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t - - - ......t Here and There on the Turf Brady Remains Confident Sees Chance for El Chico Precedent Against Champion Derby Route Big Factor *• 4 The jam occurring as the field went into the first turn of the Wood Memorial Stakes may have eliminated El Chico as a contender, but it didnt cause his connections to lose faith in him as a Kentucky Derby candidate. So the undefeated 1938 juvenile champion was shipped from New York to Louisville as was planned some weeks ago and he will go postward in the Churchill Downs classic Saturday if something of a calamitous nature does not happen to him in the meantime. There is a first time for everything and the son of John P. Grier and La Chica suffered his initial defeat when sent to the post for the first time this season. Gilded Knight nosed out the William Ziegler colt in a six-furlong dash, rising from that achievement to a victory in the Chesapeake Stakes. El Chico then had to finish out of the money for the first time and the interference he" encountered is held directly to blame. El Chico wintered well and has done everything asked of him in a training line this spring, Matt Brady, his conditioner reports, yet the record shows he is not the same "soon" colt he was as a juvenile when he swept everything before him, getting away from the post so quickly that he didnt give his opposition any chance to put him in trouble. In his three-year-old debut, El Chico didnt break in a manner satisfactory to Brady, but quickly forged forward to show the way until weakening near the end and dropping a close decision to Gilded Knight. The Wood Memorial again found him unable to sprint to the front right after the start and as a result he was caught in the mix-up at the first turn caused by horses quicker to reach their stride and just as anxious to gain a good position in the early stages. After being all but knocked down, El Chico failed to recover as is only natural and so his Wood Memorial performance can be thrown out. While others have weakened on his Derby chances, trainer Brady believes El Chico is far from being out of the classic. Although respecting the fine form displayed by Johnstown at Jamaica, the Irish horseman can vision a change in scenery as being harmful to the Wood victor and at the same time beneficial to. his, charge. El Chico has been trained with the Derby in view and the races he had at Jamaica were for seasoning purposes in preparation for the Downs classic, although his connections would have preferred that his undefeated record had remained unblemished. The writer is of the opinion El Chico was a precocious two-year-old and now is at the mercy of horses which have developed over the winter, but his stable is confident the John P. Grier colt willj yet come through and the Derby presents as good an opportunity as there is for him to do so. The odds are against El Chico adding the three-year-old title to the championship he Continued on thirty-second page. . HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. won so conclusively last season even though unable to win a race like the Belmont Futurity, simply because he wasnt eligible. He handily defeated practically all of the outstanding contenders for juvenile honors at one time or another in his seven outings and so no argument has been raised that the Zieg-ler colt wasnt the best of the two-year-olds. Few champion juveniles have been able to maintain their superiority the next season against colts which didnt come to themselves until the second year of campaigning and this precedent so far seems to have engulfed El Chico. Hbrses which couldnt warm him up last season, now have more speed and give freely of it, but El Chico had class and if he still has it the 126 pound impost to be shouldered by Derby starters will cause the "Johnny-Come-Lates" to come back to him. . Many times the deciding factor in the Derby has been the ability to stay the mile and one-quarter route. Most horses must be asked to race the distance before any one can be sure they are capable of negotiating it. Johnstown is a strong Derby favorite although he never has run beyond a mile and seventy yards, but he covered that route so. easily and with so much to spare that many observers believe his ability to go a mile and one-quarter is a foregone conclusion. Those who doubt Johnstowns stamina are headed by the connections of other Derby candidates although they may not be so sure of the potentialities of their own charges. The Wood undoubtedly would have been a better Derby test at a mile and an eighth, at the same time minimizing the chances of interference, but the Metropolitan Jockey Club thinks only of presenting a worthwhile feature at that time of the season.
