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RETARDS DERBY TRAINING Rainy Weather Keeps Majority of Eligibles Inside at Downs. Reaping Reward Shows Fitness in Easy Gallop in Company With Military and Other Stable Companions. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 21. Although most of them were on the track for light exercise, rainy weather and a muddy track put an almost complete damper on the training operations of Kentucky Derby eligibles at Churchill Downs this morning. The principal absentee was I. J. Collins Bernard F., which trainer Al Miller was content to keep Indoors, while the only top rank candidates to indulge in anything more than easy gallops were two of the Milky Farm mainstays. Reaping Reward and Military. Under the direction of Robert McGarvey, they galloped three furlongs in :37?, handily, in preparation for more strenuous trials later. They were sent in a set which included Dog away and Fast Express and covered the first quarter in :26. Both Reaping Reward, which last faced the starter when he won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes here last fall, and Military, which has had the advantage of winter racing, are well advanced in their training, and with continued patient handling, there is little doubt that they will come up to the Derby in excellent trim. FENCING LIGHTLY REGARDED. Among the Derby horses of the first rank, which were on the track this morning but which were not asked to display any speed, were Mrs. W. H. Fursts Gerald, Miss Mary Hirschs No Sir and Col. H. Maxwell Howards Sceneshifter. The latter continues to train in company with Fencing, also eligible for the Derby, but this one has been relegated to the group of candidates which are not very highly regarded as potential starters. All of these more fancied candidates continue to train in impressive fashion, and if they do not literally burn up the track in morning spins, it is because their trainers see no need for askng their charges to display that sort of speed. Having raced this winter and spring, Gerald, No Sir and Sceneshifter need little more than to be kept on edge. While the work of Derby horses attracts chief attention during the morning at Churchill, the progress of locally stabled horses for the 0,000 added Clark Handicap feature of opening days program also is being watched with interest. .. Among the eligibles for this fixture, which is as old as the Derby, training impressively are the Millsdale Stables Infantry, Mose Goldblatts Dnieper, I. J. Collins Paradisical and James Chesneys Professor Paul and Cristate. All of these are expected to be found among the entries for the Clark, along with a number of crack performers now quartered at Keeneland.
