view raw text
News Notes of French Racing by :;.lt luge:: NEWS NOTES OF FRENCH RACING— hd PARIS, Frame, May 10.— Little of importance has occurred on the French turf since our last letter. The classification of our three-year-olds has not progn ssed appreciably. Attention should be Riven, however, to the second victory scored by Coram, the good colt owned by Paul Wertheimer. which won the Sixty-eighth Prix Diennal at 1-onpchamp riRht days after his victory in the Prix de flukhe. The son of Ramrod gave further evidence of his high quality by beating Si Si. one of the best colts in the Decades stable, by a margin of two lengths. But the time taken by the winner of the Riennal to cover the mile and a quarter cf the race was less good than his time in the Prix de Guichc 2:13% as against 2:0S%. This difference can b-attributed solely to the tactics of Sartons jockey. Sarton set the pace none of the others wanted to do so and his rider mado the pace slow In the hope that, by so doing. he could make his mount last to the finish. Rut entering the stretch Donoghue called on the Wertheimer colt and he took the lead, easily maintaining his advantage in the face of Si Sis challenge. CONFIRM JUVEMLE FORM. Among the two-year-olds that stood out after last years campaign. Dark Diamond. Belfonds and Coram have shown that they have carried their good form over from one season to the next On the other hand. Redoutable has appeared to be nothing more than a good second-rater. We have not as yet seen Ptolemy in action. The handicappcr assigned the Cohn colt to the post of honor among the two-year-olds at the end of last year. The reports from his training quarters have been favorable. Among the three-year-olds that did not start as juveniles or ran poorly, little has developed. I mentioned in my last letter the victory of Erofite in the Prix de TEsperance at Longchamp. On April 30 at St Cloud a ■on of old Rabelais named Tomy II. and belonging to the Comte de Chavagnac surprised everybody by winning the Prix Edgard de la Charme at a mile and a quarter impressively. Is he a new crack? Let us wait until his second start before deciding definitely. LUCIDE SHOWS QUALITY. Among the fillies, Lucide, owned by M. Martinez de Hoz, has shown herself as brilliant as she was last year. In her three-year-old debut at Le Tremblay, the daughter of Maintenon was beaten a short neck by Our Gem in a mile race. But eight days later, Sunday. May 3, she redeemed, herself fully by winning the Prix Daru at Long-champ, a produce stake for the produce of mares foaled outside of France. This is a race at a mile and five-sixteenths, which has often been won by good horses. The last two winners of the French Derby. Le Capucin and Pot au Feu, are among those that have scored in the Prix Daru. The race has seldom been won by a filly. Lucide. in my opinion, beat only a mediocre field in the Prix Daru of 1923. She took. 2:21% to cover the mile and five-sixteenths. With Belfonds and Lucide. M. Martinez de lloz, the yeung Argentine sportsman, who has been racing in France for the last fifteen years, app ars to be well equipped for the struggles to come. The older hors?s have contributed some more exciting contests. The Baron Edouard I d3 Rothschilds fine horse, Cadum. which had previously won the Prix des Sablons at a mile and a quarter on the occasion cf the Longchamp opening, scored another victory at the Bois de Boulogne course in the Sixty-seventh Prix Biennial at a mile and seven furlongs. The son of San Souci II. won from end to end, withstanding every challenge offered by his adversaries Cadum is a powerful racing machine whiclt does not startle with brilliant sprints, but with the implacable regularly of pace from I start to finish. The best filly of last year, . Isola Bella, made her 1925 debut in this race I and ran badly. She cannot be held too strict- 1 ly to account for this as it was her first start of the season and at this time of year fillies and mares are at best uncertain. Before the victory of the four-year-old Cadum, the five-year-old Le Capucin had already enjoyed a triumph. April 24 at I Maisons-Laffitte, the son of Nimbus, won the Prix Boiard. in which the older horsos encountered the three-year-olds at a weght disadvantage of twenty-two pounds over the mile and a quarter straight. This year only one three-year-old. Sous Prefet, which had just won he Prix Lagrange from horses of his own age on the same track and over the same distance, made the attempt against the older horses. Sous Prefet ran rather poorly and his showing does not encourage us to I rate our foals of 1922 at all highly. He finished close to the last of the field. LE CAPUCIJT AT HIS BEST. Le Capucin dominated the running from : the start to finish, covering the mile and a I quarter in 2 :09. Upon his return to the scales, he was given an ovation by the | crowd. This fine horse is the last of our wonderful 1920 crop to remain in training. I He Is still as fresh as a two-year-old in | spite of the many hard races that he has run and the victories that he has scored. I had an opportunity during a recent visit to Normandy to inspect his old rivals, Mas-sine and Filibert de Savoie, which are now in the stud at the new haras founded by Homberg a Saint Martin du Chene a few i months ago in the department of Calvados. , Both appear to be in excellent condition. Epinard himself is at the Haras di Bessan | in the department of Gers under the clear | skies of the Midi southern France. Where Le Capucin will go when his racing days j are over nobody knows as his owner has no stud farm. There is one thing certain, how-; ever, and that is that the services of the son of Nimbus will not be any less in demand among our breeders than those of hi? former rivals which were retired to the stue 1 long before him.