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» 1 Here and There on the Turf Flood Hits Johnstown Again Couldnt Draw Out in Preakness Challedon Thoroughly at Home Gilded Knights Effort Good *• • ... A In the Derby and his other efforts this spring-, Johnstown went to the front in the early stages while under strong restraint from Jimmy Sout. It was another story in the Preakness. Stout had to push a bit on the Woodward colorbearer to place him in a clear lead during the opening quarter mile. He then took hold of Johnstown, but the colt did not pull away and Gilded Knight was at his heels as the field went into the back stretch, while Challedon was another three lengths back or just about half the distance he was at the same point in the Derby. As the field was leaving the back stretch, Gilded Knight began his move and Stout put his mount to a mild drive, but it was to no avail as the Wheatley colt continued to gain gradually while given his head. Challedon came up rapidly. Entering the final quarter Stout called on Johnstown for everything he had, but there wasnt anything left and Gilded Knight took the lead only to give way a few seconds later to Challedon. Johnstown tired steadily through the stretch and the finish found him ten lengths back of the winner, a very tired colt. He would not have weakened like that if the going had not been distasteful to him and he would have gained a better early lead easier. On the other hand, Challedon demonstrated once again that he was a first class soft track performer, as he raced closer than usual to the early pace and went to the leaders readily when given his head. A good colt I on a fast track, the son of Challenger II. and Laura Gal moves up many notches in mud as can be readily seen by his Preakness effort in which, under 126 pounds, he traversed the mile and three-sixteenths in the very creditable time of 1:59%, just a second and three-fifths off High Strungs record for the event. Whether Gilded Knight can beat Challedon over a fast track is something to be decided. He already did that in the Chesapeake, but William L. Branns home-bred, perhaps the best horse to come out of Maryland in many years, was in need of that race, it being his first of the season. Gilded Knight is not far from being as capable a mudder as Challedon, losing to him in the Preakness by only slightly more than a length. Apparently no mistakes were made with him by Ruperto Donoso, the up-and-coming lad from South j America who rode him, as he was under fine restraint while dogging Johnstowns footsteps and did not have to be sharply roused when going after the lead, only when Challedon challenged. Volitant showed well with his late bid, while Impound went as well if not better than his connections had expected, as Leo Fallon kept him together. Ciencia just isnt quite at herself at the present time. History repeated itself at Pimlico Satur-, day in the forty-ninth running of the Preak- ness when Johnstown showed a marked distaste for water, but he is a more famous horse as a result of it. The town in Pennsylvania for which he was named got its fame Continued on twenty-ninth page. HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. by being overrun with water— ever hear of the Johnstown flood? And upon that lamentable occasion, it was a calamity when rain fell on Pimlico for the Preakness because the track became muddy and this Johnstown we had begun to regard as something of a super horse, is not that at all The vast superiority he was able to exert in the Kentucky Derby, Wood Memorial and his other starts this season, bogged down in the loose damp topsoil of the Pimlico course Saturday, thereby enabling Challedon to bag the richest three-year-old plum of the season. Johnstown showed early in the Preakness that he was not the same keen runner in mud as on a dry track and when the event was three-quarters completed the fact was very evident that William Woodwards star was at a complete disadvantage in the going. The son of Jamestown and La France, whose half-sister Jacola would have welcomed the unexpected change in the Pimlico track condition, never had been tried in mud before, but trainer James Fitzsimmons had mentioned before the Derby that he believed the wet -stuff would be against his charge. Now he knows hes right and the racing world agrees with him, so it will not be surprising if he never runs again unless dust is on the ground. His inability to mud prevents Johnstown from developing into the entirely great horse he had so brilliantly promised.
