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I I , , ] ; , , j , i PUZZLE OF CHANCE PLAY « Declaration of Log Cabin Star From Withers Unexplained ♦ Failure to Develop as Fxpected or Trainers Mistake Cited as Possibilities. » KY CAPT. DFNIS KFTII.F. NEW YOBK. X. Y , April 1ft.— One of the most curious and baffling transactions that has come to light in the formulation of campaigns for the three-year-olds this year is the striking of Chance Blay. the Log Cabin Stable a leading three-year-old candidate, from the Withers Stakes. The Withers is. with one exception, the richest plum on the Jockey Club spring calendar for colts of the age of three. For the last two years it has yielded a net prize of Jlt.ium to the winner, surpassed only by the Belmont Stakes In tradition it is likewise second only to tin- Belmont. For more than fifty years — it was first run for i:i 1S74 — it has been the standout mile event for three-year-olds in American racing. Owners of potential champions have invariably looked upon the "double" of the Withers and nelmmit as the ultimate desideratum; the Withers proved speed, the Belmont endurance, and those horses that have won both have almost invariably been accepted not only as champions hut as prospective sires with their stud patronage assured. Are WC to assume then that Chance Blay s progress or lack of progress -through the early winter was such that his trainer was convinced he was not worth the 00 it would have cost to keep him eligible to the day of the race. If so. it is a considerable facer for those who have looked on the son of Fair Blay as one of the most promising of all the candidates for the three-year-old championship. His performances last year gave every reason to hold him in such esteem. He was beaten only a length for all the money in the Futurity, finished a strong third and. ace irding to jockey Ambrose, would have been at Iompeys throat if Canter had not Continued on twelfth page PUZZLE OF CHANCE PLAY Continued from first page laid over on him in the last sixteenth. He ran but one race after that, the Junior Champion, and while beaten, it took the fastest mile ever run by a two-year-old in America to bring Mars home half a length in front of him. When he went into winter ipiarters it was with a standing as one of the two or three best juveniles in America, and blood lines that recommended him possibly more than any of the others to be better at three than at two. If Chance Play were of the slow beginning sort, one that needed much time to find his stride, it might be assumed that he wa-side-stepping the Withers for a strictly distance campaign. This theory would be strengthened by the selection of the Kentucky Derby, Reinvent Stakes. Travers and Jockey Club Cold Cup as his principal engagements. Rut if he is good enough to win the Relmont. it would seem that the Withers would certainly be within his powers, for speed rather than endurance appeared his forte last year. In the Junior Champion he set the pace from the start, and carried his field the first three-quarters in 1:12 flat. Likewise, the stake from which he has been withdrawn would fit in nicely with his apparent schedule. Assuming that he is going for the Derby, he would still have nine days between that race and the Withers and nearly three weeks between the Withers and the Relmont. He is not engaged in tin-two important intervening handicaps, the Metropolitan or the Suburban, so that his calendar between the Kentucky Derby on May li and the Relmont Stakes on June 2 is practically blank. The inescapable conclusion, it appears, is that either some error of judgment has caused a colt to be stricken from one of the richest and most coveted races of the year. a race perfectly conditioned for his powers and ideally dated for his schedule, or that the colt in question has not carried his juvenile promise ever to his three-year-old form. If the latter is the case and trainers seldom make such grievous mistakes in races of that importance — then it would seem that the apparently high odds of •_,: to 1 now offered against Chance Play in the Derby field are not so high after all. .
