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DARK SECRET FORMIDABLE One of Best Three-Year-Olds Now in Training. Eligible for All of Remaining Rich Handicaps in Maryland Son of Flying Ebony. - HAVRE DE GRACE, Md., Oct. 3. Dark Secret, owned by Ogden Mills,. Secretary of the United States Treasury, and his sister, Mrs. Henry C. Phipps, which demonstrated by the manner in which he won the Potomac Handicap here last Saturday that he is one of the most formidable three-year-olds still racing, also a factor to be reckoned with in the coming revivals here and at Laurel, Pimlico and Bowie of the Havre de Grace, Maryland, Washington, Riggs, Dixie, Prince Georges and Thanksgiving Handicaps, is not exactly a Maryland-bred, but he has an intimate Maryland affiliation. His daddy, Flying Ebony, Kentucky Derby winner of 1925, is standing at Leslie E. Keiffers Inverness Stud in Baltimore County. Inverness, an estate of some 350 acres, is part of the famous My Ladys Manor tract, which once was upwards of 10,000 acres in area. This son of The Finn and Princess Mary, by Hessian, from Royal Gun, is easily the best thoroughbred stallion standing in Maryland now. Keif f er got him for 52,500 at the dispersal sale of the late Gifford A. Cochrans stud in Kentucky a year ago last spring. It was under Cochrans silks that Flying Ebony won the Kentucky Derby of 1925 less than a week after Coventry, a son of Negofol, had won a Preakness for Mr. Cochran at Pimlico. Flying Ebony won four or five races as a two-year-old. Claptrap, son of Fair Play and Catalpa, an own brother of Catalan sire of Canron and half-brother of The Pelican, is at Inverness with Flying Ebony. The Pelican is one of the best two-year-olds of the J. E. Widener string. Flying Ebony has two-year-old winners out this season in Cat Tails, Doris B., Our Sallie, Center Lane, Cornelia Clara, Flying Vote, Flying Dragon, Modern Ace and Aurebon. His juvenile winners last season were Dark Secret, Microphone, Flying Silk and Ellen D. As Dark Secret, which can step a brisk six furlongs himself, is something of a distance runner, Microphone is one of the best of the current three-year-old sprinters. Earlier contributions of Flying Ebony to American racing were Heeltaps, winner of revivals of the Tijuana Futurity, Pimlico Futurity and the Carter twice, Delaware, Remsen, Nursery and Fleetwing Handicaps; Betty Barrett, La Golondrina, Flying Express, Syriac, All Columbia, Regular Feller, etc. Dark Secret has proven a sturdy campaigner. He has won revivals of the Kenner and Speculation Stakes, finished second in a Jerome, a Bayshore, a Knickerbocker Handicap and an Empire City Derby, third in a Southampton Handicap and a Saratoga Cup, besides wininng several overnight races. His earnings this year total 2,755. Last year he picked up ,150.
