view raw text
WAITING ON SPA MEETING » Whiskery and Espino Among the Horses Marking Time. « Mrs. J. Simpson Seans Diapason, English Stallion, Pointing for Saratoga Handicap and Cnp. ♦ SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. T., June 23.— The four-year-olds Whiskery, Kentucky Derby winner last year, and Brown Bud, winner here of Miller and Travers revivals, and the five-year-old Espino, Saratoga Cup victor in 1926, are not the only famous horses of what Americans are pleased to call handicap class that are waiting on Saratoga summer racing, which will begin July 30 and continue until September 1, thirty days, and be marked by the distribution of some 5600,000. A famous English stallion — Diapason, no less — is pointing for the next revivals of the Saratoga Handicap and the Saratoga Cup ; Display, an even famous American horse, for the Saratoga and Merchants and Citizens-Handicap and the Cup, and Justice F., an English horse that has a brilliant career in winter racing, for these and other events. Diapason, a superb type, sixteen hands and perfectly proportioned, is now the property of Mrs. J. Simpson Dean of Wilmington, a daughter of the late William K. Dupont and a niece of Pierre Dupont, who bought him last year from the Laurel Park Stud. William A. Read, under whose silks Diapa-. son won a revival of the Greenwood Stakes in England three years ago, brought the horse to this country the season before last with the idea of having him trained for the Coffroth Handicap. But Diapason was slow getting acclimated, so that plan was abandoned. When Mrs. Dean acquired Diapason last summer the horse had been out of training a long while and she did not think much of him as a racing proposition. She had in mind his fitness for the headship of a thoroughbred stud she is organizing in Delaware, it being the fashion just now among the Dupont family and connections to go in for thoroughbred production and racing. But James Healy, the elder, looked him over and suggested that he be trained for distance racing this summer and that is what is being done with him. ROT FRICK DESERTS STABLE. Roy Frick, vice-president of the Cadillac Corporation, a Dupont concern, is directing the preparation of Diapason for a Saratoga campaign and he is more than pleased with the progress the outlander is making. Several times in the course of the last fortnight Diapason has worked miles in 1 :43 or better. He is in superb general condition, sound and willing at seven years old. He is sound and willing because he was not abused in his infancy, as American two-year-olds are. Smooth gaited and indomitable, Diapason, whose daddy was Dir.dcmenes, a son of Orby, and whose dam was Venturesome, a daughter of Sir Martin, is a natural distance runner. The Goodwood Stakes is a gallop of two miles and three-eighths. Orby has another grandson well engaged at Saratoga in the three-year-old Strolling Player, a son of the British Derby winner Grand Parade. The two may meet here in August. Frick may give Diapason a race or so at Aqueduct and Yonkcrs, but he is not sure he will. Mrs. Dean is set on winning a Saratoga Cup with him and if he does that, or makes a good showing in the Saratoga Associations great championship gallop of a mile and three-quarters, she will have him trained for The Jockey Club Gold Cup, a gallop of two miles, weight for age, which will be renewed at Belmont Fark in September. If he keeps well Diapason may go to Tijuana for the Coffroth. DISPLAYS INJURY NOT SERIOUS. Display has not done any racing since he lamed himself in Maryland just before the running of the Dixie Handicap, for which he had had a careful preparation at the hands of Thomas Healey. When Healey announced that that famous son of Fair Play and Cicuta, which has won the Preakness Stakes, Washington Handicap and Pimlico Cup and is only a few thousand dollars short of 00,000 in earnings, was out of the Dixie Handicap, the report was circulated that the horse had bowed a tendon. He did nothing of the sort. Walter J. Salmon, Displays owner, informed the writer a, few days ago that Display had done no more than hurt one of his hind feet by kicking a water bucket in play. Salmon passed up the Dixie Handicap, also the early metropolitan engagements of Display to the end that he might get back into racing perfectly sound. Salmon is determined that Display shall not retire until he has earned more than 00,000, even if he cannot make the 03,000 mark set by Zev in 1922. 1923 and 1924. The Fair Play" stallion would have passed the 00,000 mark last fall If Healey had not started the three-year-old Black Panther with him in the last Thanksgiving Handicap, a 5,000 gallop of one mile and three-sixteenths, at Bowie. Display beat the other Thanksgiving contestants easily enough, but Black Panther lipped him out. Display was the contender two years ago In the Saratoga Cup, which Espino won. East Summer he licked Peanuts, Valorous. Bos-tonian, Saxon and Light Carbine in a revival of the Champlain Handicap. Healey may race him a time or twe before the beginning of the Saratoga meeting probably mid-July. Justice F., winner of the Tijuana Derby of 1927 in which he defeated the destined Coffroth Handicap winner, Sir Harry, and star of last winters racing at New Orleans, where he won a New Years, Dade Memorial, Southland and New Orleans Handicaps, earning 9,000 altogether, has not started since early March. Dr. H. C. Riddle, who has handled Justice F. brilliantly these two seasons, took him to Tijuana after the New Orleans Handicap with the idea of running him in the Coffroth Handicap. He was the future betting favorite for that most richly endowed of the worlds specials for three-year-olds and over. He did not get to the post, because he fell lame in a preliminary race and, in his absence. Crystal Pennant scored, earning $:i2,7J0. Riddle brought Justice F. East with the Idea of resting him for a Saratoga campaign, and the English horse — he is a son of Abbots Trace and Icemond — is doing splendidly. Riddle has no fear that Justice F. will not demonstrate that the form which made him great last winter and the winter before will win anywhere. This fellow is a grandson of Tracery through Abbots Trace, a stallion that is making good handsome: - through his get in England. He cost ,000 here at the auction block in the summer of 1925, Andrew Godfrey Blakely buying him for William Daniel, a close friend of the bookmaker, Thomas Shaw. He has proven a rare bargain. Daniel and Shaw have been singularly fortunate in their Saratoga yearling purchases. In the summer of 1923 they paid ,000 at one of Phiiip Chinns sales for an English yearling by Lord Archer. Under the name of Master Charlie that colt won the Tijuana Futurity, Hopeful and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs, finishing the season of 1924 with earnings of more than 5,-000. Master Charlie was the most successful two-year-eld of his time, and the only horse of any age that tapped him in gleanings was the three-year-old sensation, Sarazen, which crowned a brilliant season by licking the French champion, Epinard, in the Kentucky Jockey Clubs 0,000 special of one mile and a quarter. Sarazens margin on him was a mere 40.