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R E Ft EC T I O N S NELSON DUNST AN CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky April 30 The strangest Derby renewal in many years will be run over the historic Churchill Downs course late tomorrow afternoon The smallest field in more than 30 years will go to the post and although you constantly hear the expression Its a twohorse ace and they will be coupled there are actually so many angles to be considered that the throng has been increasing hourly Picture a horse who has not been defeated this season and who by virtue of his victories in the two Experimentals and Wood Memorial eliminated every New York contender but Escadru and then try and find a man in Louisville who will concede that My Request has a good chance of defeating the Calumet pair of thoroughbreds and you will get what we mean by angles Try to find a man who will say My Request will run second splitting Citation and Coal town or vice versa and the search is likely to be a long one This may have happened before but Derby history does not reveal it There has been Derby upsets in years gone by but should Citation or Coaltown fail to enter the winners circle tomorrow afternoon it would be the biggest upset since Aristides scored in the first Derby running in 1875 This may be construed as a sad com ¬ mentary on the threeyearold division but the truth is that today the Calumet pair is regarded somewhat as super horses the most abused expression in all the annals of horse racing racingA A A A If Citation and Coaltown were running for different owners tomorrow afternoon it would result in the great ¬ est throng ever to see a horse race in this country Both colts have shown they are exceptional but there is not one item of comparison that solidly establishes either one as superior to the other Coaltown has yet to meet de ¬ feat He won at one and oneeighth miles and established a record in the doing Since then he has had dockers talking to themselves Citation has been beaten twice in his career The Calumet filly Bewitch beat him in the Washington Park Futurity last year and ever since there Kentucky Derby OneTwo Difficult Feat Accomplished Only Three Times Since 1875 Isaac Murphy Almost Missed Triple Win Derby Absentees Waiting at Pimlico Pimlicohas has been a controversy regarding that race Saggy won from Citation in the Chesapeake Trial but the Calumefr colt came right back to score an easy victory in the Chesapeake Stakes with Saggy thoroughly beaten The only way that the question of supremacy Between the Calumet colts can be settled is the race itself and which one it will be is one of the interesting angles of the seventyfourth running of the Kentucky Derby As many think they may run onetwo but that is another angle and My Request may have something lo say about it And so too might W L Branns Escadnu who should improve over his Derby Trial effort effortA A A A AWith With all their power Citation and Coaltown will complete a difficult feat should they run onetwo in the Derby Since the race was inaugurated in 1875 you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times this has been accomplished Back in 19 9 Sir Barton who became the first horse in history to win the Triple Crown defeated his stablemate Billy Kelly one of the crack sprinters of the time inthe local classics Col ER Bradley who made a specialty of sending entries into the Derby duplicated the J K LRoss feat in 1921 when his Behave Yourself and Black Servant ran onetwo Five years later in 1926 the Colonel watched Bubbling Over beat his stablemate Bagenbaggage Entries have run second and third in the Derby but they also are rare occurrences the list being confined to Ed Corrigans Huon and Phil Dwyer in 1892 and C R Ellisons iady Navarre and James Reddick in 1906 1906A A A A ADown Down through the years many colorful characters have been a part of the Kentucky Derby The foremost of these of course is Col Matt J Winn who will be watching his seventyfourth running of the event It has often been said that a great sporting event is but the lengthened shadow of a man and in the Derby that man must be Colonel Winn Another intriguing Derby character has been the famous colored rider Isaac Murphy the boy who first rode three Derby winners a feat that has been equaled only by Earl Sande and Eddie Afcaro Murphy came close to missing this honor for it is known that he strenuously objected to riding Buchanan who was the winner of the Derby in 1884 According to history Buchanan was the wildest horse that ever went to the post at Churchill Downs Murphy had ridden him vat Nashville and strenuously objected to riding him in the Derby He finally agreed to take the mount when he was told that unless he rode Buchanan he would not have a mount in the classic It is now history that he won with the horse and then became the first rider to score with three Derby mounts when he later won with Riley in 1890 and Kingman the following Two weeks from tomorrow the Preaknesswill be run at Pimlico and like many others we are wondering what effect the Derby will have on the second leg of the Triple Crown We doubt within our recollection that there has been a year when so many threeyearolds who passed up the Churchill Downs race will be awaiting the Derby victor at the Baltimore course Two that seem certain are Mount Marcy and Salmagundi who ran second and fourth in the Wood Memorial last weekend After a surprisingly good race in last Saturdays Trenton Handicap at Garden State Park Macbeth was declared out of the Derby and a statement was issued that he will start in the 50000 Jersey Stakes at the Camden track on May 29 It would not surprise us however if Kilroy and Gasparilla were in the Preakness lineup Still an ¬ other who may go in the Preakness is Bovard winner of the Louisiana Derby and also second to Citation in the Chesapeake Should these four horses oppose the Derby victor it will add considerable interest to the Preakness Without them the field for the Maryland race is likely to be a small one And then how many of the Derby and Preakness starters will come through to compete in the one and onehalf miles Belmont Stakes
