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Here and There on the Turf Pompeys Good Race. Quality of Draconis. Mergler Reinstated. Dress Parades Future. Because of the fact that Pom pry was put to a drive in the Wood Stakes on Saturday at Jamaica to beat Navigator, there were some who watched the running of the race and had the impression that his race was not as good a one as it should have been. Some even ex pressed the opinion that it was not a worthy showing for a colt so highly regarded as a candidate for tho Kentucky Derby. To others it was a thoroughly impressive performance and the fact that he was driven and responded to the drive was an evidence of his racing ability and his fitness. Pompey has the reputation of being a loafer as have been so many other good horses before him. He was not outrun by Navigator when comuag to the stretch turn because the son of Broomstick could outrun him, but because in the first place Pompey was not exerting himself fully and Breuning was riding an almost too confident race. That was pretty conclusively shown when the son of Sun Briar and Cleopatra responded to the call of the whip. Breuning had to rap him sharply two or three times before he was thoroughly aroused, but when he woke up to the business on hand he came on like the good, game colt he is to win with something to spare. And Navigator was a good colt Saturday. He is a pretty shifty sort of a trial horse at any time and the Wood Stakes was one of his truly good races. He has had a deal of racing and was thoroughly seasoned. He raced at New Orleans and it is entirely possible that had he been as good on March 17 as he was Saturday he might have beaten Bagenbaggage for the Louisiana Derby. It is no secret that Navigator was far from being at his best for that race. Andrew Blakely timed the running of the last mile in the Wood Stakes and Pompey ran that mile in 1 :38%. The race was run in 1 :42 for the mile and seventy yards. The track record of 1 :41Vr. was hung out by James Butlers Sting last spring when he was such a sensation in the handicap division. Pompey went away at a moderate pace when the first eighth after passing the stand was covered in :12%. Then he put in the next one in :11%. The third eighth was run in 12 seconds and the fourth in :12%. This was followed by an eighth in :12 and then another at a like rate of speed brought him to the three quarters in 1:12%. That made him run the last quarter, timed from stand to stand, in :25*f,. It is agreed that this is an excellent showing for a first race and for a colt that has not been to the races since his victory in the Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park last September. The Wood Stakes added ,700 to the winnings of the Coe champion and that is a good beginning, but the race was worth more than that in fitting him for his big undertaking at Churchill Downs on May 15. Pompey has never been a really good work horse and such a race should carry him along far in his preparation for the mile and a quarter to come. And the manner in which the richly bred colt ran that last quarter suggested that he will run as far as any horse. That was a con vincing part of the performance, and it also told of the care that has been exercised by Karrick in bringing him to the post. Draconis. a chestnut son of North Star III. and Marie Odile, which was the winner of the I Colorado Stakes for Gifford A. Cochran, may be one of the truly good two year olds of the year. He ran his five-eighths in :59af, under conditions that were far from being perfect and there was no time in the race that he seemed to be fully extended. Draconis at least displayed that he is a colt of extreme speed. It was known that he was fast from his trials and he is possibly the best in the Cochran string. Before the running of the race a rumor was about that while the son of North Star III. was exceedingly fast his limit was just about three-eighths. But young Duke, who is now training the Cochran horses, knew his colt and Mr. Cochran also knew him and they were in no sense surprised at his performance. As a matter of fact they would have been surprised if he had done anything else. Draconis simply made a show of his opponents and instead of quitting, as some feared he might, he was only cantering at the end j and capable of beating those behind him over | any distance of ground. The victory of Dra- I conis was doubly pleasing to Mr. Cochran, for i the reason that the colt is one of his own i breeding. He raced Marie Odile, which is a ; daughter of the lamented Star Shoot, which I did so much for the American thoroughbred. I This colt is well engaged and it would be j fitting if he went on to big things during the racing season. No turfman has been a more . liberal patron of the yearling market than Gifford A. Cochran and he appears to have bred a better colt in Draconis than any he paid high prices for at the Saratoga auctions. The squealer is never popular. The crook that turns up his accomplices for a price, whether it be immunity from punishment or coin of the realm, always remains a marked man and a man that is unworthy of either respect or confidence. But the squealer has been frequently particularly useful in bringing about convictions and too often he has been pardoned for his offenses by reason of his being a traitor to his companions in crime. In the first place it is not a sporting way to catch criminals. It is a lazy procedure and nine times out of ten the man who informs on his companions is utterly unworthy of belief. All this has to do with the reinstatement of D. Mergler, the jockey who confessed having pulled a horse for a price paid by another jockey. Mergler is credited with making th? wholesale conviction of several others in Ken tucky possible, and now he has been forgiven. None the less he, by his own confession, was guilty of an unforgivable offense in pulling a horse. Undoubtedly Mergler did the turf a real service when he eased the way for the convictions that followed, but to have him reinstated will do the turf no good. There is no reason to expect that anything but fear of the consequences made him "turn up" his companions and that is the wrong idea. If it is only the fear of consequences that make the jockey ride honestly, then there is something wrong with the jockey. Mergler has added nothing to his reputation by the manner of his escaping punishment and the Kentucky Racing Commission has nothing to be proud of in their disposition of his case. George Conway has brought Samuel D. Riddles Dress Parade back to the races a particularly good three-year-old, judging by his showing at both Havre de Grace and Pimlico. This good son of Man o War has at least proved his worth over the sprinting routes, while in his workouts he has shown ability to race on for worth-while distances. He will undoubtedly be the Glen Riddle Stable dependence for the 0,000 Preakness Stakes, at a mile and three sixteenths, at Pinilico next Mon day and will have a strong following. Man o War, his mighty daddy, was the winner of the Preakness Stakes of 1920. Last year American Flas, the greatest Man o War colt yet shown, did not start in the big race, but the wonder horse has in Dress Parade a worthy son to carry on for him this year. _*
