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Training for Derby and Preakness BY APT. DF.MS KITTLE The announcements from trainers of sev- . . oral of the hading candidates for the early | i stakes that they will not rush their valu- , able charges into condition, even though lt|| . means being absent, gives rise to the belief | I that we shall see an unusually large number af the top note here in both the Preakness i j and the Derby this year. i When we can be sure that one of the candidates will be "knor-ked out" by too rigorous i : early training, we can optimistically count on the fact that a good majority of them will rorae t I hand naturally in the last fortnight of racing before the Preakness and l erby week. The Preakness and the Derby are won more often by horses tuned to razor-edge speed than by horses that have been put through the long, solid conditioning formerly considered necessary to a victory in such a race. The Flying Khonys are more numerous than the Black lolds on our modern Derby roster. And where we find one leather horse like Black Cold that has stood up under it. we find a dozen like Sarazen and Wise Counsellor of recent history that have refused to accept it. The case of Often try, the Preakness winner of last year, is a shining example.- Here was a colt which, at th.s time last year, was not much further advanced fas training than several of the colts whose chances are held in light esteem in the winter books just now as a result of the rumors that they are not being "trained for early racing. Coventry made his first start on April 27, at the Hunts meet, and was "short" for a three-quarters mile dash. His doubtful un- derpinning did not permit stiff training, and ha was given little after that, beyond his race in the Wood Stakes. He was sent to Pimlico for the Preakness with only the scantiest hopes for a good performance, and he won the stake in a big canter. Flying Kbony. which won the Derby five! days later for the same stable, had much the ■Mee treatment, though he was probably farther advanced than his stablemate. when he won the Initial Handicap at the Hunts meet. Mr. Duke had given his horses much early; walking and slow galloping, of course. But we may assume that the "doubtful" candidates this year have had plenty of the same, even though it has been under shed. For the most notable example of this theory, however, go back to Ordinance of the spring of 1924. This colt, I believe, would have won the Derby hands down if he had been sent for It. And no doubt the only reason he was not there was the failure of his owner to realize in time the full quality of Ordinance and the extent to which he had come to hand in the last ten days before the Derby, Ordinance made his first appearance under, the colors on May 6. only eleven days before the Churehill Downs great race, and I, at least, am convinced that he was running that day for the good the race would do him than with any deep convictions that he would win. He was there to do his best, of course. but he had not shown enough in his back-. ward training to justify great confidence. He went home from 10s to 12s in the betting.] ran a most promising race, but was beaten five lengths by two selling-platers. Prime Minister and Finn lag. These two horses, unlike Ordinance, had received a good old-1 fashioned winter "prep." The race was at three-quarters. On May 12. six days later. Ordinance won the Rainbow Handicap at three-quarters, and two days after that, on May 14, he won the I Stuyvesant Handicap, at one mile, establish- | ing a new mile track record. This was three days before the Derby. In this race he beat Laurano, destined to be a Metropolitan Han-1 dicap winner; Samaritan, which won the Southhampton Handicap in his next start with a first mile in 1 :37%, and Wise Counsellor. Mr. Belmont was. as I have said, unacquainted with the full quality of his colt: or if he fully appreciated that, he at least did not realize that Ordinance had suddenly-come into his full powers. Indeed, he had gone off without seeing the performance in the Stuyvesant. ami was on the way to Kentucky to see the Derby, while the telegraph wires were being kept hot trying to acquaint him with the good news. Trainer Feustel spent most of that night trying to get into telegraphic communication with Ordinances owner, in his desire to load the colt in an express car and send him to Kentucky. His messages missed the chairman of the Jockey Club at Washington, and the project was naturally abandoned, for the Derby was only two days away. Ordinance remained at Jamaica, and on Derby day won the lx ng Beach Handicap, one and one eighth miles, in a big gallop. After a first mile in 1 :36 flat, the race was over. How could Black Cold and his contemporaries on Churchill Downs track that day have beaten such a horse. Mad Play, although nowhere in the Derby, later proved to the saisfaction of nearly everyone that he was the best colt in the Derby, and Ordinance gave him a sound drubbing in the Mt. Vernon Handicap at Kmpire City, the weights vir-ntally level. His track record of 1 :3S for mile, made that day. still stands. 1 | I I ! i i I ! ■ 1 I ! | i i I . | j ! j i . ! rl j I [I ! i "l • . I I I J I I ■ ; | 1 I 1 • - M t 1 i t . . - I l . I I J 1 I t j 1 1 ! ! 1 1 - 1 . I 1 - 1 C s . a 1 1 . . | i , . | I i j i i : But could he carry weight, you say ? And was the Derby distance right for him? Well, he shouldered 130 ounds and won the 10m-pire City Derby at a mile and a quarter, giving twenty-five pounds to m good a olt at Aga Khan. Can there l e mu.li doubt that this colt, with fair racing keek, would have won the Kentucky l erby on the day he ran his first mile in 1 :36 to win the I ong Beach Handicap? And so. when the reports of mile trials in 1 :40 in early April are not forthcoming from Derby candidates, it is well to remember that a fairly good three-quarters race in the first days of May is Often all that is needed to indicate a first .lass performance at a mile and a quarter on the day of the Derby. , a
