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Lucky Codine Has Hard Task Today Sophomore Faces Older Foes In Jim Branch, Eagfe River, Six Others at Sportsmans By J. R. BATTY SPORTSMANS PARK, Cicero, HI., May 5.— The Sportsmans Park Handicap is the main offering among nine races posted for decision on the week-end card here. Lucky Codine, a stout-hearted sophomore owned by John Wolf, of Baton Rouge, La., will once again be asked to compete with older horses in this "seven-furlong test which has a prize of ,500 attached. His stoutest contenders in the Sportsmans Park promise to be Jim Branch, Eagle River and Don Coventry, who finished in the order listed in back of him here on opening day in the Inaugural Handicap at the same distance which is presented in tomorrows encounter. Named besides those mentioned above in the headliner, scheduled as the seventh race, are John M. Hutchins Rewarder, 110; Valley View Farms Little Bobbles, 111; Marion H. VanBergs Over Night, 109; James N. Nugents Thank You Sir, 109, and Richavoo, 110, who will perform under the blue and white silks of owner William Hal Bishop as an entry with Don Coventry. Six-Pound Weight Spread It is interesting to note that a spread of only six pounds separates the highest and lightest weighted entrants in the dash, according to the assignments determined by racing secretary and handicapper Robert P. McAuliffe. Lucky Codine, a three-year-old gelded son of Portcodihe — Lucky Lil, tallied here in the opening day handicap by heading Jim Branch, who is scheduled to tote 113 pounds and belongs to A. P. Hensley, to the wire by two and a half lengths. This pair met again last Saturday at a mile and one-sixteenth and Jim Branch took the verdict, denying Lucky Codine of a purse by a nose margin., The latter, who has gradually risen from campaigning in the lower claiming brackets to a handicap performer under the skillful training of George Nugent, was second the only time he was tried in a stakes Continued on Page Nineteen Field of Fifteen Named For Seventy-Sixth Derby Westerner Your Host to Engage Easterner Hill Prince Today Continued from Page One known. Doug Dodson won the Blue Grass on him, and has learned to get him around turns without climbing, but he is said to have contracted a species of cold virus. If he hasnt recovered it was indicated Steve Brooks would have the mount. There is an air of confidence about Your Hosts camp and in the ranks of his many rooters here from the West Coast for this Derby, and it certainly wasnt shaken when he drew the number one post, position. Jockey Johnny Longden feels it is simply a question if the Alibhai colt can get a mile and a quarter. He fits front-runners perfectly and knows the colt with the crooked, neck cannot be restrained so much as the average horse, so it seems likely Your Host will be on the Bill Daly, for a while at least. The only time Kentuckians have seen him, the Californian broke all the track marks they had up to seven furlongs in the "Little Derby" back at Keeneland. Mr. Troubles trainer, S. E. Veitch, considers that "Hill Prince is the solid horse." The stalwart Virginian will have the services of Eddie Arcaro, who hopes to better his own record of four Derby winners. Hill Prince breezed a mile in the slop faster than the Derby Trial was run the same afternoon and he is a very resolute finisher. Just as Your Hosts backers are betting he outruns these horses a full mile and a quarter, Hill Princes supporters are betting that Arcaro can find running room for him when they roar into the .last turn. He couldnt in Experimental No. 2, but in the Wood Memorial they swung off the rail at the hot corner and that simplified things for him. Mr. Trouble has been improving with each work and raced all spring. Whereas he began his Derby prep as a rather phlegmatic colt, he now is very animate and playful, and has generated an unexpected amount of early lick. Few doubt he could have gone to the front in the first quarter of the Blue Grass Stakes. "I have never trained a horse that came up to a particular engagement better than this one," his conditioner has said. "And I dont mind about track conditions, I think we have a fighting chance." The King Ranch has a hard-hitting team in this Derby in Middleground, top of the 1949 Experimental Free Handicap, and the stout maiden On the Mark, who was head and head with Oil Capitol and Mr. Trouble when he was pinched back in the Blue Grass. Trainer Hirsch is quoted as saying "I learned nothing from the Derby Trial." Middleground was trying Black George gamely all the way though he couldnt get hold of the track when he was set down for the drive. He is a versatile performer in the sense Boland can break him off and take a strategic position early, then have some horse left for .the crucial test. Oil Capitol is another of the Derby field, who can maneuver like a high powered car. He ran about as well as Mr. Trouble in the Blue Grass Stakes, on the basis of beaten lengths and the weight differential. Trainer Trotsek had him on the track yesterday for a breezing mile and a furlong in 2:00% as his distance final for the "Run for the Roses." The steel gray son of Mahmoud has come up to the Derby a thoroughly seasoned campaigner after his Floridian foray, during the course of which he won the Flamingo. And he will have a familiar rider in Ken Church. The Brookm.eade entry of Sunglow and Greek Ship "got the job done" in the Louisville Derby and Chesapeake, then were third "and fourth against somewhat sharper competition in the Derby Trial here. Greek Ship is the nimbler of the pair but Sunglow impresses as the better mile and a quarter horse. If Hallieboy, Hawley, Black George, Trumpet King, Dooly or Stranded wins this Derby it will mark a distinct upset. It is a fairly open betting race among the contenders, and with a record number of visitors of the Derby, it may be that the play on the classic will exceed the ,253,-042 record in 1947. The largest handle for Derby day was ,636,403 the same year.
