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r 1 . 1 ! I r , , j • • 1 1 1 I 1 - 1 1 1 . ; 1 i . I I , 1 , • , [ERRATIC DERBY FAVORITE ! Peculiar Caper of Tom Pinch in t the Race for the Two Thousand Guineas. . It is well, when discussing a race like the coming I erby, to get clear of patent errors of tad. Thus there has been a strong combination of error to make the public believe that T. rn 1 inchs lapse in the last furlongs of the : Two Thousand Guineas occurred earlier, while he was coming down the descent into the Dip. This is absolutely incorrect. He came h-auti-. . fully down the hiil. and it was on the ascent out of the Hip that he suddenly checked and 1 half-Stopped fir a stride or two. It is im-, portant to understand this fact — f r it is a fact — and not to be misled by fancies that Tom Pinch will not ccme down the hill at Epsom. As a matt r of fact, with his superb , shoulders and easy action I am inclined to , think he will be at his best on that part o. the coarse. Whether he will be equally at home on the long ascent to the Furzes is by no means so clear, for his development behind the saddle is not ideally adapted to hill climbing. He is far from powerfully muscled in his quarters and .thighs, and he is some-. what high from the heck to the ground. M reover, he is rathtr light of flank and 1 in. In these points he may improve, but at present I should .say that galloping up 1 hill will trouble him a lot more than gallop-1 ing down. 1 must say that Tom Pinch does not impress me as Captain Cuttle did. and comparisons of their Two Thousand Guineas running are absurd, for Captain Cuttle had done practically no work between the Craven Meeting and the First Spring— for reasons which never yet have been fairly fathomed —whereas Tom Pinch stripped really fit last Wednesday, and pulled up without any sign Of distress. Captain Cattle, on the other hand, after his Two Thousand Guineas, was blowing like a grampus, as I know, for I was in the box while they were putting him to rights and scraping the sweat and lather off him. As to Tom Pinch, it only remains to be explained why he acted ■* he did and lost about two lengths when not two hundred yards from the finish of the Two Thousand Guineas. I believe that it was due to his running himself short of breath and. eon-, sequently, of oxygen. The earlier race showed him under forcible control, very ex-cted and unbalanced, and all to pieces when the speed was sudd.-nly turned on. In the Two Thou.-and Guineas the opposite extreme was adopted, and. as I believe, the impetuous colt ran himself momentarily blind. Next time a happy mean may be discovered, and with judicious restraint exercised I am inclined to believe that Tom Pinch will win the Newmarket Stakes. THK RIDINC; OF TOM PINCH. Archibald is a good jockey, and he is hav- : ing a rather rotten time with this Strang, colt, but I think he will have got at the psychology of him next time, so as to help him to help himself. As to the idea that larks or other birds flew up and startled Tom Pinch, that is mere folly. A similai suggestion was made in 1110. when Tressady had got Neil Cow and Whisk Hroom easily I • beaten for the Craven Stakes of that spring. i I and suddenly whipped serosa to the right ; with bis Jockey, Higgs. It looked as though! I he was going over the rails, and he narrowly escaped from doing so. It vT.; a more mysterious incident than the recent one of Tom Finch, for Tressady was winning his rate beyond all question, but someone said that birds— partridges. I think— had flown up and startled him. This was really ridiculous, f,.r two earlier races, with large fields. . had been run over the course. I think that • Tressady. like Tom Pinch, had run himself blind for the time being. Re recovered, and was beaten only a neck for second place by Whisk Broom. Sam I ariing. who trained Tressady. told me hat afternoon he had never had charge of so good a colt. For some reason or another, he never got over that race, and was sold as a stallion , to the late Itandwick trainer. "Ike" Barn- shaw. He has done good service in New [ South Wales, and for the last season came . out eleventh in the list of winning stallions, j — V. Allison in London Sportsman. r o
