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j ] j . • i CHANCES OF "MAIDEN" IN DERBY • , Will History Repeat Itself and Another Non-Winner Capture Kentuckys Famous Race — Petee-Wracks Credentials Best of Eligibles Without Brackets » What chance has a maiden to win the Kentucky Derby? It is unusual for an American thoroughbred to break into the winners class by winning any sort of Derby, the name "Derby" being part of the title of the leading races for three-year-olds renewed annually at many courses. When one graduates from the maiden ranks by winning a Kentucky Derby, the most famous and one of the oldest three-year-old stake races run on this side of the Atlantic, as Sir Barton did in 1919 when he defeated his stable companion Billy Kelly, Eternal, Be Frank, Under Fire, Sennings Park and some other speedy rivals, several of which had been the winners of renewals of the richest two-year-old stakes cf 1918, he achieves sensational fame. The distinction that came to sir Barton by his victory of 1919 is unique in Kentucky Derby history. Will history repeat itself in 1928 by another maiden carrying off the coveted Kentucky turf prize? The owners of thirty-nine non-winners entertain such hopes, or at least did so when they sent in their entries. A careful analysis of this group reveals about only six entitled to more than passing attention. These include Petee-Wrack, Scotch and Soda, Stamford, Stephanus, Sun Roman and War Flier. The first mentioned has the best racing credentials of all the non-winners. Petee-Wrack, a son of Wrack and Marguerite, she an American-bred daughter of Celt and Fairy Maid and half-sister of the ons-time fast handicap horse Top Sergeant, has been called the new racing seasons 00,000 three-year-old maiden, and with reason. Although beaten eight times after making his bow to a racing crowd at Saratoga last August, Petee-Wrack, himself, licked a dozen two-year-old which were considered top sawyers and none of which could probably be had this year for 0,000. Moreover, for finishing second to Agitator in an overnight race at Saratoga, second to Sublevado in the Futurity Trial at Belmont Park, second to Glade in the Pimlico Futurity, second to Reigh Count in the Walden Handicap and fourth to Anita Peabody, Reigh Count and Victorian in the Futurity, he amassed earnings of ,400, which was ,400 more than Macomber paid for him at William Woodwards Belair Stud yearling sale at Saratoga in August, 1926, and enough more to make him a bargain. One cannot recall a two-year-old since Bar None, which might more appropi iately have been called Bar One, raced with Colin in 1907, which has earned as much money without once winning a race. Such was the good class speed Petee-Wrack revealed in the two Futuritys and the Walden Handicap that he would have been asked to shoulder above 120 pounds in the Endurance Handicap, which was run at Bowie a fortnight after the Walden Handicap, even if he and the chief two-year-old winners of the year had been weighted. Petee-Wracks Walden Handicap burden of 118 pounds was only eight pounds under the impost Reigh Count shouldered. He gave two pounds each to Glade, which had beaten him in the Pimlico Futurity, and Eugene S., winner of the Manor Handicap at Laurel, and four pounds to Solace, winner of the Grey Stakes at Toronto. In the Pimlico Futurity : Bateau, winner of the Selima Stakes ; Reigh Count, winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes ; Sun Meddler, winner of the Tijuana Futurity ; Diavolo, winner of the Tremont Stakes ; Oh Say, winner of the Champagne Stakes, and Nixie, winner of the Oakdale Handicap and Junior Championship Stakes, finished behind him. In the Belmont Park Futurity Petee-Wrack defeated Vito, winner of the Grand Union Hotel Stakes ; Sun Edwin, winner of the Whirl Stakes and the East View Stakes ; Groucher, winner of the National Stallion Stakes ; Brooms, winner of the Hopeful Stakes, and Sublevado, Scotch and Soda. Folamile, Nixie, Tuskegee, Excalibur, One Hour, Oh Say and Purr also followed him down the Widener straight course. He might have taken the big end of the money, 0,790, if Anita Pea-body, crowding in as she approached the finish of that breathless sprint, hadnt interfered with him slightly. Petee-Wrack has been training satisfactorily this spring and may prove another Sir Barton. For the other there is only hope.
