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HOW THE DERBY WINNERS SCORED POST POSITIONS AND CALLS . 4 If youre present at Churchill Downs on May 8, when the Kentucky Derby is run, or if youre listening in on the radio broadcast and have a modest wager riding on one of the starters, you can heave the pasteboard into the waste paper basket if your horse is not one-two-three at the stretch call. That is, if the statistical form of twenty-four years of Derby renewals run true to form. However, always bear in mind that "anything can happen in racing." Donerail, the 91-1 shot, was the only horse in a quarter of a century to overtake and pass four horses in the stretch drive. Only two others, Whiskery and Black Gold, had to pass two horses. All of the others either held the lead or had only one rival to catch and pass when they turned into the straight. Six oit of twenty-four did not come into the stretch in front. Eighteen winners paced the field into the stretch and drum-majored them home. Post position, on these figures, doesnt mean a great deal. It may have last year when Granville and Brevity were spotted just right to get caught in the jam that occurred at the start and be "sloughed." Nobody will ever know just what the outcome of that race would have been had the Widener star and Gallant Foxs son got off to an even break with Bold Venture. Number five post position during the last twenty-four years has been the most productive of winners, but it has no predominant edge over the others at the start In recent years eight to be exact horses toward the outside have had the best of it, but expert horsemen will tell you that the horse and not the post position really counts. During the eight years in question, no horse with a position lower than five has emerged the winner of Americas greatest turf classic. No number 1 horse at the gate since Black Gold 1924 has won the Derby. He was enough of a number 1 horse to win from that position, and at the same time obliterate all but one or two of the bookmakers who offered future prices on the Derby. Since Black Golds time, future book operators in this country have been as hard to find as Eddie Cantors trained flea, Oscar. Several other items that may interest Derby fans are shown in the table below, the calls of all the Derby winners since the extreme outsider, Donerail, created consternation and dismay on the part of spectators by romping home winner in 1913, the year possibly having had something to do with his victory, in the eyes of the superstitious. He was the horse that overhauled four others after turning into the stretch fifth, and he was the horse and still Is that paid the longest price in the history of the race. An interesting item is the fact that Sir Barton, of all the winners during the twenty-four years shown, was the only one that got the number 1 call at the start and got it all the way to the finish. He also was the first maiden to win the big race. The following year things went from one extreme to the other; from the longest-priced winner to the shortest on record, Old Rosebud, the "comeback" hero, cracking the track record and paying only 85 cents to . Derby fans know their equines. Old Rosebud was the shortest-priced winner of them all and won in record time, and it was seventeen years later that Derby fans landed on Twenty Grand with both barrels and drove his price down to 88 cents to ?1, three cents more than Old Rosebud. Twenty Grand obliged and won, at the same time cracking Old Rosebuds record for the one mile and a quarter. Thats how well they know their horses. Flying Ebony, whose Derby victory is credited to the great Earl Sande, is the only winner among those whose performances are under inspection to take an early lead, drop back and come again to win. Bubbling Over was almost, but not quite, an "end to end" winner. He didnt get the first call at the start. Paul Jones, another long-priced winner, also muffed the start call, but got all the others. Last years winner, Bold Venture, paid the longest odds since Exterminator in 1918. However, Derby fans can note all of those things for themselves by scanning the following table, the calls of the last twenty-four Derby winners, without separating distances, beginning with the post position and ending with the finish, all of them, of course, being number 1 at the end: Year. Horse. P.F. St. 1-2 3-4 lm. Str. Fin. Odds. 1936 Bold Venture 5 13 8 1 1 1 1 20.50-1 1935 Omaha 10 12 9 5 1 1 1 4.00-1 1934 Cavalcade 8 11 7 5 3 2 1 1.50-1 1933 Brokers Tip 11 11 11 8 4 2 1 8.93-1 1932 Burgoo King .13 4 3 3 2 1 1 5.62-1 1931 Twenty Grand 6 9 10 6 2 1 1 .88-1 1930 Gallant Fox 7 8 4 1 1 1 1 1.19-1 1929 Clyde Van Dusen 20 7 1 1 1 1 1 3.00-1 1928 Reigh Count 4 3 5 6 2 1 1 2.06-1 1927 Whiskery 7 6 5- 3 3 3 1 2.40-1 1926 Bubbling Over 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 L90-1 1925 Flying Ebony G 4 1 2 2 1 1 t3.15-l 1924 Black Gold 1 3 5 6 3 3 1 1.75-1 1923 Zev 10 5 1 1 1 11 1950-1 1922 Morvich 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 1.20-1 1921 Behave Yourself 1 9 8 8 6 1 1 8.65-1 1920 Paul Jones 2 111111 16.20-1 1919 Sir Barton 1 1 l l i i i 2.60-1 1918 Exterminator 5 5 5 4 1 2 1 29.60-1 1917 Omar Khayyam 8 11 10 10 0 2 1 12.80-1 191B George Smith 8 6 3 3 1 1 1 4.15-1 1915 Regret 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2.65-1 1914 Old Rosebud 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 .85-1 1913 Donerail 5 3 6 6 6 5 1 91.45-1 tField.
