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y - t Here and There on the Turf Winn Out to Make Derby Better Is Very Optimistic Over Season No Derby Casualties Reported Billie Bane Smart Youngster California Racing in Mess Sane Action Is Questioned Truth About Golden Miller Bobby Jones Hits His Stride i ,:t Everything he has learned in the many years in which he has been associated with racing and the Kentucky Derby is being thrown into this years running of the Churchill Downs classic by Col. Matt Winn. As a consequence, persons who have witnessed previous Derbies will see something different at the historic Louisville course on May 4. With the great national wave of interest in horse racing indicated in the record volume of requests for Derby accommodations, Winn and his associates in the management of Churchill Downs are making extensive changes in the plant, not only to accommodate more visitors but to increase their protection as well. In addition, every inch of the long, rambling clubhouse and grandstand is being painted so Churchill Downs will be in its finest attire for its day of days. In carrying out his determination to protect the boxholders from the gate crashers, Winn is doubling the high wire fence at the lower end of the clubhouse, this point suffering the greatest assault last year. As boxes take up all the space in front of the main section of the clubhouse, persons in this enclosure without such accommodations will view the Derby from the lawn opposite the turn, which really affords a better view than nearer the finish. Another large stairway leading to the second floor of the clubhouse also has been added and this change should eliminate much of the jamming and confusion which occurred previous Derby days. The tremendous demand for Derby reservations has made Colonel Winn feel very optimistic over prospects for the coming season. Not only does he believe Churchill Downs will, have its best meeting in years, but he sees prosperity in racing in other centers, particularly in Chicago. The veteran impresario also believes the sport will stage a comeback in Cincinnati this year. As the Derby patronage provides a pretty good line on how people feel about racing in various parts of the country, the Colonel may be eminently correct in his optimistic views. Because of the way he feels about the immediate future of racing Churchill Downs will offer the horsemen a substantially higher purse schedule at the coming meeting and if the session is as successful as Winn thinks it will be, likewise Latonias distribution will be much larger than was the case last summer. Improvement of weather in the Blue Grass section during the past few days is certain to have the effect of whooping up news about the manner in which the various outstanding candidates are training. One by one the Downs colony is increasing, the latest arrival being the Braedalbane Stables Weston, which flashed good form at Latonia last summer. Chance Sun, the Derby favorite, continues to attract the most attention from the railbirds, but he will not be entirely by himself within a few days because several other prominent candidates are due to transfer their activities to the Louisville course most any time now. A new barn is being constructed at Churchill Downs to accommodate Derby invaders and it will be ready for inhabitants by the turn of the week. While no information as to the speed they have shown in their workouts has been forthcoming from such private tracks in the Blue Grass as Calumet Farm, Whitney Farm, Coldstream Stud and Idle Hour Farm, trainers of Derby prospects at each of these places say their charges are moving along satisfactorily. Calumet houses Nellie Flag, outstanding filly candidate for the Downs classic, while Boxthorn is the E. R. Bradley hopeful undergoing his preparation at Idle Hour. St. Bernard is at Coldstream and Today is the leading Whitney eligible. Nellie Flag, Boxthorn and St. Bernard, with various stablemates, may soon be transferred to Churchill Downs, but Today probably will head for the East shortly, to be returned to Louisville if he is to try for the Derby. Meanwhile no casualties among better-known Derby hopes have been reported from Columbia, Maryland, or Long Island, which also must be very cheering news to Colonel Winn. T. D. Grimes seems to have a pretty handy youngster in Billie Bane, which set a new track record for four and one-half furlongs at Arlington Downs in winning the Juvenile Stakes the other afternoon. The California-bred gelding by Braedalbane, from Editorial, stepped the distance with 122 pounds on his back in :52, which is just two-fifths off the American record made way back in 1908 by Hoyle at Aqueduct. Billie Bane was one of the better two-year-olds brought out at Santa Anita Park, but despite his good western form the Arlington Downs customers made the Hialeah-developed Empty Bottle an odds-on favorite. Empty Bottle set a fast pace, but could not stave off Billie Banes late rush. Billy Bane could not warm up Deliberator in Florida, so on comparative form, the latter, with his stablemate Wise Duke, appear the best two-year-olds of the winter season just closed. What is to be the final outcome of the uncertain conditions prevailing at Bay Meadows is a matter troubling those persons who take their California racing seriously. It seems that William P. Kyne, who promoted the San Mateo course,-has never been able to see the same way as members of the California Horse Racing Board as to certain policies, and other conditions have developed which have made operation of Bay Meadows very distasteful. The present meeting at Bay Meadows has been a big loser, but Kyne, with rare gameness, has never given up trying to knock down the obstacles appearing in his path. Finally the weather, attended by other circumstances, forced him to cancel Wednesdays program. Some of his officials had been called to the state capital to testify before a legislative investigation committee but that would not have halted the days program had the track been in good condition. Perhaps Kyne made a major mistake In his selection of a site for the Bay Meadows track. As its name implies, the course is located on what formerly was marsh land bordering San Francisco Bay. Recent heavy rains have kept the track almost under water and horsemen have shown more and more hesitation about running their charges over it. They were only too happy to accept the cancellation of Wednesdays program. Bay Meadows could do very well where it is, however, if some other time of year could be selected for its operation.. The months of February, March and April are always rainy ones in that particular section of California, and but for the desire to attract some of the eastern horses which were campaigned at Santa Anita Park, Kyne might have selected some other time for the Bay Meadows meeting. Much conversation has developed about Kyne being persecuted by the California Horse Racing Board, but such a thought i3 the antithesis of truth. It just happens that members of the governing group have certain ideas about how racing under their jurisdiction should be conducted, and conditions have developed which neither they nor Kyne could have forestalled. Friends of Bay Meadows may be unable to reconcile themselves to the facts underlying the wonderful success of Santa Anita and the failure of the peninsula track to do as well. Santa Anita opened up in brand new territory and offered a standard of racing perhaps never before seen at a winter meeting in this country, where the sporting public of San Francisco and vicinity had wearied somewhat of racing due to the ordinary type of racing served to them for years at Tanforan. It would seem to any person of vision that the lone chance for continued success at Bay Meadows would be to follow as much as possible a policy of high class sport. That racing conditions are anything but smooth in California is further emphasized by withdrawal by Norman Church, H. H. Cotton and their associates of their application to construct another race course in Los Angeles. These men, friendly with the builders of Santa Anita, were ready to go ahead with construction of a race track upon the approval of their application, but something distasteful to Church and Cotton must have occurred to cause their change of mind. A failure to understand jus,t how great a sport racing can be under proper circumstances may have influenced to a considerable extent the trouble cropping up in California racing. The Horse Racing Board already has been given one vote of confidence, but that apparently has been insufficient to smooth the angry waters. Following Golden Millers downfall in the Grand National Steeplechase, victory 4n which would have cost English bookmakers a large amount of money, many charges were made and rumors started, but as is so often the case in such, matters, the truth finally comes out and shows up numerous persons to be very loud of mouth. Motion pictures of Golden Millers spill were shown in London and, reduced to slow speed, they revealed clearly that the favorite jumped badly, then swerved, then crossed his legs. Jockey Gerald Wilson lost his right stirrup and then his seat to go tumbling on the turf. The writer frequently has heard complaints about the manner in which horses run on the flat, and in the vast majority of instances in which he has checked up on them, he has learned that the unsatisfactory efforts were explained by lameness, injury, or one of the many other good reasons why the steeds do not always run two races alike. In the first two days of racing at Bowie, Bobby Jones rode several winners, a feat he was almost unable to do throughout the long Florida season. If a rider was off form, Jones was at Miami. He apparently knew he wasnt at tops, because for days at a time he would absent himself from the track as though to freshen up. With the close of Hialeah the California lad took a longer vacation, and that might have turned the trick, judging from the results he has been getting at Bowie. Jones is under contract to Mrs. John Hay Whitney, but he has the opportunity to much of the riding this season for the powerful Brookmeade Stable, so it behooves him to be the classy pilot he was up until he suffered a nasty fall at Saratoga last August, a spill that had him incapacitated for a long time.
