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Here and There on the Turf Minos Change in Form. Pompey Will Be Ready. Bagenbaggage Qualifies. Stakes at Woodbine. When Mino galloped off with the five and a half furlongs dash at Jamaica Thursday, it proved conclusively that only the difference in the course at the Terminal brought about his defeat by Little Asbestos last Saturday. He made a show of the Cochran colt Thursday, just as Little Asbestos made a show of him in the earlier race. It is doubtful if the son of Wrack and Lady Godiva was any better Thursday than he was on the previous Saturday, but there was no comparison between the two races. It all gets back to "horses for courses and courses for horses." Naturally that applies with peculiar force changing over from a dirt to a turf course, just as the imported horses that have been racing over turf courses frequently find our dirt tracks strange for a considerable time. Much attention has been given the matter of having the outlanders properly acclimated before exj ecting too much of them, but teaching them to race freely over the dirt tracks after having been trained and raced over grass doubtless has more to do with success than the element of acclimatization. There are horses that take natuarlly to almost any sort of going, but many another of equal racing ability suffers a heavy handicap ever this or that track. Incidentally the going might have had something to do with the showing of the imported Melmor that had been racing abroad. He did not race easily or well in that same race that resulted in such a hollow victory for Mino. But it must be admitted that this same Melmor had trained successfully over the dirt track before being sent to the post. However, there is a vast difference between training well and racing well. Pompeys mile and an eighth in 1 :55 on Thursday morning left no vestige of doubt of his being ready for the Kentucky Derby on May 15 or even for the Preakness Stakes at Pindico, to be decided over the Baltimore track on May 10. The son of Sun Briar and Cleopatra ha made wonderful progress in his training when it is remembered that for a considerable time at Belmont Park his only exercise was under the shed. In fact, it was feared that he would not be made ready for the Derby and both Mr. Coe. his owner, and W. II. Karrick. his trainer, expressed a doubt of his being ready. Some publications even went so far as to state positively that the colt would not be sent to the post. Mr. Coe. when the trainine began, said tha? he did not intend to have Pompey hurried in Im prepaanion. but that if he came up to the race in fit condition, he would be sent to the post. The magnificent colt has answered thai himself by his wonderful progress and still he shows no sizns of having been hurried. His improvement has been a steady one and all that he has done has been done with an ease that tells of no undue haste in his conditioning While no positive announcement has been made of the plans for Pompey. beyond the fact that, barring accident, he will keep hi.s Kentucky Derby engagement, it is entirely IKwnble that he will first be sent after the Preakness Stakes. It was in 1919 that Sir Barton won both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby. The Derby was run that year on May 10 and on May 14 he was the winner of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. This year instead of four days for the shipping from one track to the other there is a lapse of five days, so that the opportunity for a colt to repeat should naturally be brighter. In Sir Bartons year the Kentucky Derby had 0,000 added and the Preakness Stakes an added value of 5,000. Now each of the stakes has 0,000 added and a victory in either one would more than equal Sir Bartons earnings in both. But the fame that goes with victory remains the same and the feat of Sir Barton has stood alone in the history of these two great races. Horsemen are advised that the stakes of the Ontario Jockey Club, which conducts its racing over the old Woodbine Park course, in Toronto, are to close Monday. The meeting continues from May 22 to May 29. There are four stake races on the flat for the seven days of racing and the big event is the Toronto Cup Handicap, at a mile and an eighth, to which 0,000 is added. Then there is the King Edward Gold Cup Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth, with I ,000 added and a ,509 challenge cup as the winners reward. These races arc both for three year olds and over. Then there ■ the Woodstock Plate, at a mile and a sixteenth, for three year-olds, to which ,000 is added. And there is the Victoria Stakes, with ,000 added, antl over the five-eighths route, for the two year olds. No stak" has a lesser value than ,039 in added money and the overnight purses for : the sh;Tt meeting range in value from ,200 I to ,500. The steeplechasers have excellent , opportunity with a crosscountry race each I day, while the stake races for the jumper-; ■.ire the Woodbine Steeplechase Handicap, with I ,500 added, and the Aintree Steeplechase I Handicap, with ,000 added. With such values it is no wonder that the turfmen who campaign jumpers are tempted to ship to Canada to find employment for their | horses. i W. P. Krazer. secretary of the Ontario Jockey Club, has recently recovered from an illness, but he is supervising the receiving of the stake entries at the offices of the club in the Im jierial Bank Building in Toronto. Another of the E. R. Bradley Kentucky-Derby eligibles made gooel at Lexington on Thursday when Bagenbaggage galloped off with a mile and seventy yards purse, with still another Derby hope from the same stable. Barcolo, taking the place. Bubbling Over had won over the same track on Monday, so that it woulel seem that the master of the Idle Hour Stock farm will have a worthy representation for his popular white silks with the green trimmings on May 15. It was the first start for Bagenbaggage since his victory in the Louisiana Derby at the Jefferson Park track on March 17. In that stake race Bagenbaggage carried 116 pounds and was an easy winner at a mile and an eighth in 1:51 Vr.. which established a new track record. That the good son of Under Fire and Blushing Beauty still possesses his early March form would appear from the race of Thursday. Black Gold was the winner of both the Louisiana and the Kentucky Derbys of 1924 and there is no good reason why it should not be accomplished again. Bubbling Over is undoubtedly the pick of the Bradley eligibles for the Derby, but Bagenbaggage may be a real help in keeping the big race in Kentucky this year. ♦
