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Here and There on the Turf Owners . Weigh Chances of Derby Hopes ! starting Fee Is Much Too Small Permits Field to Be Unwieldy-King Nadi Only Good Colt De- ! clared Out ; Owners and trainers of Kentucky Derby candidates which went to the post Saturday at Jamaica and Churchill Downs and were unable to make respectable showings are scratching their heads today trying to find out whether it would be worth while to go after the Blue Grass attraction. Churchill Downs is offering a 0,000 purse and the winners share will be right around that amount with a large field. The cost to start is 00, but in the case of New York horses and expenses of shipping to Louisville and retaining jockeys runs into as much more money. Derby eligibles already quartered at Louisville need only to have the starting and jockeys fees paid. Considering the amount to be won as well as the glory, the cost appears small, hence the Derby field probably will be much larger than it should be. Fully one-third of the contestants will have no business in the race, but their owners cant be convinced of that until the race has been decided. Events having a value as large as that of the Derby should have larger starting fees. In the case of the Derby, with its 0,000 added, the starting fee should be ,000. Such a sum would add materially to the amount taken by the winner and it would have the effect of scaring out some of the horses that havent any business in the race. Ordinary colts go into the Derby with the hope that something will happen to the outstanding candidates, but nothing ever does. In the case of a good group of three-year-olds going to the post, the winner will be a colt of merit and this years field promises to include a half dozen that are above the ordinary. For the sake of a good race, everyone hopes that the Derby will not be too bulky. With fifteen starters, the field will be large enough to prevent a true running event, though there is nearly a quarter mile run to the first turn. The earliness of the Derby is the principal reason why the Derby field usually is large. With the race held a couple of weeks later in the spring, the eligibles would have that much more time in which to get ready and they would do so in races. Consequently they would prove to their connections whether they deserved the right to go post-ward in Americas most popular horse race. But as long as the trainers arent sure of the fitness atid ability of their three-year-olds, they take a chance and send them to the post only to find out that the horses which figure to display the most stuff in the Derby running generally do so. There are very few persons who can doubt that Omaha, Cavalcade, Burgoo King, Twenty Grand, Gallant Fox, Clyde Van Dusen, Reigh Count, Whiskery, Bubbling Over and Black Gold, during the last dozen years deserved their Derby victories. Blue Larkspur probably was the best horse ever beaten in the Derby, but when he went unplaced Clyde Van Dusen won with a good, courageous effort. Head Play, in the minds of many observers, should have-triumphed over Brokers Tip in 1933 when the riders of the two colts forgot about the racing during the final sixteenth and centered their attentions on each other. Captain Hal seemed the best colt in the 1925 running but his rider, Jake Heupel, found Earl Sande, on Flying Ebony, entirely too clever for him. A gamer horse than Black Gold never lived but several of the colts he defeated in 1924 had good excuses, particularly Chilhowee, which finished second. That was a very rough contest in which the jockeys called on all their tricks. , Good performers, for the most part, have i been the defeated contenders in these renewals of the Derby and to mention a few, , Discovery, Economic, Sweep All, Mate, Gallant Knight, Misstep, Toro, Osmand, Bagen-baggage, Altawood and Bracadale. This years Derby will be a test of speed; ; Brevity, Indian Broom, Coldstream and He ! pid will be among those to see to that. It ; , i , ; ! ; will be a test of staying ability, with Granville. Grand Slam, Gold Seeker, Hollyrood, and the like exhibiting that quality. Most of these horses can be expected to shoulder the weight, yet they will have as opponents too many eligibles lacking both speed and stamina as well as weight carrying ability. These are the ones to be eliminated, especially in preliminary events, so their connections will become satisfied of their mediocrity. King Nadi was the only horse that we can remember that was declared from the Derby field in the final hours that should have been in it but a similar instance may never occur. John Troxler, owner and trainer of that good horse, apparently was overcome by the Derby tension and didnt weigh the various factors as clearly as he might have. At any rate in his next start King Nadi gave Captain Hal a trouncing after the latter colt had been second to Flying Ebony, although the best horse in the racej
