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V ? s Hk t $ a r JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton An Inventory of Riding Talent Woolf, Arcaro Most Proficient KTBA Seeks to Improve Breed 5,000,000 for W. R. Predicted LOUISVILLE. Ky.. April 20. We have been observing the riders here at Churchill Downs this spring. One cannot help noticing them for the racing rules c e a a e c t t j 1 t i 1 perversely insisted every horse must have jockey. The convergence here of those accomplished "Knights of the Pigskin", apprentice William Bailey and journeyman jockey John Adams, gives the local colony a certain tone and stirs our curiosity. Bailey is the leading American rider £ j ; j J I J I j j j j 1 J ; j I , j ! | j I j | j ■ i i I I j j i ! ; . j i ! ! I I j i ! j I at the moment and Adams enjoys the singular distinction of being the only member of his precarious craft ever to head the list three years. Master Bailey turns out to be a rather leggy, lank kid who shows a lot of hustle on his mounts and does not discourage easily. He finishes more strongly than does Permane, for instance. But no "bug rider" compares with Harry Pratt in this department. That abrupt Tropical stretch was a boon to Permane. Adams of course, is Adams. Which is to say he still has an unorthodox seat, bobbing about with no visible purchase, a la Conn Mc-| Creary. And he still boots quite a lot of winners, nevertheless. It would be indeed interesting were Adams to ride a season in New York and Maryland, instead of Detroit. His mid-western bailiwick affords him somewhat the same advantage an A" horse enjoys in "C" competition. Adams has Hirsch Jacobs business acumen. Just as if anybody cared, we regard George Woolf and Eddie Arcaro M the most skillful contemporary jockeys. The Greentree Stables "best horse" will be here shortly, to pilot Stir Up in his quest of the Blue Grass and Derby. Arcaro has a distinctly voodoo personality that used to get him into hot water constantly. But his ride on Four Freedoms in The Widener, in which he finished sans stirrup, was reminiscent of Linus "Pony" McAfee. None of their rivals can finesse with quite such subtlety as Woolf and Arcaro, The Kentucky Thoroughbred Breeders" Association, a "Bear Grass" counterpart of the Blue Grass Thoroughbred Club, will meet in the Brown Hotel here on Tuesday of Derby week. It may amaze you to learn there are some 50 members, all of them breeding thoroughbreds in the Louisville area. The KTBA, as it is known to its friends, was founded by the late Sam Stone In a sense, it is a war-time exigency; so few local breeders could attend the Thor-, oughbred Club gatherings at Lexington under the present stifled transportation facilities. Its purpose is to faster the production of more and better bloodstock in Jefferson and Oldham counties. Kentucky, and in Southern Indiana. J. Graham Brown is the KTBA prexy, Scoggan Jones its vice-president and Wathen Knebel-kamp, secretary. Jame6 C. Stone, former president of the Thoroughbred Club, and. who is among the most fluent and provocative of extemporaneous speakers, addressed the KTBA in its latest meeting. Infinitely the most pretentious, successful stud farm in the environs of Derbytown was George Longs Bashford Manor, where the Kentucky Derby winners, Azra, Sir Huon and Manuel were bred and reared. Not to mention Free Lance. Jack Campbells old favorite. Until the dawn of the new era of "artificial insemenation," making the blood of the most fashionable sires available to all breeders, we are afraid Lexington will be preeminent among Kentuckys thoroughbred production centers. There are a number of sire* of negligible achievement, but a good deal of "promise" available to local breeders. The major season" of 1944 on the American turf is just beginning, but the industry already this year has raised more than 00,000 for War Relief. Oaklawn, Hialeah, Tropical, Narragansett. Bay Mead- ows, Middleburg and Columbia all have contributed. Keeneland and Churchill Downs donate their entire six programs next week. The four Maryland associa- tions may make an outright gift from pro- ceeds of the combined spring meet now in progress at Pimlico and plan an extrava- gant program of assistance in the fall. The Free States track, incidentally, got a break in the "1 per cent affair." Each New York club will this year designate two programs for the TCAs War Relief Fund, instead of one day apiece, as in 43, as well as under -i writing the nine-day Victory meet in the fall. Chicago associations will combine to give the net proceeds from a weeks racing in mid-summer, at the height of the season, some of them also making individual contributions. Lincoln Plaut predicts the 44 yield will swell the sum to 5,000,000.
