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Here and There on the Turf Pimlicos Opening. Bradleys Derby Chances. Cherry Pie in Form. Derby Casualties. Spring racing in Maryland, over the big tracks, has come to its final meeting, that of the Maryland Jockey Club at the old Pimlico course in Baltimore. Few American race tracks are richer in turf tradition than this old racing ground and the Maryland Jockey Club has ever been one of the foremost of American racing associations. The opening on Saturday was in keeping with the best traditions of the course and the racing that is promised for the eleven days of the meeting should make rare turf history. Monday the big event is the Dixie Handicap, which has an added money value of 5,000 and is at a mile and three-sixteenths. This and the Preakness Stakes, the 0,000 race for entire colts and fillies, three-year-olds, are the outstanding races of the short meeting. The Preakness Stakes is down for decision on Monday, May 10, and that date affords every opportunity for any eligible to keep that engagement and be in Louisville in ample time for the running of the Kentucky Derby on the following Saturday. Since Sarazen has been guilty of one of his temperamental lapses there comes a doubt of his repeating his Dixie Handicap victory of last year. The erratic son of High Time and Rush Box began his 1926 campaign auspiciously when be won at Havre de Grace, but his later race brings a lack of confidence in his reliability. Unfortunately the fact remains that if Sarazen race? kindly in the Dixie Handicap he will undoubtedly be hard to beat, while if he d»es not race kindly, he will possibly be last in the race or thereabouts. It is indeed too bad that such a sterling champion should have become so unit-liable, only by reason of his uneven temper. Bui there is many another good one engaged in the Dixie Handicap and the renewal of the big race should bring about a great contest. And in the matter of steeplechases the Maryland Jockey Club, as usual, has been particularly liberal. A steeplechase is offered each day of the meeting and the number of good one.T that have been in training assure that these races will be generously patronized. No one nominator to the Kentucky Derby has as many eligibles that are apparently ready to run for the big race as has Edward It Bradley, owner of the Idle Hour Stock Farm Stable. It is assured that post time will see at least two of the candidates bearing the white and green, and it is assured that Bubbling Over, barring accident, will be one of them. Just now it appears that Bagenbaggage is second best of the Bradley entries and he may l e the companion on the day of the race. But it is known that the present intention is to send Bagenbaggage to Pimlico for the running of the Preakness Stakes on Monday, May 10. If he should come out of that big rac satisfactorily and he shows enough, he will be shipped back to I ouisville for his big race on the following Saturday. Mr. Bradley nat urally sets more store by the Kentucky Derby than the Maryland race, of equal value. Most of his interests are Kentucky interests and it is there that he confines most of his racing until the August meeting at Saratoga Springs. He would rather win in Kentucky than any where else and that is reason enough for keeping Bubbling Cher in Kentucky rather than risk sending him to Pimlico, particularly when the colt was so unlucky in his eastern trip last year. Year after year Mr. Bradley has made brave efforts to win the Kentucky Derby and in 1921 his ambition was handsomely realized when Behave Yourself and Black Servant, both bearing his colors, finished first and second. But even that victory was not without just a bit of disappointment, for Mr. Bradley had pinned most of his hopes, and made most of his winter book wagers on Black Servant, only to have one of his own horses beat him for those wagers. But the glory of winning more than offset this disappointment with the master of Idle Hour. Then there was Busy American, one of the most promising colts that ever bore the Bradley colors, that broke down in the running of the Derby, though he had shown enough in his trials to appear one of the best of all the eligibles. There are no racing colors east or west more popular than those of Edward Riley Bradley and no matter what colts bear the colors on May 10 at Pimlico or May 15 at Churchill Downs, it will find many turfmen "rooting" for their victory. It was fine to see old Cherry Pie come back to the races so ably in the running of the Lynbrook Handicap at Jamaica on Friday. He was beaten by James Butlers Turf Idol, but it was a three-quarters dash and Cherry Pie prefers to race just a bit farther. Then it must be remembered that Mr. Butlers good son of Pebbles raced the three quarters in 1:11%, which is just that three fifths of a second lower than the track record for the distance. This is the Cherry Pie that in September of 1923 raced a mile over the Belmont Park course in 1 :35%. He was a three-year old that year and he shouldered 113 pounds when he hung out the record. That same afternoon Scott Harlan, who had fitted him, outdid Jack Joyner at his best in his joyful demonstration after the finish over the prowess of the colt. Cherry Pie, like his dam before him, Cherry Malotte, a sweet mare, has ever been a prime favorite with Mrs. Payne Whitney, the fair owner of the Greentree Stable, and to have this old racer come back so adequately um ! give her a real thrill. This race in the Lynbrook Handicap was jus* in the nature of a part of the preparation of Cherry Pie for the Ix ng Beach Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth, to be run at Jamaica on Tuesday. The Greentree Stable campaigner scorns to be in well under 110 pounds and the manner in which he worked out the full mile after the threequarters in the Lynbrook Han dicap suggests that he will be ready to give a good account of himself. Silver Fox is in the same race and his Paumonok Handicap was a race to suggest that he will be a tough nut to crack over this longer distance. But the handsome gray is asked to take up 124 pounds and Cherry Pie is just the sort of a tough old campaigner that might be decidedly troublesome. While various of the candidates for the Kentucky Derby have been working along brilliantly in final preparation for the big race, to be decided at Churchill Downs on May 15, there has come news of the withdrawal oi some that on earlier days appeared to have an excellent chance. The withdrawal of Carlaris was the most important of the scratchings. Then Haste and Banton were declared and now Chance Play, Flight of Time and Mantonian are the most recent withdrawals. The Log Cabin Stud Stable will depend upon High Star in place of Chance Play. Flight of Time was withdrawn because of a splint and Mr. Salmon will possibly have Display as his dependence. Mantonian, the imported colt that was to have raced for H. T. Archibald, suffered an injury in his race at Lexington on Thursday and it has caused his withdrawal. It is natural that there should be a pruning down of the possible field at this time, but there will remain enough of the best to make the coming renewal one of the most notable in the long and glorious history of the big race. #
