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SILENT WITNESS NEXT START C. H. Trotter Plans to Enter Colt in Rumford Purse on Opening Day at Narragansett Park. PAWTUCKET, R. I., April 18 Already on the grounds at Narragansett Park, sharp, fit and ready to run in the Rumford Purse next Saturday is one of the dark horses of the Kentucky Derby, Tobe Trotters Silent Witness. Overlooked in the winter books, the big bay son of Busy American Edith Alice looms stronger daily as a contending factor in the Blue Grass classic. Racing as a three-year-old, Silent Witness attracted attention to himself in Florida during the winter, showing such consistent improvement as- to justify the expectations of his owner that the flowery bannered white silks of the C. H. Trotter stable might be carried to victory in the Derby. C. H. "Tobe" Trotter, Kentucky-born, has been a horseman all his life, and Silent Witness" is the product of his own breeding ideas. As a two-year-old, the colt was no sensation, although he did show signs of future greatness, but is was not until he had attained his growth that "Tobe" began to foster Derby hopes. Last February Silent Witness started his three-year-old campaign by winning the Marianao Purse at Hialeah in easy fashion. Two weeks later he came back to take the Punta Gorda Purse at the same track. He has shown a decided liking for running on the turf, and while he has never raced in the mud, his liking for soft going would undoubtedly improve his chances if it comes up mud on Derby Day. Trotter has been nursing the colt along since coming to Narragansett. He has him primed for the mile and seventy yards test of the Rumford Purse on Saturday. If Silent Witness comes through in good shape, "Tobe" will send him to Churchill Downs to start him in the Derby on May 6. New Englanders will thus have their last opportunity to see a 1939 Derby candidate in action when Silent Witness faces the barrier in the sixth race on Narragansetts opening-day program, Saturday.
