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for JUDGES STAND — ! By Charles Hatton A Little Lady Gets a Big Hand Harriet Sue Derbytowns Hope Reared in Paddock Near Downs Will Be Tested in Blue Grass LOUISVILLE. Ky.. April 21. It seems scarcely plausible that a filly U destined to capture the seventieth Kentucky Derby. None of the soothsayers is brash enough to suggest that one will do so. Nevertheless, the most myopic eye-witness of the Ashland Stakes concedes Hyman Fried-bergs Harriet Sue is a rare runner of the sex. And we have no doubt that if owner-breeder Friedberg has his way and the darkling daughter of Bull Lea for sallies postward in the "Run the Roses." she will elicit a great many sentimental wagers, for she is enormously popular here in Derbytown. Friedberg is a local tobacco merchant and Harriet Sue was foaled and reared at his Huechel Farm, about six miles from Churchill Downs. Thus, Louisville* populace claims her as its very own. Her showy form is a matter of civic pride. Additionally, a filly with the derring-do to oppose the colts generates a degree of crowd appeal." For nature herself has cast the odds against her. It is easy to say, as so many kibitzers are saying, that the discreet thing would be to forget all about starting Harriet Sue for the Derby and concentrate on the Oaks. But it is entirely natural and understandable also that Friedberg. a resident of Louisville, is tempted by the prestige and 5,000 of the Derby. It is not every spring one develops a worthwhile prospect. At any rate, Harriet Sues per-. formance in next Wednesdays 0,000 Blue I Grass Stakes will be the determining factor. Harriet Sue did not poll manr votes as the starlet of the two-year-old fillies last season, but she managed to win eight races, defeated Pukka Gin; ran the swiftest six furlongs of any juvenile in the Chicago area 1:114 and twice bettered Duraznas time for the Breeders* Futurity at Churchill Downs last fall, once in a seven-eighths race. So if Louisvillians are enthusiastic about her, that is explicable enough. "I really think she is the smartest filly I have trained/ Jack Hanover estimates. "She behaves and run* more like a colt. Any old track suits her, and she has outgamed some colt* in close finishes." Large coveys of the curious railbirds flock to Churchill Downs these mornings to watch the Derby aspirants go through their calisthenics. Harriet Sues admirers are invariably disconcerted to find a conspicuous "hands off" sign wired to the screen of her stall. Hanover remarks that it is not so much to keep visitors from pawing the filly as to prevent her from mauling them. And he exhibits a lurid, purple bruise on his left forearm as evidence she is an enthusiastic misanthropist. Most good race mares incline to be ill-natured. Artful, for classic example, broke her grooms arm. Mar-Kell intensely dislikes the entire genus-homo. Jack Hanovers description of Harriet Sue as the best filly he ha* conditioned is no empty accolade. He also trained Mary O., who negotiated a mile in 1:36 at Chicago, when such speed was considered so extreme it occasioned headlines. He claimed Manie OHara for ,500 and won six stakes with her, and he submits that Montsin was "better than an empty stall." Hanover was reared in the environs of Sheepshead Bay and rode for frugal Old Father Bill Daly, who paid him .00 a month and staked him with an ice cream cone when he rode his first winner. Hanover also rode heat races at Staten Island before migrating to "the interior," as Prince Mike Romanoff refers to Kentucky. He never piloted a Derby winner, quite, but was astride the late Dan Lehan* mare Bronzewing when she finished third to Old Rosebud and Hodge in the 1914 edition. Warren Wright finds Harriet, Sues su-I perior order of speed a source of almost i as much gratification as the capacities of 1 his own Twilight Tear. Both are by his | youthful progenitor, Bull Lea. sire also of Durazna. As we recall, Friedberg acquired Harriet Sues dam Bay Servant from his late friend and business associate. Woodford F. Axton. in a transaction involving some negligible sum. Bay Servant is by Black Servant and was a frequent winner. She was the 4irst mare bred to Bull Lea, She now has an upstanding juvenile son, of the Friedberg stallion Bolo by Busy American — Mary Helen » in Hanovet s care, as well as a filly foal by the same sire. Bay Servant this spring was bred back to Bull Lea. Experts say her ancestors were no better than they should have been.
