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! JUDGES STAND By Charles Hatton i Previewing the Derby Previews Bell Buzzer Current Dark Horse Australasias Yearling Vendues Merritt Cases Effect on Racing LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 22. The Derby prelims" now are at hand. Saturdays dual version of Jamaicas Wood Memorial proved revealing and some of the leading aspirants in the ! old West" will be tested Wednesday in the Blue Grass Stakes. Mary-lands candidates are j confronted by a show- j down in the Chesa- ; peake at the end ot the week. Harriet Sue looms formidably as the favorite for the Blue Grass at this ! writing. Director J. E.. i Gay Bit and perhaps Pensive will molest j one another in Pimlico*s feature. Bell Buzzer is not a Blue Grass candidate and j awaits the Derby Trial. Whether you regard the result of the Stony Point as an in- j dictment of the field, or take the hitherto obscure Bell Buzzers emergence as a Derby I name horse with reservations, the fact j remains 1:37?5 was a good run over the Louisville surface. Though he performed for a humiliating ,050 at unpretentious Beulah Park last season. Bell Buzzer progressed sufficiently to command a price of ,000 when he was acquired by Detroiter Dave Ferguson. "I am not sure we will have a Derby starter," Warren Wright said to the writer at Churchill Downs the other day. "That depends a good deal on the Chesapeake. I should not want to run one that hasnt a solid chance of winning." The master of Calumet indicated he would not be adverse to starting Twilight Tear if that filly seemed to be ready to win. And were she to win I would not care if she never ran again," he concluded. By Jimminys status is clouded with vague misgivings as to his feverish ankle. "We should know within the next day or so if he can fill his Derby Trial engagement." Alfred Parker said at breakfast in the clubhouse this morning. This is not the first time Parker has owned a prominent Derby eligible, by the way. The Baltimoreans LeBecau was futures favorite for the Grand Prix in 31, when he was racing a French string. The cosmopolite Parker purchased the Wideners training establishment at Chantilly and it was under lease at the wars outset. He reminisces interestingly on Brantome and the Sir Gallahad III. — Epinard match at St. Cloud, which he flew from Madrid to Pari* to witness. Australasias equivalent of our Spa sales, . | | conducted last month, was "an outstanding - success." to quote our Anzac operative. . The record in Victoria, for an individual I yearling, was 2,750 gns, which stood for • 20 years, and it was surpassed when a son i of Lawmaker — Belle Gallante fetched 3.400 gns Two other Lawmaker colts brought t 1.650 and 1.500 gns. It may interest Arthur r Hancock to know, if he does not already, . that Lawmaker is a three-quarter brother r of Rhodes Scholar. The 3.400 gns realized I for Belle Gallantes colt was a short-lived li record, however, for later in the auctions ? it was exceeded when S. G. Morrow paid 1 3.600 gns for a colt by the sensational 1 young sire Dhoti, a son of Dastur. These ? prices may not seem high at first glance." our correspondent surmises, adding "but t when one considers that Lawmaker and i Dhoti stand at fees of 75 gns and 100 gns, respectively, they compare more favorably f with high-priced yearlings in America." • The dollar basis of the guinea is .40. Leslie Combs II. is another Blue Grass breeder who reports the arrival of a superior foal by George Wideners Eight Thirty. "He is an upstanding colt out of Humming Bird." said the Lexingtonian. adding that Myrtlewood has been bred to Bull Dog and Miss Dogwood recently visited Whirlaway. Warren Wright, incidentally, reports colts outnumber fillies at Calumet thus far. The score is 15 to 12. "We have seven Blenheim II. s, five of them colts and three mares yet to foal to him." the Chicagoan supplies. Charley Kenney. who manages Coldstream, visited the Downs, bringing the tidings Tiger* lovely dam, Starless Moment, ha* produced a sister to that horse. If racing suffers in any way from the ? Merritt case," it is because duly constituted, experienced officials, vested with the authority . j to protect the public weal, now find j j that authority questioned, and in some » j quarters a derisive press. The Merritt [ i case has, however, exposed the universal 1 frailty of officialdom in failing to make i rulings and suggesting instead the undesirable . applicant take his tack elsewhere. We have for years deplored this policy. We wonder if it occurred to The Jockey Club and racing commission they might have avoided all the unpleasantness merely by quoting Merritt s signed application. Jockeys applications bind them to racing officials* jurisdiction. t
