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----- - - -t Here and There on the Turf Whitneys Saving Two-Year-Olds ! Best Prospects Out of Training Memory Book Rounding to Form I Coldstreams Connections Confident i In the interests of two-year-old conservation and improvement in the general ability of their three-year-olds and older horses, the Whitney forces are putting into effect this season a policy under which their most promising youngsters will not be sent into competition before August. Four or five of the colts and as many fillies in each stable have been selected from the young stock of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, John Hay Whitney and the Greentree Stable of Mrs. Payne Whitney, and they will not be subjected to anything like serious training before May. When Thomas J. Healey shipped the C. V. Whitney horses from the farm at Lexington recently to Belmont Park he left behind him what are considered the four colts and four fillies most likely to develop into good performers in their second season. Breeding, size, conformation and the action shown in yearling trials were the principal factors that mattered in the selections. , Similar tactics have been followed by William Brennan, the Greentree trainer, and James Healy, the J. H. Whitney mentor, and they, like Healey, -will take over direct supervision of their more promising two-year-olds in May, with Saratoga racing in August in mind. The program calls for the juveniles to be raced through the Saratoga meeting and the autumn term of two weeks at Belmont Park, ending about October 1. As a consequence, the leading Whitney two-year-olds will be kept on racing edge for only two months, going into retirement until the following spring. It is the hope of the Whitneys that this policy will be successful and give them in a few years racing stables having strength only in the young division. None of the Whitneys had a first class handicap horse last year, nor will they have one this season. The countrys leading stables long have, been careful with their more promising youngsters, but very few have followed such a definite program as has been adopted by the Whitneys. Other prominent owners may be expected to follow suit, especially a year or- two from now, if the plan proves successful so quickly. All trainers who know anything about horses are content to wait on colts that show in one manner or another that they lack precocity, but the Whitney plan calls for a decision from which there will be no deviation. The youngsters held k back will, as a consequence, have much more time in which to grow naturally to maturity and they will not be subjected to a gruelling campaign until after full growth. On the whole, they should be larger, stronger, sounder and possess a greater zest for racing because of such light handling as two-year-olds. In view of his pleasing workout at a mile and a furlong at Belmont Park the other morning, Memory Book may still be included among the likely starters in the Kentucky Derby. For a time the Greentree colt appeared too backward in his preparation, but lately he has been coming around in a fashion that may cause trainer Brennan to alter his plans, even though the son of St. Germans and Memento is not expected to reach his top form until he has been through several hard races. Memory Book will not be forced into the condition necessary to be ready for a race like the Derby, but if he continues to advance in his preparation willingly he will be sent to Louisville, as Mrs. Whitney is anxicus to win another running of the Blue Grass special. Twenty Grand captured the 1931 renewal in her colors. Charles B. Shaffer, owner of Coldstream Stud, and his trainer, Alex Gordon, feel satisfied that their chances of victory in the forthcoming Derby are much greater than Continued on twenty-first page. HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. was the case a year ago, when St. Bernard was their colorbearer. St. Bernard went into the Derby without benefit of a conditioning ! race and he led for the first half mile, thereafter dropping back steadily. However he demonstrated in the Arlington Classic that he was a colt of class by running a good second to Omaha. Before the stable was moved from the farm to Churchill Downs earlier in the week, St. Bernard was asked to work out with the colt Coldstream, and the three-year-old gave him a sound thrashing, drawing away easily after the opening half mile. The son of Bull Dog and Nimble Hoof left the farm in good shape, apparently well able to withstand the tightening up process of the next few weeks. Despite the strength promised by other Derby candidates, Coldstream possesses the full confidence of his connections.
