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y. . f Here and There on the Turf Porters Mite After Santa Anita j Derby J Futurity Winner Is Tempted J Baronis Skill Apparent Again j Specify Perfectly Trained j A-----.-------- - - - A Porters Mite is the first winner of the Belmont Futurity to be, intended for winter racing as a three-year-old and if all continues well with the son of The Porter and Minima, he will represent William E. Boeing, Seattle airplane manufacturer and sportsman, in the fifth running of the Santa Anita Derby. Within a few hours after he had cooled out from his gruelling performance over the straight course at Belmont Park last October 1, Porters Mite was loaded on a car along with his stablemates by" trainer Ted Horning and dispatched to the West Coast. He wasnt hustled out there..for a resumption of the campaign which began there early in the year, but becausehis companions had some racing to do at Bay Meadows and Tan-foran, where their owner had a better opportunity of seeing them run. After his safe trip across the continent, Porters Mite was carefully unwound for a well earned vacation. Because of his Futurity victory, Porters Mite must be considered the number one candidate for the Washington Birthday attraction at Santa Anita Park, but plenty of dynamite is hidden among the 106 other nominees. Chief of these perhaps is Xalapa Clown, whose quality is yet undefined because he is undefeated, but which in his three starts displayed enough to be placed among the high ranking two-year-olds by John B. Campbell, Joe McCarty and the other experts. This pair of colts gained its i fame on the metropolitan circuit, as did Smart Crack and Ciencia, two of the outstanding filly eligibles to the 0,000 race, but the other well known candidates generally established their claims elsewhere. In the latter group are the fast stepping Time Alone and the stretch-running Yale o Nine, either of which may shape up as the favorite for Santa Anitas second most valuable event. Many of the Santa Anita Derby eligibles holding favor at the present time are horses personally known to California racing fans. Porters Mite and Time Alone preformed there last spring, but fresher memories are held of the exploits of Joy Boy, Flying Bonny. Mask and Wig and Sweet Nancy among others. The first three of the latter group are in Louis B. Mayers expanding stable. Other candidates that should bear watching in their winter development include Touch and Go, Ace Call, Shadows Pass, Count Eleven, Hants, Hy Camp, Roman Hero, Sweet Patrice, Blazing Heat, Tin Devil, Impound, Galley Slave and Sidney Carton. All have flashed promising quality at one time or another and perhaps there is another Stagehand among them as their owners fondly hope. Everything "considered, the Santa Anita Derbys list of eligibles is quite up to standard and 1939 renewals should be the same. Albert A. Baroni hasnt lost any of his cunning in pointing a horse for a given race. In fact, he may have improved on himself as he sent Specify into the San Francisco Handicap at Tanforan Saturday without benefit of competitive seasoning, although the three-year-old gelded son of Jamestown and designate had been away from the races since his fine effort in finishing sec- Continued on fifteenth page. J HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF 1 Continued from second page. ond to Seabiscuit in the Hollywood Gold Cup in mid-July or five months earlier. Specify was given an able and careful preparation - at Santa Anita, being shipped north after working a mile and one furlong in 1:53. That trial, the overnight ride, and a half-mile "blowout" in :48 was enough to make the Baroni horse good enough to defeat a smart field in the mile and one-sixteenth event, in which he had to stand a long, gruelling drive with the flashy Liga-roti. And at 118 pounds, Specify carried only two pounds under scale and was getting four from the Argentine flash. For the next couple of months, Baroni may be expected to exercise just as much care getting Specify ready for the Santa Anita Handicap as he did for Tanforans closing feature. The Jamestown gelding was assigned 115 pounds for the 00,000 race, but even with a drop of three pounds from his San Francisco burden he is no better off in comparison with Ligaroti and Main Man, whose imposts for March 4 are 122 and 117, respectively, as against 128 and 124. In Spe-cifys favor is the change in age as related to the scale of weights, as he will be getting thirteen pounds off in the classic. Having had experience at the distance in his victorious Hollywood Derby victory and in the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Baroni gelding may prove a tough character in the Santa Anita, as age should toughen him, not to mention the probability of faultless conditioning.
