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FAVORITE THOROUGHBREDS By Salvator j c j ■ * 2 t n ] J • t j £ g t j t J i . j ] £ i t t j I J I J 1 8s i 1 J J J . i « , I 1 , ] j ] ] i , . J I * ■ Some little time ago, Secretary Alex M.4 Robb, of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations - of the United States, Inc., circularized 50 sportswriters in 29 different ■ states to select from a list of 50 famous 3 thoroughbreds that he had compiled, the J 20, which, in their estimation, were "news" today. There being a tie in the voting, the final 1 outcome was a list of 22 different horses. . These Mr. Robb has made the subject of a i handsomely printed brochure which contains - the photograph, tabulated pedigree i and table of performances of each, to-I - gether with a succinct biography of each, the last-named feature being provided by Nelson Dunstan, of Daily Racing Form, who, within his space, has contrived to pack a maximum of information and criti- - cal estimate combined. The whole makes s an extremely attractive pamphlet, some-1 - thing new in its way, and it carries the » title: "22 Favorite Thoroughbreds." We can think of only one feature that I is noticeably missing. That would have . been the original list of 50 horses that Mr. . Robb submitted to his corps of experts; plus the manner in which the poll was taken — that it, which experts voted for r which horses and the respective standings s which the latter were accorded. As it is, we B have no clue to this very interesting and j important fact. The 22 horses are marshaled . in aphabetical order, with nothing , to indicate which ones were — or are — rated as the "newsiest." Who Were the Others? Mr. Robb — who knows his way around 1 without anything much but a flashlight — had, it appears, 28 discards left on his s hands out of his basic list of 50 steeds. ■ " . These, the experts decided, were not newsy enough — at least right now — to justify inclusion. And as a contemporary sports-writer certainly ought to know a horse that is "news" from those of other colors, their r opinions should, it would appear, be final. Nevertheless — to the innocent bystander, some of the inclusions are difficult to account for. The I. B., for instance, can not but stare e when such a horse as Twenty Grand is s declared to be so much in the news that 28 8 others Mr. Robb had supposed might well 1 be, are left at the post. It is now 13 years s since Twenty Grand was the "Horse of the e Year." He was a failure thereafter; he e proved impotent when put to the stud, and, I. as far as "news" is concerned, how does s he figure in 1944?. ... It seems quite mystifying. - ... He was a superb race horse. :. But "news" — ??? Regret is another in a similar category. . It will be just 30 years next season since e she made herself "news" by winning the Kentucky Derby. She was the only filly, r, then, that ever did so, and she still is. A K high honor. But does "news" retain its s bouquet for 30 years. If so, the makers of f - ■ 3 J 1 . i - i - - s - » I . . r s B j . , 1 s ■ " . r e is s 8 1 s e e I. s - :. . e r, A K s f .♦champagne ought to obtain the recipe for uncorked consumers. It is 10 years since Cavalcade was the "Horse of the Year." His subsequent career was a sad anti-climax, and as a sire, he has been a sad disappointment. None of his get has made history and he has himself now been dead since 1941. How this qualifies him as one of the 22 newsiest thorough- breds in the world at this writing is as difficult to understand as the theory of Relativity; which, it is said, not even its author, the ilustrious Einstein, can himself intelligibly explain. Phar Lap Among Absentees Phar Lap! Phar Lap? Yes — he is one of the 22 newsiest race horses in the world as of April, 1944. His stuffed skin is on exhibition in a museum at Melbourne, Australia. After thrilling exploits in his native land, he invaded America. He won the 0,000 handicap at Agua Caliente in 1932, shortly after which he expired under sensational circumstances. It was the general supposition that, ever since those days, he had classified Among the Folks in His-I tory. But not so! Right now he is one of the newsiest racers — we had almost said in training. Are they going to put a motor in his mummy and start him "back" for the Suburban and the Brooklyn now that they have been raised into the 0,000 class? These and other things are too perplex-j ing for the ordinary mind. They are among the arcana of racing and one can only read, marvel — and, alas, not "inwardly digest." They being indigestible. Illustrations Well Chosen There are some pictures in this bro- chure which are very appealing and assure its being prized. That of Whirlaway is the best we have ever seen — a gem of the first water. The one that Mr. Robb chose of Man o War is that made several years ago by Bert Clark Thayer and shows his ma-I jestic presence in his latter life most admirably. Peanuts, his beloved pony, occu-• pies the foreground in the plate of Exterminator. The photo of Equipoise, while familiar, is one of his best and shows the perfect balance of his conformation, the light way in which he stood upon his feet an dthe peculiar jagged blaze in his face. Discovery, as a stud sultan, looks every inch the marvelous weight-carrier that he was. The photo of Count Fleet is dated as of Fall, 1943," and "at Belmont Park," but to the eye it looks more as he did at the same period of his two-year-old form in 1942. And this suggests a somewhat puzzling thought. Not one of the two-year-old stars of 1943, right now the most interesting "news" imaginable, in view of the un-e precedented money-winnings possible to them this season in the three-year-old "classics," appears in the array, Arent they "newsy?" Of what? That is, to the experts?
