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Here and There on the Turf Duke and Sande. Training and Staying. Flying Ebonys Cost. Failure of Quatrain. In the record books Flying Ebony will be shown ■ the wianer of the fifty first Kentucky Derby, but in realty William Duke and Eaxl Sande won that rac?. Possibly anyone of half a doxen horses in that big field could have won under the handling which the Coch ran colt enjoyed. Several which need not be mentioned by name were unable to do them selves justice because they were trained too fine or Dot quite fine enough. But Flying Ebony, stamped by performance as a sprinter, was at the peak cf his form and he had the additional advantage of a perfect ride. Whether the son of The Finn and Princess Mary will go on to confirm the ranking to which a Derby victory entitles him remains to be seen, but William Dukes American reputation is as safe as his twenty five years French record. The offer with which Gifford A. Cochran lured Duke away from his lucrative French employment must have been a generous one, but it was none too generous, as results have shown. A trainer who cs n take an apparently hopeless cripple like Coventry and win a Preakness with him is something of a wiiard, but there is hardly a word to describe the man who can follow that sort of an achievement by saddling a sprinter eight days later for a victory in the Kentucky Derby. Flying Ebonys victory is, in a way, an ap parent proof of the contention that to a large extent there is nothing determines whether a horse is to be a sprinter or a stayer. Some horses are naturally endowed with the ability to stay regardless of the training treatment ac corded them. Exterminator, for example, was credited with making the reputations of half a dozen trainers who handled him. Several of the men have failed with less remarkable horses but the son of McGee was always ready to do his best even if the methods employed in preparing him were not the most skillful ir the worM. But the average horse is lacking in one quality or another that makes fur great ness, and it is the task of the trainer to ascer tain that deficiency and counteract it so far as possible by individual training methods. If | Duke had handled the crippled Coventry in the same way as he did Flying Ebony or vice versa he possibly wouli not have won either, of the three year old classics. But the Coo. , ran trainer studied his horses; picked his classic candidates and proceeded to offset their re-Fpective deficiencies by individual training. Coventrv, with his weak tendon, naturally had to be handled in one way. It was neces- sary to nurse him along and run as little risk . as possible of breaking him down before the running of the Preakness for which he was b* ing pointed. With Flying Ebony the eonii tiomng was a different one. This colt possessed plenty of speed, but his staying qualities were decidedly doubtful. Just what method Duke employed in developing a substitute for stain ina in the colt is naturally a secret but he sue reeded in making Flying Ebony go a mile and a quarter to victory. The Derby field was undoubtedly bel w the average, but the glory of the victory was scarcely lessened because of that. At the yearling auctions in 1923 Mr Cochran paid 121,000 for Flying Ebony, which was consigned by Madden and Mnscley. This was the highest price paid for any yearlong eon signed to the auctions and it was particularly notable because of the fact that Mr. Cochran] also purchased six yearlings from Edward F. Simms privately for 40,000. Last year these expensive youngsters returned practically nothing on their purchase prices. Flying Ebony won 320 as a two year old. But now the son of The Finn has become overnight a decidedly pr:fitable invest ment. winning twice as much in a single race as wa* paid for him at auction. Flying Ebony gains great distinction also in that he is one of those rare phenomena -a high priced yearling making good. Few of the yearlings that have topped the sal?s in recent years have dsne anything later to justify the prices paid for them. Some of them have failed to train at all, others have turned out to be sprinters and not particularly good ones at that, and still others have descended into the ranks of the platers after every effort to make them win their way among th2 better horses has failed. The failure of Frederick Johnsons Quatrain, the favorite, in the Derby, was complete. The colt looked pinched and drawn en the way to the poet and the fashion in which he performed in the running indicated that he had gone stale in that he had been trained down to a point where he was incapable of his best per formance. The colts owner practically trained him for the Derby during the last month or so of his preparation. The result of his work is hardly a vindication of his methods. When trainer T. J. Harmon, who made Qua j train ready for his engagement in the N w Orleans Handicap and the Louisiana Derby, left the Johnson stable, many horsemen remarked that the chances of the son of Omar Khayyam to win the Derby departed with him. It now appears that they were right. Quatrain met with plenty of bad luck during he running, but some of that cluster of misfortunes would have been avoided by such a rider as Sande. Americas premier jockey has been caught in pockets, but he never stay~l in one as long nor was he ever caught in as many in a single race as Breuning was on Quatrain. Captain Hal came out of the race with s decidedly enhanced reputation. Heupels ride on the Fraiier colt was not exactly a master , piece and yet Captain Hal bore the burden of making pace for a good part of the distance, weakening only in the stretch run in the face of Flying Ebonys sharp challenge. The second meeting between these colts that finished first and second in the Derby will be awaited by interest by the racing public. One race seldom settles a question of supremacy. Son of Jehn deserves consideration also; he made a remarkably good showing and will on idoubtedly lie heard from in his later engagements. ■ -The Derby overshadowed all other racing on Saturday, but the victory of Chance Play in the Youthful Stakes at Jamaica must not be overlooked. The opposition which he met in the race was not remarkably strong, but it was decidedly more so than the field of maider.s which he vanquished in his debut. Yet he rac-d always in hand all the way to win as his rid.T pleased. This youngster appears to be living up to all of the advance rosy notices which w :re scattered broadcast about him. This in itself is unusual. The highly touted two-year od usually turns out to be anything but remarkable. It is altogether too early to compare Chance Play with Man o War, but he certainly appears to be a eolt of great promise. He m-,y go on to great things. There has hardly been strong enough contention in his races thus far to test either his mettle or his speed.
