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CHURHC1LL DOWNS MEETING J — ♦ Racing Best Witnessed at Noted 1 Course in Many Years. « Mutuel Play Lighter Though Attendance Holds Up— Gallant Knights Remarkable Performance. » LOUISVILLE, Ky.. May 25.— The nineteen-day race meeting at Churchill Downs, which • closed Saturday, was one of the best to be enjoyed at the south Louisville plant in years. Naturally the mutuel play was a great deal lighter than in other years, but the attendance held up and, when considered, , that a new worlds record for six and a half furlongs, a new track record for one mile and a quarter and the equalling of the mark for three-quarters, the first time since May 4, 1921, were established, it demonstrated I conclusively that the spring session was more than to be expected. If track conditions had been more favorable ■ on the last day of the meeting, Gallant Knight probably would have lowered the mark of 2:01% set by Twenty Grand in the fifty-seventh Kentucky Derby. When the son of Bright Knight covered the six and a half furlongs in l.lQ1, he demonstrated that he lost none of the foot that enabled him to be considered a runner-up to Gallant Fox in 1930. Kay Spence Sunday morning stated that he believed that Gallant Knight was as good as Gallant Fox and only bad racing luck kept the Bright Knight colt from earning a victory over the son of Sir Gallahad III., which is now in retirement. Gallant Knight came out of his Grainger Memorial Handicap victory in good condition and now he will seek the principal stakes for older horses. According to present plans he will be seen under colors in the Stuyvesant Peabody Handicap, the Lincoln Fields Handicap, the Saratoga Cup, the Independence Day Handicap at Latonia, unless it is decided to send him to Belmont Park and then a campaign throughout the East. Trainer Spence Sunday morning was awaiting word from owner Bernard B. Jones regarding the itinerary of the colt. In the event Mr. Jones decides to keep the colt in the West he will return to Latonia with the division of the Audley Farm Stable, which trainer Spence sends to the Mill-dale track from Chicago at the conclusion of the Washington Park meeting. Considering the condition of the course, Gallant Knight ran in remarkable time to negotiate the one mile and a quarter of the Grainger in 2:05%. Not pressed after the opening three-quarters, the offspring of Bright Knight merely galloped along in the van of the three others. Change in track conditions caused the declaration of Bargello, which annexed the fifty-seventh running of the Clark Handicap, and when Jimmy Moran wrenched a shoulder Saturday, it left Mose Goldblatt, trainer of the western division of the C. V. Whitnev stable, without a representative. One of the best two-year-old fillies to show in the West this season was Airs. J. M. Reeds Butter Beans, which had little trouble in winning the thirty-seventh running of the Debutante Stakes. The daughter of St. Henry, which stands Mrs. Reed 5, has already earned her owner more than 4,000, and no doubt will increase her earnings during her Illinois and Kentucky campaigns. Like Butter Beans, Proteus is another juvenile to be purchased cheap by his owner. The colt shouldered the top weight in the Bashford Manor Stakes and came to the wire hard pressed by Liberty Limited. The latter, a son of Sir Gallahad III., is bound to improve off that race and trainer Richard Vestal believes him to be a horse of the first flight. Two brilliant victories, the last the Kentucky Oaks, showed Charles Nuckols Cousin Jo to be the best of the three-year-old fillies, and her essay in the Illinois Oaks, the next of her important engagements, should settle the three-year-old filly situation.
