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WHITNEY STAKES ATTRACTS ♦ Saratogas New Special Draws Stars of All Divisions. « . Seventy-Eight dominations Received for Memorial to Payne Whitney — Reigh Count and Strolling Player Eligible. ♦ ■ SARATOGA SPRINGS, X. Y. April 20 — It does not appear as though Richard T. Wilson is going to be disappointed in the Whitney, the new special of one and one-quarter miles he has added to the Saratoga summer program to commemorate Payne Whitney, whose sudden death last spring shocked the racing fraternity the country over. Notwithstanding it is a weight-forage race with penalties, the sort of race that has for years been in disfavor with horsemen on this side of the Atlantic, the Whitney has attracted for its inaugural seventy-eight nominations. It is only three behind the Saratoga Handicap, one of the oldest and most popular of the countrys gallop? of one mile and a quarter for three-year-olds and over. It has drawn two more than the Champlain. four more than the Merchants and Citizens Handicap and twenty more than the Saratoga Cup. Among the nominators are such representative American horsemen and horsewomen as William Averill Harriman. William Woodward. Richard Howe. William R. Coe. Mrs. J. Simpson Dean. Marshall Field. Samuel D. Riddle, the estate of James Cox Brady, Walter M. Jeffords. Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords, J. W. Parrish, Frederick Johnson, Harry F. Sinclair. Charles Schwartz. Joseph E. Wide-ner, William Ziegler. George Sloane, F. J. Bastone, A. H. Cosden. Mrs. Virginia Fair Vanderbilt. Mrs. Payne Whitney, Mrs. John Hertz, Max Hirsch. Willis Sharpe Kiimer, Mrs. Margaret Emerson Baker, Adm. Cary T. Grayson. Larry Waterbury, Mrs. H. C. Phipps. Ogden Mills. George D. Widener, Richard T. Wilson, J. S. Cosden. Robert L. Gerry. J. Smiley Herkness, I. B. Humphrey, Miss Peggie B. Bailey, Edward Riley Bradley, Breckenridge Bong. William Daniel George Clark. Harry Sage and Walter J. Salmon. Famous horses past four years old it has attracted are Diapason, Chance Play. Black Continued on fourteenth page. I WHITNEY STAKES ATTRACTS Contained from first page. Maria, Crusader, Espino. Grey Lag, Edith Cavell, Display and Boot to Boot. Horses just turned four that distinguished themselves last year as three-year-olds in it are : Nimba, Whiskery, Brown Bud. Chance Shot, Kiev, Valorous, Sweepster, Bois de Rose, Justice F., Buddy Bauer, Flippant and Kentucky II. And there are the three-year-old Preakness Stakes, Kentucky Derby, Withers and Belmont hopes ; Reigh Count, Brooms, Centaur, Vito, Oh Say, Glade, Strolling Player, Sortie, Taras Hall, Mowlee, Nassak, Ariel, Sun Meddler, Sun Beau, Scotch and Soda, Penalo, Nixie, Distraction, Agitator, Groucher, Honker, Victorian, Gerard and Sunfire ; also Leonard B., David Bone. Fire Fighter. Bludgeon, Algernon, Excalibur, Prate, Catsplay, Ruddy Duck, Typhoon. Sun Friar, Spear Rock, Sun Roman, Havoc, Bye and Bye and Flyacross. The most distinguished foreigners eligible are Strolling Player, Diapason and Justice F. Strolling Player, son of Grand Parade — Commedianne; is the British Dominion Plate and Exeter Stakes winner of last summer. Admiral Grayson and B. B. Jones imported on a fifty-fifty basis last fall at a cost of about 5,000. Robert A: Smith is training him in Maryland tentatively for the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby revivals. If he doesnt come to hand readily he may be held for Saratoga racing. Diapason is Mrs. J. Simpson Deans candidate. An eight-year-old son of Diadumenos — Venturesome, she a daughter of our own Sir Martin. Diapason won a revival of the Goodwood Stakes and other distance races in England for William A. Read before Mrs. Dean, a member of the Du Pont family of Delaware, brought him over. Diapason is training in Delaware. Justice F., a son of Abbott Trace and grandson of the American-bred and costly Tracery, from Ieemond, won a Tijuana Derby last March. Six weeks back he won a 5,000 New Orleans Handicap. Everybody knows that Chance Play, ace of the Harriman Stalde, was the most MCCMa-tul four-year-old out last year; that Display won a Washington Handicap and a Pimlico Autumn Cup; that Edith Cavell, conqueress of Crusader in the Pimlico Cup of 1926, won the Bowie Cup of last November : that Black Maria was the best four-year-old mare of last year; that Crusader, tluvc- ear-old champion of 1926. won the Suburban revival of 1I»27 ; that Boot-to-Boot won an American Derby a couple of yeart back, and Espino won a Saratoga Cup and a Lawrence Realization. Grey Lag is a veteran Suburban and Saratoga Handicap winner, which, because he did riot prove a success at Harry Sinclairs Rancocas Stud Farm, returned to racing last season at nine, to win twice at Aqueduct in June. Samuel C. Hildreth believes he will stand training again and, possibly, race to his best form this year. He is the only Whitney prospect with an eligible son. Honker, a. half-brother of Flags, Whiskaway, Crocus, Flagstaff, Initiative, etc., calls Grey Lag daddy. Honker, a winner last year, although no star, is. one of Harry Payne Whitneys three-year-old nominations. The spectacle of father and son fighting it out in a horse race of the first class would be a unique incident in American racing. Nimba, winner of the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama Stakes and conqueress of Brown Bud in the Lawrence Realization, was easily one of the best three-year-old fillies of last year. George M. Odom, who trained her for Marshall. Field, believes she was the best of her age of either sex. Whiskery, the most distinguished of Harry Payne Whitneys candidates, won a Kentucky Derby and a Twin City and a Huron Handicap last year. But, barring Nimba, he didnt have much, if anything, on Brown Bud, which beat him in the Maryland Handicap after winning revivals of the Miller and Travers and losing The Jockey Club Gold Cup to Chance Play on a claim of foul. Chance Plays brother, Chance Shot, of J. E. Wideners stable, won the Withers and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park last spring and Kentucky II., another outstander of merit, beat him in the Dwyer Stakes at Aqueduct. Kiev. Chance Shots stablemate, won twice here last year. Buddy Bauer won the Fairmount Derby for E. R. Bradley, and Bois de Rose, a brother of Espino, won the Empire City Derby under the silks of William Zeigler. Just what three-year-old aspirants will qualify as distance runners spring and early summer racing must show. But Reigh Count, Brooms. Glade, Nassak, Mowlee, Ariel, Sun Meddler, Vito, Sortie, Distraction and Groucher were among the most successful of last years juvenile stake winners and Victorian, a brother of Whiskery, Centaur, Taras Hall. Sun Beau. Scotch and Soda, Sun-fire, Agitator, David Bone, Excalibur and some others showed promise. There will have to be many spring and early summer casualties to prevent the Whitney inaugural from developing a great hors« race. The Saratoga Associations directorate is justified in feeling elated at the response •f the horse folk of America to its effort to create a racing monument to Payne Whitney.
