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Here and There on the Turf Pompoon Buns His First Bad BadRace Race RaceBrooklyn Brooklyn Out of Derby Field Wood Hero After Downs Clas Three Tracks Enjoy Fine Open ¬ ings Those who considered Pompoon a legiti ¬ mate favorite for the Kentucky Derby con ¬ fidently expecting him to run over his oppo ¬ sition in the Wood Memorial have been practically speechless since the running of Jamaicas most important stake and to make matters worse for them the numerous persons who doubted the colts ability to go a route have been raising the old familiar cry I told you so soAs As a gentle reminder to the latter group the son of Pompey and Oonagh was coming on at the finish of the New England Fu ¬ turity last fall in which Reaping Reward beat him a head in fast time over the same distance as the Wood Memorial Pom ¬ poon showed no disposition to stop in that race nor did he in the Wood but in the latter event he could not do better than hold his position positionFompoons Fompoons connections believe his per ¬ formance was too disappointing to be true and they cannot be blamed for this assump ¬ tion In all his previous efforts Jerome Louchheims star had turned in a good race His two defeats as a twoyearold were by a half length and a head respectively In his lone outing this spring prior to the Wood Pompoon mastered speedy older horses while carrying scale weight in the Paumonok Handicap He now is at Churchill Downs where tomorrow he may be ex ¬ pected to be worked ouf over the mile and a quarter distance of the Derby but how fast Cyrus Field Clarke will permit him to go may depend greatly on just what effect the colts Wood effort had on his condi ¬ tioning If Clarke believes Pompoon may have been overtrained he may restrict the son of Pompey to something akin to an open gallop gallopComing Coming hard on the heels of Pompoons disappointing race is the information that Brooklyn will not be a Derby starter The E R Bradley colt had been among the favorites ever since the first future book prices were released one bookmaker holding him on even terms with Pompoon Brooklyn failed to run to hopes in his two starts at Keeneland the second which was in the Blue Grass Stakes out of which he de ¬ veloped a condition causing trainer H J Thompson to leave him at Idle Hour Bil ¬ lionaire which barely nosed out Brooklyn in the Blue Grass while losing to Fencing will be the lone Bradley contestant in Sat ¬ urdays race The brother to Brokers Tip which scored the last of Bradleys four Derby triumphs has been improving grad ¬ ually after being trained later than Brook ¬ lyn With Brooklyn out of the race the horseforhorse wager between Bradley and Louchheim in which the latter laid 11 to 10 for a sizeable amount will not be in effect Five of the ten starters in the Wood two of which were not named for the Derby have been shipped to Louisville In addition to Pompoon they are Melodist and Sir Damion the winner and runnerupfClodion and Merry Maker The latter two finished ahead and behind the favorite Melodists effort was by far the most impressive of any of the Wood starters The gray son of Royal Minstrel and Vexing from the Wheatley Stable was eighth leaving the back stretch fourth turning for home and a length ahead passing under the wire He carried 120 pounds the same as the othei Continued oh thirtyfirst pagej HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page colts in the race and covered the mile and seventy yards in 142 a second and three fifths slower than the Jamaica record but creditable enough A winner of only one race as a twoyearold but thought good enough to start in the Belmont Futurity Melodist took an overnight affair of six furlongs in his first start as a threeyearold and was beaten By three lengths in the Stuyvesant Handicap over the same dis ¬ tance making up five lengths in the last five furlongs Splendid openings were enjoyed by three tracks Saturday with Narragansett Park having the largest crowd as might be ex ¬ pected Interest in New England over the doings of the thoroughbreds apparently has increased over the high peak at which it left off last fall at the same course courseAt At Aurora a record attendance was noted notedfor for the opening of the Illinois season of ofsix six months This was in spite of the muddy muddycondition condition of the course although the weather was clear A larger turnout than thanhas has been noted in nearly a decade viewed viewedthe the inaugural program of sport at Churchill ChurchillDowns Downs the many patrons expressing them selves as exceedingly well pleased with the thechanges changes and improvements effected since the track was slightly off due to recent rains Under more auspicious circumstances rain fell in the surrounding country Churchill Downs would have been host to
