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BandjSfe., JUDGES STAND by charles hatton LEXINGTON, Ky., May 19.— Filly races are deeply important to breeders and one of the classic events for this sex is the Coaching Club Oaks. It is really more of a hike of a mile and three furlongs than a race, and it isnt always to the swift. For instance, we can remember how shocked everyone was to see the plodding Dark Discovery stagger the brilliant filly, Level Best, in a drive over the last furlong of the Oaks a few years ago. The daughter of Equipoise only won on her nerve. Max Hirsch saddled Dark Discovery, and he is running a different sort of filly in this Oaks. She is Bob Klebergs young mare, But Why Not, who was clever enough to win the Acorn and Pimlico Oaks "from end to end," and who is said to have tried more highly than Blue Border did when they were broken at Idle Hour. But Why Not looks to be one of those big, soft kind of Blue Larkspurs, but if she keeps winning we shall have to think this is deceptive in her case. Of course, the appearance of First Flight would have been the fascination of this Oaks for most turfgoers had it been decided to start her. The notion here is that trainer Veitch would prefer to run a couple of weeks from now. AAA It may interest you that Veitch tells us there is a distinct possibility that First Flight will be a starter in the Belmont Stakes, and he feels the date of this event will afford her time to be ready. The idea of a Mahmoud going a route will seem fantastic to at least one breeder, who might have imported the gray sire, and still is unconvinced he made a mistake. Veitch concurs in Ben Jones opinion that the three-year-old colts are of a sort that will beat one another. He says that Phalanx came Coaching Club Oaks Important to Breeders First Flight Is Possibility for Belmont Candidate for Many Filly Races at Chicago Virginians May Keep Some Pilate Fillies out of the Preakness in good fettle, and it is planned to run him in the Belmont. Phalanx has extremely rough action and could not run down Faultless on the cuppy Pimlico strip. He had beaten Faultless in going the Wright colt does not fancy at the Downs. Not to be flip about it, but the Virginians stride looks a little bit like the Australian crawl stroke. Curiously enough, it has not seemed to tire him at all, but some other colts may find it pretty tiresome at a route. AAA First Flight will be nominated for the lush filly-and-mare stakes at Arlington and Washington. It is planned to ship her to Chicagos fashionable North Side ceurse in the summer, if she trains on. When he was down here not long ago, Veitch made it a point to see the colt foal by War Admiral, out of the dam of First Flight. He is no such specimen as his half-sister, but he has an admirable amount of spirit. War Admiral has not sired Mahmoud s average of winners, but he occasionally gets a rare combination of speed and stamina. Most of the members of First Flights family are smart and game, and one can get them to do more by negotiation than by force. It was this characteristic which made Veitch like Fly Swatter, even before Flyweight came along. She had been dismissed as a most disagreeable filly about the training barn. As the story goes, First Flight showed a little of this trait the first time she schooled in the gate at Belmont Park. An assistant tried to haul her into the gate and she resented it and reared over backward, but when he stood by and the boy dropped her head, she walked in as quietly as you please. AAA Pilates many Virginia owners are pleased that he has sired the most winners of the most races so far this season. He is a male line, Rock Sand, you know, and usually he sires a wear-and-tear type of horse. An indefatigable pedigree expert tells us that he has a cross-index of the class of the mares bred to Pilate, and that the class of their foals by him is really much higher. He did not look quite all of his 19 years when we saw him recently at Walter Chryslers place, and he should help to "improve the breed" in the Old Dominion, if all of his fillies are not sold. There is a growing interest in bloodstock in the state. Paul Mellon, Prince Djordjadze, Howell Jackson, Sandy Baldwin, Melville Church and Sandy MacLeod are developing new stud farms there. None of them is buying up mares indiscriminately, and most of them will breed horses to race themselves. They are choosy about the quality of the mares. Mellon bought Flying Fortress for 6,000, largely because of her bloodlines, and we know people who think she has potentialities in racing. AAA Tur iiana: The Glen Tomlinsons have gone to the West Coast to see their daughter, "Babs," graduate from school. . . . North Wales lease on Head Play expires this year. We are not prepared to say if it may be renewed. ... It must be encouraging to those who have bred to Equipoises most successful sons, such as Attention and Shut Out, that such of his sons as Equator, Equestrian, and Swing and Sway, have sired stakes winners. . . . Herbert Woolf paid 00 for the sire and ,000 for the dam of Lawrin, Unerring and Inscolassie John Hertz is here to inspect the latest Count Fleets.
