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Here and There on the Turf Showing of Willie K. Scapa Flow Doing Well. Return of Crusader. Protecting the Turf. * 4 The performance of William Keating s Willie K. at Bowie Tuesday was far from an impressive one and he will have to improve materially if he is to be given any consideration among the top class three-year-olds of the year. But there is really no reason for taking the race seriously. It was the first outing of the year for the son of Donnacona — Rogue, and it was not natural to expect that he would be in any manner punished in the running. He has grown into a handsome three-year-old and. as far as the Tuesday race is concerned, it had brat be forgotten. There was an awakening in the same race that brought much unfavorable comment when J. P. Smiths Sun Forward was returned the winner — and rather a handy winner. The race was in startling contrast over a previous appearance, when he was disgracefully beaten at just two pounds difference in weight. The only excuse that could be offered for the awakening was that in his previous start Sun Forward bore out badly in the running all the way, while the track conditions were completely changed, the winning race being . over a dry track, while the previous effort was in heavy going. But that is not exactly a sound excuse, for Sun Forward has shown excellent form through heavy going on other occasions. Sun Forward wore a burr Tuesday and he did not bear out. It is not remembered whether or not he had the burr when he was so badly beaten, but it would seem that he should always be so equipped. While it is the most natural thing in the world that every move of the Derby candidates at Churchill Downs should attract wide interest, by no means are all of the potential candidates to be found galloping over the Louisville course. The winter was such an open one, and the spring has been so favorable for training operations, that many a good one has been kept on the farm later than usual and brought up to a condition that it is not much of a task to finish out the Derby preparation at one of the other race courses. The astute Samuel C. Hildreth has not said , much about his Kentucky Derby aspirations , this year, but he has many a good one in the i list and there are few trainers that have better private winter training quarters. Scott Harlan is ideally equipped at Samuel D. Riddles I Berlin Farm, where he wintered the Walter M. . Jeffords band, including Scapa Flow, which may prove to be the greatest of all the good [ sons of Man o War. Then, James Rowe. while some of the H. P. Whitney horses have « been making ready elsewhere, kept the best of : them at Brookdale Farm in New Jersey. These are just some of those that are not at Churchill Downs which had better be considered when one hears of the smart move of : Osmund, Candy Queen, Royal Julian or any • other of the band making ready over the old 1 Ijouisville racing ground. Only recently Scott Harlan shipped Scapa i Flow to Pimlico and the magnificent colt has 5 attracted much favorable comment at the I course of the Maryland Jockey Club. He has « grown into a colt of great size and at the f same time he is well advanced in his preparation. - That the Tennesseean had no doubts of f making the Derby with his Futurity winner r is evidenced from the fact that some weeks i back he made his hotel reservations for the » big race. The fact that Scapa Flow is at t . , , i I . [ « : : • 1 i 5 I « f - f r i » t Pimlico and going along so well, has given rise to the prediction that Harlan will try to dupli cate the feat of Sir Barton in 1919, when he took down both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. The Preakness Stakes will be decided May 9, and the Kentucky Derby will be run May 14. and, while Osmand is not eligible for the Preakness Stakes, by reason of being a gelding, barring accident he will be a sure starter in the Derby, so that a victory in both big stakes would just about furnish an early championship decision. This year, more than ever before, there are a greater number of the best two year-old of last year, making ready for both the Preakness and the Kentucky Derby. There has been no report of sickness of any moment among the good ones and, unless there comes a training setback, each race should bring out a more representative field than ever before. It was at Pimlico last November that Samuel D. Riddles Crusader suffered one of his few defeats when Edith Cavell— also a Man o War offspring and under the feather of 93 pounds — beat him in the Pimlico Cup, at two and a quarter miles. In that running, Crusader shouldered 126 pounds and was not handled as skillfully as he had been in some of his other races. Edith Cavell is a truly good filly and that was demonstrated in this victory, when she set a new track record of 3:52y5 for the trying distance. This spring George Conway has Crusader fit and ready to take part in the racing of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico, but the champion will be sent direct to Belmont Park at the conclusion of the Havre de Grace meeting, which is to begin Saturday. Crusader was almost ready for racing silks when shipped from Berlin and since arriving at Havre de Grace, he has galloped in a manner that suggests his coming back a better horse this year than in 1926, when he dominated the three-year-old division. And Walter S. Vosburgh puts Crusader at the top of the hand cap division by assigning him 129 pounds in the Metropolitan Handicap at one mile, the weights for which were announced February 1. Conway could hardly hope for any better treatment in the light of the great three-year-old record of the son of Man o War— Star Fancy. But, under the conditions of the handicap, Crusader cannot pick up any penalties before the running of the Metropolitan Handicap and he may readily take down some prizes that would ordinarily increase his handicap weight. Crusader is engaged in the Long Beach, Kings County and Excelsior Handicaps at the Jamaica meeting and will, undoubtedly, have thoroughly established his place in the handi cap division before the close of the meeting of the Metropolitan Jockey Club. This much is known at this time: he never has looked better, he has all his speed and there is no more robust appearing thoroughbred in training. There seems to be good reason for certain sections of Canada protesting against too many race courses. It is so easy to bring disaster with an overabundance of race courses in any section. That has been shown frequently and Florida is the most recent of the states that has had a taste of the danger to the turf. There was no apparent opposition to the racing of the Miami Jockey Club at its first meeting and the success of that undertaking resulted in various other promotions. Plans were so numerous for new race tracks that, for a time, it appeared the state was to be fairly honey-combed with new ones. Some were actually built and operated, but Miami was the only one able to fulfill all its obligations without interference. Now the Miami Jockey Club itself will have to devise ways and means to continue its sport next year. This all came about by the establishment of the others and was a condition that never would have arisen had the state been provided with a racing law and a commission to govern the sport. There is no reason in the world why the Miami Jockey Club should enjoy a monopoly of the racing in the state of Florida, but there is every reason for a law that will limit the number of race courses in the state and a law that will provide for the proper govern ment of the turf. Florida will support racing handsomely, but it must be under control and it must be confined to a limited number of tracks. Then there was Ohio as an example of how the sport will fall into evil ways unless there is a law to govern and control. If there had been a racing law and a racing commission in Ohio, there would have been fewer race courses, more prosperity for all of them and more security for the turf. Those with the best interests of racing at heart mast realize the danger of overdoing it in certain localities and when that comes about it can only be charged to commercialism, and it never does the turf any good. !
