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JUDGES STANDI By Charles Hatton Derby Colts Taking Their Final Exams Record Breakers in Downs Baby Races High Per Cent of Post Choices Win Derby Whites Starts All Good in Classic CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville, Ky., May 1. The Derby colts have come up to the final, most important phase of their training for Saturdays classic, and several of the more likeable prospects will be active at the Downs tomor row afternoon. Of especial interest is the appearance of Theory and Middleground in the mile Trial. Calumets extraordinary success in Americas most famous horse race has convinced many turf followers that Ben Jones could almost win it with "Francis the Mule." Theory is perhaps less articulate, but they feel he will not make any more mistakes. The Pensive colt should be thoroughly fit, for he breezed Wednesday, shipped Thursday, blew out Friday and worked Saturday. Theres a notion the Easts Middleground is the only Derby eligible who is capable of chasing Your Host, so that he isnt permitted to breeze on the lead Saturday, and Bob Klebergs colt will have a chance to acquaint himself with the Downs surface in the Trial. Hill Princes work between races Tuesday will be of fully as much academic interest, for the Wood winner continues to be quoted second choice to Your Host. The Californian and C. V. Whitneys improving Mr. Trouble had the last distance trials this morning. Your Host went the Derby route with his weight up in 2:06% and, after Mr. Troubles mile in 1:40, trainer Veitch said the Blue Grass winner : j. "has done everything Ive asked of him." Juliets Nurse and Mais Boy, record-breakers back at Keeneland, are prospects for the Downs two-year-old stakes. The Derby Day crowd may see J. Graham Browns nimble filly in the Debutante Stakes on Saturday, if they look quickly enough, and Mrs. Emil Denemark has Mais Boy in the Bashf ord Manor a week from Saturday. Juliets Nurse dazzled the Hard Boots when she reduced the Head-ley course mark to :45% in the slop, winning; off as if pounds and lengths the best. Then the track dried and the next afternoon, Mais Boy won the Lafayette Stakes by five emphatic lengths in :45;s. As you might guess, this touched off no end of arguments, but it seems unlikely if they will meet, at least not in the forseeable future. There were several behind Mais Boy that had a rough trip, if we say so without suggesting it would have mattered to the Denemark gelding. For instance, Tommy Taylors gray colt, Patch, was carried pretty wide. New Yorkers may see this Californian next, as the former rider who is his owner-breeder-trainer plans shipping him to Long • Island for spring stake engagements. He is taking along Harrie Scotts nice filly, Radiant, who is in a Jamaica feature for her sex. The Downs will open special "tote" windows at an early hour next Saturday a. m. to accommodate those who wish to wager on the Derby. It seems to us that the Derby Day crowds have shown remarkable accuracy in picking the winner in late years. A check of the charts for the past decade reveals that 50 per cent of the post-time choices have won the "Run for the Roses." That is almost 20 per cent better than the national "norm," and it must be remembered that the Derby annually brings together horses from different sections who are meeting for the first time. Also that they have met on only one really fast track in the last six years. The "tote" handle on the Derby reached its peak in 1947, when Jet Pilot won from 12 others, and the favored Phalanx was 2 to 1 in a rather open betting race. The crowd played ,253,042 on the classic that afternoon, and the days handle was ,636,403, which also was a new track record. Play on the Derby hasnt gone off so sharply as that on racing generally, and ,032,582 was wagered on the race last May. It seems pretty sure to exceed ,000,000 Saturday. Starter Ruby White feels the responsibility of starting the Derby pretty heavily at this time each spring, and already he is wondering "How many will start, do you think?" White has been yelling "Come On" to the Derby fields ever since Whirlaways year, as we recall, and before that he was assistant to Bill Hamilton and A. B. Dade. He never has been debited with a bad nor uneven start in the Downs event. Indeed the only start other than "good" in recent runnings was that in 39, when Johnstown ducked * to the inside breaking from Number 5, after which he opened up and won by eight. It is rarely that a really bad actor turns out to be horse enough to start in Derbys, and the only anxiety since White began flipping the gates on them was occasioned when Jett-Jett, who was 99.40 to 1 in the mutuels, jumped through his stall and galloped down past the stand before he could be pulled up. He finished 13th in a field of the same number. The possibility that the starting gate would fail to function properly and leave some Derby entrant was the late Col. Matt Winns bete noire. He would have much preferred to break them with the gates open, but since the horses arent accustomed to it, White does the next best thing and adjusts them so that they will fly open if an entrant so much as sneezes. Turf ana: The TRPB is represented by Spencer Drayton, Ed Coffey, Bob Laughlin, Keith Carter and Chuck Perrin here this week. . .Perrin goes to Centennial Park. Its probable a tatooing crew will be active there, and perhaps the quarter horses ought to be identified in this manner, too...H. P. Headleys noted mare, Alcibiades, recently foaled a nice Rico Monte colt... Joe Kroeck has his stakes-winning filly, Miss Stephanie, whos named for his daughter, breezing for a return to competition. . . Pasadenas Huntington Hotel made up and framed a coat-of-arms for each of the owners among its guests, adapted from their stable colors. . .Keeneland-trained Bon Vivant now is favorite for the Kings Plate, though he is unraced. . .Mrs. C. S. Payson and Bob Kleberg are bringing large parties to the Derby. . .Maj. L. A. Beard tells us that Capot probably will make his first start of the new season in the Toboggan.
