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INCREASE TRAINING DISTANCE American Byrd Latest Derby Eligible to Work Over One Mile and an Eighth Route. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 21. With the Kentucky Derby only two weeks off trainers of probable starters in the race are gradually testing their candidates at greater distances, leading up, of course, to final workouts over the mile and a quarter distance of the May 6th classic. Several days ago Lostagal, the Indianapolis-owned ".dark horse," had the distinction of being the first of the locally-trained Derby eligibles to work as far as a mile and a furlong and this morning another of the hopefuls, American Byrd, owned by W. H. Whitehouse of Cincinnati, went a similar distance. Training on a muddy track at Churchill Downs, the bay son of Byrd and Galopin Star negotiated the route in 2:02. His rider had him under a steady hold throughout, while the Queen City candidate might have gone in much faster time, it was just what trainer R. T. Runnels prescribed. American Byrd went into action at the seven furlongs post on the main track and worked back to the three-quarter post. He traveled the first quarter in :26, half mils in :51, three-quarters in 1:19 and mile in 1:47. It was his first long rehearsal since arriving here from Florida where he made only one start. This was an off-day in the training schedule of Herbert M. Woolfs Technician and Mrs. Bessie Franzheims Xalapa Clown, the two more important Derby colts quartered here. Their exercise today was confined to leisurely gallops around the main track.
