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■ f Here and There ! a on the Turf , i : : __ , Many Derby Eligibles. 1 Big Field Is Certain. ] Propus Makes Gocd. Praise for Scat. t J $ £ i "With the Kentucky Derby only ten ! ! . days away there still remain a greater || i number of eligibles that seem to have a i I good winning chance than possibly in any other running of the great race. i Reigh Count has had a place at the top . of the list ever since the nominations ] were made public. All of his training for the race has suggested that he belongs at the top, but there are various others j H that have raced in a fashion that gives i I , them a chance to beat Mrs. Hertz j i | champion. i Altogether, at this time there seems to i M | be an excellent chance for some twenty- I I five being shown under colors at ; j I I Churchill Downs on May 1?, when the big | I race is to be decided. i Few will deny that Nassak, the Ran- ■ I cocas Stable ace, has earned a place ! j | close to Reigh Count in any estimate of j j the probable winner. The son of John i j j I P. Grier was a sterling two-year-old and ! , I it must also be remembered that Reigh i ! ! Count made most of his reputation last ; year after Nassak had gone into retire- - I ment. Should Nassak be winner of the Preakness he will probably displace Reigh Count as favorite for the Derby. But there are various others in the - probable Kentucky Derby field that will I j not be scared out by either Reigh Count or r j Nassak. Brooms, winner of the Hopeful 1 Stakes of last year, which races for t George Sloans Brookmeade Stable, may F find a mile and a quarter a bit trying, but t he belongs. Then there is Bobashela, i from the Audley Farm Stable. He did i not accomplish much last year, but his 3 victory in the Chesapeake Stakes at t Havre de Grace gave him real importance. Misstep has been training in a * way to give him great prominence. Then i there is Distraction, winner of the Wood 1 Memorial Stakes, aud H. P. Whitneys s Victorian, which bolted in that same race 8 while he was showing the way. Knapsack and" Strolling Player, the B pair from Admiral Graysons Salubria i Stable, have surely earned the right to be started. Sortie is still to be seriously considered and Vito is another that has s great speed. Oh Say has been set some e Bevere tasks since Alex Gordon brought t him back and he is surely better than i his races this year would indicate. -• Greenock and Toro, from the E. B. *• McLean stable, are still well up among the eligibles and Sublevado, the stable-mate l- to Nassak, is an excellent second d string to Hildreths bow. Some of the others that may be seen n at the post are Cloudy, Col. Bob, Dark k Eagle, Dodgson, Genie, Irish Pal, Night it Life, Penalo, Propus, Taras Hall, Brown n "Wisdom or Replevin, and Typhoon. There are still others, with less chance, that may be seen under colors, and altogether it is safe to predict that the field 1 . will be an exceedingly large one where the colt with speed enough to come clear * f . f ! a i , 1 ] t J i ! ! . || i i I i . ] j H i I , j i | i i M | I I ; j I I | I i ■ I ! j | j j i j j I ! , I i ! ! ; - I - I j r j 1 t F t i i 3 t a * i 1 s 8 B i s e t i -• *• l- d n k it n in the early running will have a distinct advantage. Two of the candidates for both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby were winners at Jamaica on Monday, when Dr. T. M. Cassidys Indian Scout took the measure of Mowlee and Gifford A. Cochrans Propus defeated Sweepster, another from the Rancocas Stable. Both of these races were over the three-quarters distance, but Indian Scout raced the fastest three-quarters of the meeting when he finish ?d out the dis- , tance in 1:12, while the race run by Propus was also a remarkably fast one. Both these colts are at least remarkably fast sprinters, but Indian Scout has never shown consistency and little thought is given him as a possibility over other than sprinting routes. As for Propus he is still something of an unknown quantity except as a sprinter, for Henry McDaniel has not asked him to race further than three-quarters. All three of his races have been brilliant, for he beat Mowlee in his two previous starts, and he surely took the measure of good one when he defeated Sweepster in the Rainbcw Handicap. He is a son of North Star III. and Polyantha, a daughter of Broomstick, and on blood lines there is every reason to expect that he might be much more than a sprinter. Indian Scout is a son of Campfire and Better Believe that cost W. R. Coe ,800 as a yearling. He was something of a disappointment to Karrick, who was training the horses last year, and accordingly was sold to Dr. Cassidy. On his race of Monday he seems to have been a good buy, but on past performances he is hardly to be commended for con-! sistency. Indian Scout is quoted at 500 to 1 in the Kentucky Derby, and probably he is not overlaid at that figure. The quotation against Propus is 60 to 1, though it may be cut before this is printed. It might also be mentioned that back in 1923 Zev went to Louisville, after win-| ning the same Rainbow Handicap that -fell to Propus, and came back with the Derby to his credit. That year the Preakness Stakes came ahead of the running of the Rainbow Handicap, and Zev had been shipped to Pimlico with the intention of sending him from Baltimore to Louisville to keep the Kentucky en-; gagement. His race was so utterly bad in the Preakness Stakes that Hildreth ordered him shipped back to New York and decided to pass up the Derby. Then when Zev won the Rainbow Handicap, after considerable coaxing he was in-1 duced to send the colt after the Derby, Hildreth did not even make the trip to Louisville, the colt being taken there by the late Dave Leary and Bill Brennon of the stable. Scat continues a true running colt and a plater of high ability. He has been started three times by Edward Arlington this year and his record is two wins and a second. Of course Scat is a plater and he has his limitations, but there is no more resolute horse in training than the son of Chicle and Sketchy. He is only a plater by reason of his unsoundness and the fact that he continues to train and race so brilliantly is a testimonial to his goodness as a racer. The unsoundness of this sterling colt is so well known that two of the horses he beat so soundly at Jamaica on Monday were claimed out of the race, while he was led back to the Arlington barn. Scat was entered to be claimed for ,000 and Comet was claimed for just that figure, while King Jimmy changed owners for a valuation of ,000. Horsemen are natu-8 rally a bit afraid to claim a known crip-f pie and that has saved Scat on many occasions for Mr. Arlington. "When he was purchased it was freely predicted by many a good judge that he would not train. He was considered well sold and Mr. Arlington, in the opinion of many, had made a foolish buy. But Scat con-E tinues to win races for the New York turfman and continues to stand up under the rigors of training. There will come a time when the crippled legs will give out entirely, but at this time Scat is not , being abused either in his training or racing, and there are few platers with a like consistency.
