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Here and There on the Turf Heather Broom Improving Not Top Derby Prospect Pimlico Has Fine Program Second Week Is Banner • * No outstanding candidate for the Kentucky Derby was uncovered in the Blue Grass Stakes running and more than probably Heather Broom, the winner, will be the only member of that field to go postward in the Churchill Downs feature next Saturday. Heather Broom must be accorded some chance against Johnstown, Challedon, Technician and the other leading candidates for . the Derby, but his effort in the Blue Grass, considering the class of his opposition, left ■ something to be desired for him to be included among the favorites for Americas J most popular horse race. It can be stated in his behalf, however, that the chestnut son of The Porter and -Janet Blair, by Sir Martin t appears to be improving and he may be found more at home over the Derby route of a mile and one-quarter than the furlong shorter distance of the Keeneland feature. Heather Broom had very little if anything left as he greeted the judges in the Blue Grass or he would not have drifted out ; toward the finish after safely disposing of Third Degree a sixteenth sooner. Possibly r John Hay Whitneys colt wasnt ready for anything more than he accomplished, as trainer Earl Sande didnt decide to send him to Keeneland until Monday after he had t worked the colt the Blue Grass distance in i 1:55%, comparatively slow time at Belmont Park. Before that trial and after taking a I race of a mile and seventy yards at Jamaica, his only other start of the season, Heather Broom covered nine -furlongs in 1:58%, handily. But with the Keeneland effort behind him, the Whitney three-year-old can be brought up to a mile and one-quarter effort in the time remaining until the Derby. In the Blue Grass, Heather Broom was handled like Basil James wishes to ride a horse in a race of that kind. He was rated well off the pace until the final half mile, and when given his head advanced quickly enough to place him in just the sort of position James desired to challenge Third Degree for the lead, and Heather Broom continued to gain until he had disposed of the Greentree colt. Third Degree, with his sta-blemate, the disappointing Hash, had been made an odds-on favorite, as .Heather Brooms chances were discounted, but he just didnt impress as a colt that will stand up under a 126-pound impost over the Derby route. Eddie Arcaro probably made his move too soon, but he might have become anxious when Hash was unable to run down Calexico and the latter was setting the pace without hindrance. Pimlico, where sport is emphasized above the desire for profit, inaugurates its spring meeting of two weeks Monday with the Baltimore Spring Handicap as the first of a dozen stellar attractions to be offered. .Twenty-nine last horses were weighted by handicapper Chas. J. McLennan for the Continued oh tnirty-thlrd page. , HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. event and from them should come a field that will strike the keynote of the sort of racing to be expected. McLennan was unable to differentiate between the chances of Fighting Fox, Rough Time and Sun Egret, assigning each 122 pounds as the top weight. Two of the trio may accept in the six furlongs event as well as a good many of the others as Pimlicos sprint features seldom fail to draw large fields and more often than not they are productive of very closa contests. The first half of the Pimlico meeting will not compare with the latter but it will serve to build up interest for the second week, which will be one of the most important of the entire season of American racing. It will have the Pimlico Oaks as its best feature and that event for three-year-old fillies has been returned to its true importance, but during the final half of the meeting the Dixie Handicap and Preakness are to be offered as well as four stakes of lesser value but of importance enough to attract visitors for the entire week. The Dixie now doesnt appear likely to lure Kayak II. from the West Coast, but a fine field headed by Bull Lea is promised and the . Preakness is exciting a record amount of interest because so many of its outstanding candidates are passing up the Kentucky Derby and the three-year-old situation wont be so clearly defined as it usually is by that time.
