view raw text
HILDRETH SHUNS SPOTLIGHT ♦ Derby Eligibles Being Quietly Prepared at Rancocas Farm. * Sweepster, Sankarl and Cheops Are Candi- ates and Trainer is Not Without Faith in Them. ♦ NEW YORK, N. Y.. April 21.— The Rancocas Stable, numbering thirty-six head, arrived here yesterday from the farm at Jobs-town, N. J., and are stabled at the Rancocas barn, at Belmont Park. Today the Preakness and Derby candidates of the stable, Sweep-ster and Sankari, were brought out to gallop three-quarters, the pair covering the distance in 1 :14. Sweepster, working alone, went the quarter in :23% and the half in :47%. Sankari, working with Nichavo, went the quarter in :23 and the half in :48%. There is not in the Rancocas stable this spring a three-year-old which at two accomplished as much as Zev did in 1922 Zev was no world beater in his juvenile year, but he, at least, won a big stake, the Grand Union. The best Sweepster, the most successful of Hildreths coming Derby hopes, could do last season was win the Remseii Handicap, a minor special of the Jamaica fall session. Still Hildreth does not concede the Derby to any other stable. He holds with the rest of the racing sharps that last seasons racing did not develop an outstanding juvenile star and that some dark horse may come out of the two-year-old ruck to clean the successful stake winners, not in the Derby alone, but the Belmont and the Preakness as well. Colts and fillies of only moderate pretensions have been doing that sort of thmg right along since the three great three-y ar-old specials of spring and early summer racing were first run. Sir Barton was a maiden when he won the Derby of 1919. The year before Exterminator, a gelding of which few outside of Kentucky had ever heard, defeated Escoba. Flying Ebony, which licked Captain Hal and Son of John two years ago, was not much better known than Exterminator, although he had won a few two-year-old stakes the spring before. Coventry, Flying Ebonys stable companion, was a maiden before the start of the Preakness of 1925, in which he defeated Backbone and Almadel. Hildreth paid 5,000 at Charlton Clays yearling sale of 1925 at Saratoga for Sankari, which is a son of The Finn and Can-deau. Sankari looked so much like Zev Hildreth simply could not stop bidding until the auctioneer knocked him down. He has not regretted that purchase, notwithstanding i Sankari won only ,700 last season in seven winning races, one second and one third, and was set down by the unthinking as a failure. Sons of The Finn improve with age when they stand up. Witness Zev, the Kentucky Derby winner of 192,1, and conqueror of Papyrus in the Westchester Racing Associations match race of one mile and a half ; also Flying Ebony and Oceanic and others. In two of his winning races last season Sankari trimmed Bostonian and Afterglow, juvenile stake winners of the H. P. Continued on fourteenth page. HILDRETH SHUNS SPOTLIGHT Continued from first page Whitney stable that are accounted better than merely fair Derby and Preakness prospects. Sweepster won nine of his thirteen races last summer and fall, was second three times and third once. He contributed .,000 to the Rancocas stables upkeep and through the late summer and autumn was good enough to string victories six in a row. Measured by the standard by which Sankari has been ruled a failure, Sweepster was a brilliant success. He cost only ,000. He did not beat Termagant, Scapa Flow, Osmand, Chance Shot and Valorous, but if he had met any of them while he was on that successful run he woulu have attracted plenty of play. His performance in the 0,000 Wal-den, a dash of one mile, on the winning of which Rip Raps claim to Derby consideration mainly rests, was flattering, indeed. After making the pace he was beaten only by Rip Rap and Black Panther. In the Walden he demonstrated that he could stay as in the Remsen a month earlier he nad proven that he could manage and concede weight. Sweepster ought to be a good horse. Sweep, his daddy, was first class and has sired many good ones, notably Eternal, Ieonardo IL, Pen Rose, Bon Homme, etc. Oktibbena, his dam, is a daughter of Rock Sand and Octaroon and Octaroon was a half sister of the once famous Octagon, Beldames daddy. Sweepster appears to be getting more play in the Derby futures than either of the other Rancocas candidates. Cheops is a son of John P. Grier and Play Fair, she a daughter of Fair Play. He was a ,200 yearling and more than won himself out. His winnings were ,090 in four successful races, one second and three thirds. Last season John P. Griers first youngsters raced. Thirteen Sixty was the only one of them that earned more money than Cheops.
