view raw text
GRANVILLE STATISTICALLY Defeats by Small Margins in Three Races May Be Costly. Victory for Pompoon in Futurity Will Assure Juvenile of 1936 Money Winning Honors. Granville, William Woodwards champion, figured in some Interesting contests for the statistically Inclined this year, and research workers could delve into every available figure ever published on American racing without finding a parallel to his career. Probably their closest comparison in one respect, would be the racing career of Victorian, the dead sire which carried the silks of Harry Payne Whitney in his best days and later raced in the colors of Silas Mason and Arnold Hangar when they operated the Warm Stable. Like Victorians loss of the Gadsden D. Bryan Memorial Handicap, the loss of either the Preakness, Wood Memorial or Suburban Handicap may cost Granville the honor not to mention the profit for his owner of being the largest money winner of 1936. Victorian lost his chance by a head. Granville may lose his by a head and a half, two noses equalling a head in measuring distances by which race horses win or lose, providing Pompoon wins the New England Futurity. Losing the Preakness, Wood Memorial and Suburban by a nose, Granville won the Belmont Stakes by the same margin, the Travers by a head and the Kenner by a neck, margins not conducive to the health of his rooters fortunate enough to be on the scene when the son of Gallant Fox went into action. The amount of prize money lost by noses was 0,225. Bear that tidy sum in mind if at the end of the year the recapitulation shows Pompoon standing proudlv at the head of the American money winners for the season. Six races with a winning or losing margin no greater than a neck is something of a record, especially when they occur in the richest and most coveted races on the calendar. Granville figured in a unique experience when he won the Belmont and Classic Stakes with the same horses second and third in both. In the Belmont the finish was Granville, Mr. Bones and Hollyrood, and in the Classic it was the same. The weight varied, however, and another odd twist occurred, for Granville won the Belmont by a nose from Mr. Bones under equal weight and defeated him more decisively while conceding him five pounds in the Classic. Granville, Mr. Bones and Hollyrood carried 126 pounds each in the Belmont, while in the Classic the weights were Granville, 126; Mr. Bones, 121, and Hollyrood, 123. When carrying the highest weight with which he was saddled during the year 127 pounds Granville won the Travers Stakes by a head from Sun Teddy, which had the Arlington Handicap to his credit, and lost the Suburban Handicap to Firethorn when he was carrying only 108 pounds, the lowest impost of his 1936 career. Barring the Kentucky Derby and the purse race with which he began his three-year-old year, leaving nine races, the odds against the Belair star averaged .42 to . Dropping the Kentucky Derby, in which he fell, the opening purse race and the one mile and seventy yards Wood Memorial, leaving eight races to be figured, Granville race an even eleven miles, the average per race being one mile and three-eighths. The average time for the one mile and three-eighths was 2:28H, a far cry from the American track record of 2:14,4 held by Man o War and made under 126 pounds by that great star at Belmont Park June 20, 1920. The eight races considered above included the Saratoga Cup, at one and three-quarter miles, the longest race run by Granville, and the Kenner and Preakness Stakes, both of which are decided over one mile and three-sixteenths, the shortest distance at which he competed.
