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|||j. *JW : JUDGES STAND by charles hatton LEXINGTON, Ky., May 16.— The English consider it very poor form even to shout during the races, and the worst taste to use superlatives about anything, but we think that we have finally caught our conservative cousins being a little bit enthusiastic. Indeed they are making quite a fuss over their Epsom Derby. This is Tudor Minstrel, and to be perfectly calm about it, he is lengtlis the best English colt right on the record. There is a small minority who have a dim suspicion that he may fail to stay, for some of his family have been faster than they were long winded, but this is not a popular theory. In any case we should think that he will intrigue Jimmy Butler if he can win the Derby, although we sant guess if Dewar might be tempted to fly him over for the International Cup. It may interest you that Tudor Minstrels fourth dam was Americus Girl, the ancestress of Mah-moud and the "flying filly," Mumtaz Mahal. Theres not much doubt that if he runs out of gas in the Derby it will be all our fault for having bred the sire of Americus Girl. Uncle Henry McDaniel trained her sire, Americus, you know, and he has told us that he considers him to have been the fastest horse he has handled. Perhaps trainer Darlings description of Tudor Minstrel will give you a vague idea of the complimentary sort of things one hears of him. Darling calls the Derby favorite "A charming colt in every way, of lovely disposition and a trainers dream of an ideal horse. He has a certain amount of knee action which makes me hope he will stay. This action usually does." AAA Tudor Minstrels pedigree is a study in the concentration of class, and the few who fancy he may be beaten in the Derby, think that a colt out of the St. Minstrel Excites Even Englishmen U. S. Taint in Derby Choices Blood Britons Sticklers for Class in Dam First Flight Approaches Cross-Roads Leger winner, Sun Chariot, will be the cause of this national calamity. "The Minstrel" is by the Derby winner, Owen Tudor, out of Sansonnet, who was the champion two-year-old filly of her year. Owen Tudor is by Hyperion out of a champion two-year-old filly. Sansonnet is by the Derby winner, Sansovino, out of Lady Juror, another first -rate race mare. Possibly the most familiar mare in his pedigree is Gondolette, an extraordinary producer of the type of Ormonda. AAA Whatever one may think of the class of English horses as compared to our own, it might as well be confessed at once that the average English breeder is far more fastidious about "class in the dam" than is the average American breeder. It is really unusual to find an American horse with as many as three generations of stakes-winning mares in his family, but four or five are not so rare abroad. The sequence of Nellie Morse, Nellie Flag and Mar-Kell at Calumet; Friars Carse, Speed Boat and War Kilt at Faraway, and of Alcibiades, Sala-minia and Athenia at Beaumont, mark the beginning of strong families from the purist point of view. You may recall that the three horses who were such thrilling noses apart in our Kentucky Derby are all out of stakes-winning mares. On Trust is out of a gift mare, but the odds against breeding a good horse from this sort are roughly equivalent to the odds against winning the Irish Sweepstakes, and they rarely breed on. There is a notion that Equipoise blood is carrying on so well because of the strength of his female line, with stakes-winning mares in New York, France and England in the first three removes. We wouldnt like you to think that we fancy the breeding of thoroughbreds as a thing which may be reduced to an exact science. It is nonsense to suppose that is at all possible. But we feel sure that one may reduce the probabilities of failure. AAA First Flight is approaching a cross-roads in her career. This is the 0,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on Tuesday at Belmont Park. It is expected that she will be a starter, although trainer Veitch estimated two weeks ago that she might be a bit short. "I know that she can run fast," he said, adding, "We have been giving her long gallops and hope to have her ready." At the end of the 1946 season, it was said that it seemed unlikely, on the face of it, that a filly of such brilliant speed would also stay. But her disposition and effortless daisy-cutting action are in her favor. We may at least say that if it turns out that First Flight will go on, then ihe filly races are going to be enlivened a great deal. She is in none of the early closing stakes for both sexes except the Belmont. AAA Turfiana: The Italian sire, Sirte, a son of Ortello, is to be flown to Kentucky, perhaps with the Ellsworth horses, if the official red tape permits. . . . Brownell Combs plans an experiment in inbreeding to Myrtlewood in some future season at Bel Air. . . . Mrs. Grahams mare, Jeanne Poise, has foaled a War Admiral filly. . . . The reports of bids rejected for Alibhai now have attained such hysterical proportions as 00,000. . . . There is a brother to Honeymoon in the Mayer collection of yearlings, which may be offered in California this summer.
