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BETWEEN RAGES By OSCAR OTIS CHURCHILL DOWNS LOUISVILLE Ky May 1 Roscoe Goose the unofficial greeter and good will man for the thoroughbred in ¬ dustry in the Blue Grass is of the opinion that the growing importance of winter racing coupled with the fact that more and more of our good threeyearolds are engaging in said winter racing has tended to perhaps cut the fields in our early three yearold classics to wit the Derby Preakness and Bel ¬ mont Time was opined Goose when winter racing was either nonexistent or of such little consequence as to prove nothing The twoyearolds would establish their form then oe turned out for the winter and brought back as fresh horses in the spring As is well known many changes of form would be evident during that winter Horses which did not show too well at two often would blossom out into firstclass horses at three Other two yearolds of merit during their year would fail to live up to the reputations they established when the sterner races came along in the spring But recently the great number of winter races for threeyearolds most notably at San ¬ ta Anita and in Florida has served to classify the three yearold division far earlier than in the years gone by Hence when standout horses come along the fields natu rally tend to dwindle to below their former standards standardsA A A To our mind there is much wisdom in the Goose thinking The normal trend in American racing is for horses to truly classify themselves in either their late threeyearold form or by latest in their early fouryear old form A threeyearold most often reaches the hands of the andicapper in late summer or early fall Even some iriajor tracks in the summer find it necessary to offer their threeyearold classics as allowance races rather than under true championship conditions i e scale weight This has been found necessary to get a real contest out of it for at scale one often finds horses Does Winter Racing Affect Derby Fields Roscoe Goose Believes It Shortens Fields B C Turf Club Reverses Taxation Trend Duke McCue Plans Invasion of California Californiawhich which could concede as much as 10 pounds to all others in the field and the other owners simply will not run at scale and we cant say we blame them too much The Derby the Preakness and the Belmont are certain to hold steady at scale and still offer fine contests becausathey are races with a national equine appeal but where one finds horses holding firm to a set circuit scale conditions do not turn out very successfully from either the owners unless one happens to own the best horse or publics point of view Of course the small field in theseventy fourth Kentucky Derby may be an unusual exception But the fact emains that in what might be termed modern times the number of Derby starters has tended towards the small side Of cotirse before the Derby attained its present emi ¬ nence a date which well might be set at 1902 when Col Matt J Vinn and his associates took over the operation of the Downs there were a lot of small fields They con ¬ tinued oh after that year to run from small to medium fields until gradually the American thoroughbred in ¬ terests and public realized that this was the premiere race in all the continent While there were fields from time to time which apparently defied the trend because of special circumstances in the main by 1915 the fields began to bulge and they continued that way until Law rins year 1938 when 10 went postward Then followed fields of eight and 10 then a resurge to wellfilled but not cluttered assemblages While the last four years prior to the current have drawn good fields the favorite has not won one of them and in retrospect all the races were reasonably open with the exception of Assaults Derby and most folks were not quite aware of that fact until after the race Assault incidentally was better than an 81 hazard in the wagering wageringA A A A AIt It is quite refreshing in these days when the news dispatches from most every point brings word of increased taxation or proposed elevations in turf levies to hear that the British Columbia Turf and Country Club has won its point in bringing to the legislators in British Columbia that they cant stay In business foreVer under a tax setup which allowed British Columbia Turf Club to lose 15000 in operations in a couple of years while the government took nearly a million dollars in taxes The legislators after looking into the situation passed a bill which paves the way for a more equitable distribution pi the parimutuel dollar between the government the pub ¬ lic and the race course Upon the passage of the bill the British Columbia Turf Club promptly announced it would run its season as per original schedule at Lansdowne Park The British Columbia Turf Club in an effort to preserve racing went so far as to offer the government it would run at a loss this summer if they were given the mere assurance that an adjustment would be made in 1949 The solution has left everybody happy The govern ¬ ment will continue to receive lush revenue The track can at least break even And American tourist dollars will continue to roll in inA A A A Horses and People Duke McCue who developed Double Jay into a stakes horse is selling his two horses in training at Keeneland Dimitri and Mattara and will pull up stakes for California McCue says he will re ¬ tain ownership of his five broodmares and will transfer them to a California farm later in the season The mares are All Forgiven Makeup Leona G Donnacola and Ginos Alley McCue who hasnt been west since the early days wants to give the West Coast sport try Howard Oots is feeling much better following a recent illness
