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. M ■Bgk wr Jjr JUDGES STAND By Charles Harton Open Season on Derby Eligibles Cousins Own Choices in Events Turfs War Relief Yield Mounts Last Crop by De Mostest Hoss LOUISVILLE, Ky.. Aprifl5. The Keeneland-at-Churchill meeting has begun auspiciously and the Derby cannot be far behind. Matter of fact, the good burghers of Derbytown discuss little else these days. A year ago. there was a widespread lack of doubt Count Fleet would win. Now the railbirds vacillate, wavering among Pukka Gin, Platter. By Jim-miny, Stir Up. Pensive, Olympic Zenith, Challenge Me and ad infinitum. The writer has done a tidy bit of wavering himself. Readers of these essays have been spared the usual frivolous conjectures about the Derby winner thus far this spring. Not so much out of solicitude as confusion. We simply have not decided who will tap the Downs 5,000 bonanza. The Wood. Chesapeake. Blue Grass and Derby Trial may clarify the situation. Pukka Gin and Platter were "the class" of the candidates last season. Colonel Whitneys colt confounded Andy Schuttingers critics in the Experimental, where he also converted many to the notion he has a date with destiny on May 6. At any rate, difference of opinion not only makes a horse race," but tends to stimulate public interest in them. Despite the best efforts of the government, railroads, hostelries and the track to restrict attendance, more than 60,000 are expected to be present. There are a half million people within a street-car radius of the Downs course. The Derby has come to be Americas most famous turf fixture and its most colorful sports spectacle. It is "a good thing for racing" England and America are so closely allied in so many enterprises at the momen. and it is perhaps only natural that Colonel Whitney owns the Kentucky Derby choice and his English cousin. Dorothy Paget, the Epsom Derby favorite. Orestes. Some of those lush Jamaica and Pimlico purses are cheaply won these spring days, for the obvious reason comparatively few horses who wintered in the North are ready Pimlico has not announced, incidentally, i how it proposes to contribute to the TCAs War Relief Fund, but it undoubtedly will. Curiously enough, unpretentious Oaklawn Park raised some 0,-000 in three days. Tropicals was 8,000. The combined Keeneland-Churchill War • Relief meet of six programs begins April 24. It goes almost without saying the ; 1 American Red Cross will receive a good deal of the net proceeds. | I Harrie B. Scott, bloodstock breeder and tobacco grower, was our genial host at Shandon and Faraway the other afternoon. There he saw some of the last crop of yearlings by Man o War. They number 10. They are a chestnut filly out of Alpi, black filly from Waterford, chestnut filly by Leonissa, chestnut colt by Jubi-lesta, chestnut filly by Friars Carse. chestnut colt by Artifice, bay filly by Brushup, chestnut colt by Al-weista. chestnut colt by Northern Belle, and a chestnut colt out of Harmonessa. All but the Waterford filly are S. D. Riddles property. That lady in black belongs to Walter Jeffords. Interesting foals at the Jeffords place are a full brother of Grey Wing; a chestnut son of War Admiral — Guiding Star half sister to Mars and Escoba, and another chestnut by The Admiral from Mateys dam, Tavy. Scott himself has one of the choicest yearling colts in the Blue Grass, a well-turned individual by Sickle — Fairy Day, by Man o War. "De mostest hoss ever," as Will Harbut describes Man o War, still is Lexingtons greatest attraction. His improvement since retiring from stud duty last year is extraordinary. He now weighs 1,375, which is prodigious even for a 16 1 % -hand stallion, and still can roll from side to side with an agility uncommon in young horses. Rather than being merely pretty, Big Red combines sculptural quality with heroic proportions. His daughters are regarded as "pearls beyond price," and there are more than 50 of them in Scotts circumspect care. "I select mares for their type as much, as anything else," Scott said, as we scaled a paddock fence to inspect Speed Boat. Level Best and Anchors Ahead. "These Man o War mares have the conformation I like. They have r.ize and refinement, short canons, Short stifles and second thighs. Man o War put a lot of stifle on his get. I have been feeding my own mares yellow corn on the cob. That helps give them the sheen on their coats. Some breeders wont feed it because they imagine it tends to make mares slip their foals." Owner-breeder Riddle will make foals." Owner-breeder Riddle will make his annual spring inspection at Faraway.
