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r 1 Here and There! on the Turf Maryland Sale is Successful I I Better One Next Year, Likely j Derby Hopefuls Going South ! t Hurley Keeps Benefactor j 4 Two weeks ago the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, staged its first auction sale of thoroughbreds and in several respects it was eminently successful. At least the sale went off well enough to warrant the expectation that another will be arranged next autumn during the Pimlico meeting when the number of visiting horsemen is at its greatest Two nights were devoted to the sales, with a miscellaneous collection of breeding stock and weanlings comprising the first vendue and yearlings the second. An average of 54 was obtained opening night and that represented the type of stock offered. The yearlings averaged 27 and at that figure appeared well sold, although the Maryland rule compelling associations to offer a race daily for horses bred in that state automatically increases their earning potentialities. Such a yearling sale, however, should have the effect of encouraging Maryland breeders to increase and improve their efforts. Not only have they a market at Saratoga for top youngsters for in their association they are providing a sales center of their own, one that will command more and more attention from owners and trainers than was manifested two weeks ago. Most of the yearlings were purchased by Maryland horsemen, but they were inspected by outsiders as well, persons who customarily are Saratoga buyers. Detail work of arranging the first sale, was done by Humphrey Finney, field secretary of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and much of its success is due him but mistakes were made which he undoubtedly will erase at next autumns auctions, when a marked improvement in the material to be offered may be expected. Florida will have two of the outstanding 1939 Kentucky Derby candidates enjoying its sunshine this winter, as both Benefactor and Volitant are being taken to Hialeah Park by their trainers. Whether they will race there is another matter, but an indication should be forthcoming when secretary Charles J. McLennan releases the nominations to the Flamingo Stakes, the Miami Jockey Clubs 0,000 feature for three-year-olds. All of Col. E. R. Bradleys four Kentucky Derby winners spring trained at Idle Hour Farm in the Blue Grass, but the decision to send Benefactor to Florida probably was influenced by the fact that the venerable sportsman has only one trainer at present the veteran William Hurley who is taking a division to the southern point as he has for several years. Having the son of Blue Larkspur and Patroness where he can see him every day, Hurley will be in a position to prepare the colt to suit himself. A splint bothered Benefactor when he was shooting for the Belmont Futurity and it caused him to come out of his winning race at Pimlico in a lame condition, resulting in his absence from the Walden Handicap. As he had won easily while running six furlongs in 1:11, fastest time of the meeting for the distance, Benefactor would have been strongly fancied in the Walden, even though that event attracted Volitant and Inscoelda. The latter colt, from the Saratoga, Stable, of George H. Bull and John, A. Morris, permitted. Inscoelda to overtake him Continued on tvoenty-seventh page. HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF f Continued from second page. in the final sixteenth of the mile and one-sixteenth Walden, but his connections continue strong in the belief the son of Display Flighty Anna will develop into a powerful three-year-old. He more than Benefactor, is expected to race at Hialeah, with the valuable Flamingo as his major objective, while his trainer attempts to cure him of the habit of loafing when enjoying the lead. Two of the coming three-year-olds to be wintered at Idle Hour Farm and receive their spring training there are the sprightly fillies BigHurry and Bass Wood. In capturing the Selima Stakes, Big Hurry became the first stakes winner in the Bradley silks in two seasons, .but the sister of Black Helen may not prove as good next season as the larger and more robust Bass Wood, a sister to Blood Root. Black Helen and Blood Root were contemporaries and frequently went to the post as a team. In the Coaching Club American Oaks they finished first and second in that order, although many observers believed the daughter of Blue Larkspur and Knockaney Bridge could have won had she been the number one Bradley colorbearer. Bass Wood impressed Pimlicos spectators Tuesday with the manner in which she won a race for maidens at a mile and seventy yards, as she dominated her opposition all through the final three furlongs by her powerful running.
