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KHAKI JOHN STAKES WINNER Breeders Stakes Feature of Holiday Card at Woodbine. , i t Happy Hopes Makes Three-Year-Old Debut and Disappoints Admirers Mattloli c Astride Winner. v a TORONTO, Qnt., May 24. The forty-third t running of the Breeders Stakes, carrying a t value of ,000 added and contested over the v one mile and a sixteenth distance, was the 0 feature on the holiday program at Wood- n bine. The Thorncliffe Stables Khaki John, s under the guidance of jockey J. Mattioli, was E triumphant. Heap Good, from the stable of W. I. Newmarch, after carrying the pace- j making burden, finished in second place. a Happy Hopes, leading Canadian-bred juve- a a nile last season; making his initial start of s the year and backed with rare confidence, j was third. 7 s The Thorncliffe Stables three-year-old was r unruly at the post and Marshall Cassidy r ordered him to the outside. The start, when it came, was a good one, with Royal Vin- , tage first to show. Heap Good soon went to the front, however, and straightening out on the back stretch, was clear. Royal Vin- i tage was holding second place and Khaki John was under steady restraint in third j place. Happy Hopes bore out on the first e turn and Mann was forced to hit him over the nose with the whip several times to a keep him straight. Heap Good still showed the way around j the far turn, and Khaki John had gone into second place. In the meantime Happy Hopes j had moved up on the outside and had gained third place. , Khaki John supplanted Heap Good in j command as they swung into the stretch, and Mann made an effort with Happy Hopes, but he was unequal to the task and was unable to improve his position to any great extent. Once in the van Mattioli per- mitted Khaki John to race right along and reached the end with a length and a half to spare, while Heap Good saved second j place by a like margin from the R. S. McLaughlin three-year-old. It is possible that Happy Hopes, a son of Cudgel, did not fancy the going. Crofter, -another son of Cudgel, was another that did not favor the muddy footing that pre- , vailed. A crowd of almost record proportions was . on hand. Though rain visited the course in the morning, it cleared up around noon . and the weather conditions during the aft- ; ernoon left little to be desired. The King Edward Gold Cup Handicap, at one mile and a sixteenth, brought together the small field of three, after Stealingaway was withdrawn. It was the twenty-eighth renewal of the fixture. The winner turned up in Dis Dat, from the stable-of the Winnipeg sportsman, T. Donley. J. E. Small-mans Deedie, the favorite, raced to second place, with J. Badames Khorasan trailing. Dis Dat, which was shipped here from California, with jockey J. Pollard up, began on the outside and raced to the front in the opening sixteenth. Deedie was always second and under restraint during the opening six furlongs. Khorasan was only a couple of lengths back as they sped down the back stretch. Midway of the turn Mann moved up with the Smallman mare. Pollard met the challenge by giving Dis Dat his head. As soon as he was released from restraint the Dis Done colt opened up a comfortable margin and Pollard had him in hand in the closing sixteenth. The opening race was riddled by scratches when only seven of the seventeen named overnight accepted. Heavy rains during the early morning turned the racing strip into mud and caused the wholesale withdrawals of owners with non-mud runners. The event called for Canadian-bred platers to race three-quarters of a mile. Sabana, racing for C. S. Mitchell, was returned the winner over R. R. Leslies Toe Dance, with Canny Age gaining the show award for C. Smythe. A field of eight three-year-olds contested the May Flower Plate, under claiming conditions. Mintwina was returned the winner, scoring easily from Golden Fate, and Miss Monoa was along in the last strides to take third from Maeantic. Curtain Call, the gray daughter of Messenger and By Play, racing for L. H. Dren-nan, raced to her second score of the meeting by annexing the Minto Steeplechase over the two miles course. This marked the third successive victory of the L. H. Dren-nan silks in steeplechases at the Woodbine meeting. It also enabled jockey E. Ball to make it three wins in a row, he having been aboard the previous two winners sent out from the Drennan stable. The Queen City Stables Flag Rock, after setting the pace, was second, while third place went to Lawn Grass. The only one of the five that failed to finish the course was Dragon de Vertu, which lost his rider at the thirteenth jump. Ball kept Curtain Call under restraint while Flag Rock and Muskogee were setting the pace. Curtain Call saved ground at all the beacons and when called upon, after taking the twelfth fence, soon caught the leader and was in hand on the flat after taking the final brush. Muskogee was much used in forcing the pace and tired badly in the last half-mile. There was an upset in the Queens Birthday Plate, a claiming affair that engaged nine mediocre platers at one mile and a sixteenth. Woolorac, by a rush through the stretch, gained the winners share of the spoils by a short margin over another neglected factor. Virado, with Par Excellence third. Mint Magic, .essayed to make a runaway affair of the race, opening up a long lead in the first quarter. Legere had a nice hold of the pacemaker and it was not until near the stretch that he showed signs of faltering. As he tired, Virado, which had been his closest follower, moved to the front and led to within a few strides of the finish, where Woolorac came with his winning challenge on the outside. Par Excellence also came from far back to defeat Mint Magic for third.
