view raw text
COMMONWEALTH NOT READY Trainer Burch Believes Gelding Will y Defeat Plat Eye and Sun Fair- play in Future. HAVRE DE GRACE, Md., April 22. "I have no excuses to offer for Commonwealths showing in the Chesapeake. Ho just wasnt fit enough, but I expect to giva him a couple of hard races under his belt this week and will ship him Sunday or Monday to Churchill Downs to fulfill his engagement in the 0,000 Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 4." Thus spoke trainer Preston M. Burch here this morning in regard to Mr. Walter M. Jeffords gelded son of Bostonian, who until Saturday was rated second choice for the Kentucky Derby. Scores of horsemen who witnessed Commonwealths training and who viewed the running of the Chesapeake from the center field, agreed with trainer Burch. Many of them later expressed an opinion that Commonwealth would certainly take the measure of Plat Eye and Sun Fairplay when he next meets them. Sonny Workman, who handled Commonwealth in the Chesapeake, said the gelding tired in the last sixteenth. Workman added that had the Jeffords three-year-old been up to a hard race, he would have sailed past his opposition as he easily went to them in the stretch, only to hang within sight of the finish.
