leopardess, Lady Belle, Elvina, Miss Whisk, Nellie Morse, etc., they are under cover. There is nothing in last years form that even suggests their identities. Unless the plans of their several owners undergo radical alteration the Easts best fillies will be reserved for filly races. It Is generally believed that the three-year-old colts of the impending racing season will prove an exceptionally capable band, not the scrt a filly of less racing capacity than an Artful, a Beldame, a Flying Fairy or a Regret could make behave. The creation of a group, of such ,000 to 5,000 specials as the Kentucky, Latonia, Pimllco, and Coaching Club American Oaks, the Gazelle and the Alabama has provided regular and profitable employment for the talents of first-class three-year-old fillies as they come up. It is no longer necessary for horsemen to break the hearts of Fluvannas, Happy Thoughts, Lady Belles, Elvinas and Tree Tops racing them after stout stud colts in Preakness and Derby, Withers, Belmonts and Travers. QUEEX OF TWO-YEAIt-OLDS. It is the expert concensus of the East that Happy Thoughts came to Saratoga last August in the stable of W. V. Thraves, of Lexington, to he bought by Mr. Simms for 5,000, was the fastest two-year-old filly up to three-quarters of 1923. Until Sarazen, the unbeatable, unchivalrously humbled her at Laurel Park in Octdber, she, herself, was unbeaten. It follows naturally that she will make a first-class three-year-old, provided she trains on. It looks as though she will do that. Headliner of the thoroughbred colony at Havre de Grace she is galloping as satisfactorily as any horse of any age in Maryland. Possibly this Happy Thoughts is another Artful. "With her blazing speed she has practically, everything else fetching conformation, a healthy appetite, good digestion, smooth action and good temper. If she has a fault, she hasnt revealed it. Sir Martin, her daddy, is Ogdens best son. An American two-year-old champion in 190S, he was one of the crack three-year-olds of British racing in 1909. Happy Thoughts and Peter Pan and- Gnome and Buskin have a common female ancestor in Cinderella, a daughter of Hermit The pedigree of this Oaks hope is, moreover, reinforced by strong Cesarion, Ben Brush and St. Serf Crosses. Fluvanna, the best filly of the famous Cudgels first two-year-old crop, was an ,000 yearling that came through. She won last July renewals of the Astoria and Demoiselle Stakes, and finished second, beaten only half a length by St James, in the 5,000. Bejmont Tark Futurity. She, herself, beat Sunpal, Lady Diana, Ladkin, Tree Top, Elvina, Diogenes, Dare Say, Nellie Morse and Bracadale. A great strider and a granddaughter of the celebrated Kildeer, she evinced time and again last year a disposition to go on. She is now at Belmont Park in the stable of Max Hirsch, the trainer also of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilts Sarazen, a Kentucky Derby favorite. She will go to Kentucky with Sarazen presently to he prepared for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. W. 11. COES STUOXG HA"D. Probably William It. Coe has as strong an Oaks hand as any other easterner in Lady Belle and Elvina, both daughters of Poly-melian, from imported mares. Polymelian is a tremendously fast son of the brilliantly successful British stallion rolymelus. Ladj Belle beat Mad Play in a race of five-eighths and three-quarters at Yonkers in October, and finished second to Senator Norris in the 0,000 Walden, a race of one mile, at Iiinlico in November, beating Big Blaze, Sun Flag, Bracadale, Beau Butler, Aga Khan and Lord Baltimore II. Elvina beat a bunch of good colts in the Adirondack Handicap revival at Saratoga and won several other races. She came to Saratoga with a western reputation earned in the spring and early summer. Lady Belle and Elvina put In the winter at Belmont Park. Tree Top, daughter of Ultimus and Thirty Third and half-sister of Buckhorn and Midway, both good long route travelers, licked three or four Kentucky and Latonia Derby hopes in last falls renewal at Bowie of the ,500 Endurance Handicap, another race of one mile for two-year-olds. She was easily the best two-year-old that bore the silks of Mrs. Payne Whitney last year. Tree Top ought to make an exceptionally good three-year-old. She did not come to racing last year until late in July. Two-year-old colts and fillies alike are always the better for getting time for natural development. Initiate, the best of the Harry Payne Whitney Oaks prospects, is a daughter of Whisk Broom and Inaugural, and sister of the 25,000 Whiskaway. She won a renewal of the Clover Stakes at Aqueduct last June, beating Pond Lily, Fluvanna and Infinite, and, possibly, will prove the best three-year-old of either sex of her stable. If all goes well with her, she will start in the ,000 rimlico Oaks in eariy May before she goes to Louisville. Miss Whisk is a daughter or Whisk Broom II. and Wonder and sister of John P. Orier, he one of Man o Wars most formidable three-year-old rivals in 1920.
