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JUDGES STAND by charles hatton LEXINGTON, Ky., May 8.— Chatting with Ben Jones just before he left the Blue Grass to see "Mayor Jimmy" run Faultless in the Preakness, the Missourian paid Jet Pilot and Tom Smith a nice compliment when he said that "Jet Pilot was the best horse in the Derby, and I think Smith deserves a lot of credit for the way he brought him up to the race. The colt really looked good going to the post. He had a lot of bloom on his coat and every muscle appeared just right." The Calumet trainer is not at all despondent about Faultless, however, and he observes that "there isnt a great deal of difference in the best colts off the form so far. Maybe this is one of the seasons they are going to beat one another. You know Whirlaway and Assault ran right away from their fields in the Derby, and that kind usually has it on them as long as they stay sound." Of course, Faultless isnt quite the only prospect Warren Wright has this season, for there is also Fervent, who beat him a thrilling nose in the Walden. But this son of Blenheim II. is not particularly needed just now, and he has been afforded ample time to kill a splint very dead. "He went five furlongs in 1:04 at Louisville the other morning," Jones tells us, "and he is doing well around the barn." It is nice to have two such colts in training, just in case, so to speak. AAA Jones will return to the Downs from Pimlico and he says that the Calumet string is to race at Chicago again this summer. The clever filly, Bewitch, who won the Debutante at the Downs, will make her next start there. Jones is going along slowly with Whirl Blast at the moment, because "he is the only Whirlaway colt we have and he is at a natural disadvantage chasing those quick little horses at five furlongs. That sort of thing might do him more harm than good. After all, the biggest two- Ben Jones Sizes Up the Three-Year-Olds Reserves Bewitch for Chicago Stakes Fervent Training Again in Kentucky Thinks Armed Ideal Match Race Horse year-old races are in the fall." Of the gallant little Armed, the Missourian says that "he has not commenced to breeze as yet, and I think it is very doubtful if he can be up to a race like the Suburban in time." It is permissible to guess that Armed will be fit again for Arlington and Washington races if he can escape any further vicissitudes. AAA We told the Calumet trainer that we should be interested in having his opinion of Armed and Whirlaway and he did not hedge a bit about giving it. "Armed is a smarter horse and he is more versatile, I think," said their developer. "But then, Whirlaway was a better doer and held his form better. He had an enormous appetite, you know. One of the things I like about his colts and fillies is that when you train them and run them they keep on eating." Jones recalled that Armed was, perhaps, the fastest sprinter in the business before he became a handicap champion. "He still can run you almost any kind of race you like," the veteran said, "but he has been coming from behind in most of the long ones of late." Reflecting on this a while, he added that "when Armed is right I wouldnt mind running him against any horse in the world in a series of match races at six furlongs, a mile and a mile and a quarter." There is a thought for Ben Lindheimer, Jim Butler and other enterprising track heads. It used to be complained that Armed was not colorful enough to be very good copy, but we have found him an engaging little horse around the barn. He has an intelligent head and an alert manner, but we regret to say that he will nip visitors when he is fit. They say he is really bitter if he loses his race. We hardly expert to see a horse in better condition than Armed was for the Widener last year. AAA Jones is best known as a trainer, but he remembers that in the old days of Juarez he was at once "an owner, breeder, trainer and sometimes groom." He bred and trained many winners at his ranch near Parnell in Missouri. They were mostly by the stallion, Seth, and a few of them were stakes horses. "Capt. Seth, Elizabeth Seth, Dolly Seth, Delante and Lorena Marcella were pretty good ones we raised out there," Jones said. "Capt. Seth died of pneumonia as a two-year-old, but he had already won 13 races. Elizabeth Seth was a stakes mare and Delante won six straight handicaps one winter at New Orleans. I sold him to Doc Sneed, of Omaha, as a yearling. He was out of a Yankee mare we had that also produced Capt. Seth." It is a far cry from the Seths and Juarez to the Whirlaways and Belmont, but even in those days Jones was known as a trainer who was considerate of his horses. AAA Turfiana: It may be rather awkward if the California mare, Daisy Bane, foals on schedule, as she is reported to have caught with a Feb. 1 service this year. . . . Abe Hewitt will not fail to note that a Pilate, Christmastide by name, won the first Pimlico Breeders Stakes for Mrs. E. duPont Weir. . . . Boojianas two-year-old sister, Ghost Run, takes her name from the late Damon Runyons poem about her sire, Boojum, written after he won the Hopeful, in which he called him "The Ghos* Hoss." . . . Marshall Lilly, who used to work him, says "Boojum could make the sixteenth poles fly past like a picket fence!" . . . Boojiana now has a black colt foal by Mahmoud that is her first born. . . . Jock Whitney may now be encouraged to give Swing and Sway better mares.
