view raw text
JUDGES STAND by charles hatton CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville. Ky., May 2. — Plain Ben Jones is a realistic fellow, and when the Kentucky season opened three weeks ago, he told us, "I hardly think Calumet has a Derby horse this spring. They Fanfare or Replete would have to come up awfully fast." The local turf season season hadnt hadnt progressed progressed very very far far be- season season hadnt hadnt progressed progressed very very far far be- before it became perfectly obvious that any horse having the usual number of legs, and teeth like a three-year-old, is a Derby prospect. This circumstance, coupled with the fact Fanfare trained well, "practically forced" the Missourian to run him in the Trial, and you know the rest. Some have been unkind enough to suggest Jones was just being clever, but he wasnt anything of the sort. For Fanfare didnt run at two and came here just a nice allowance horse with abundant room in which to improve. Possibly he will go right on improving, as his sire, Pensive, and another of Pensives sons, Ponder, did a few years ago. If it matters, and it may in a large field, Fanfare now has more early speed than Ponder. Incidentally, the King Ranchs colt, Sonic, and C. V. Whitneys Mameluke and Counterpoint, are other Derby prospects who have raced a very few times. The position here is that it would be premature to dismiss them as horses of inferior class on such fragmentary evidence. Any of them might have a future. Returning to Fanfare he will be the first to represent that gracious lady, Mrs. Warren Wright, in the "Run for the Roses," who is enjoying a share of beginners luck. He is a very well-bred colt, as he is from the mare Easy Lass, dam also of Coaltown and Wistful, each of them by a different sire. AAA The Kentucky Oaks on Friday will attract its largest field in years, and it may show 1951s champion three-year-old filly with Carolina Queen, How, Aunt Jinny, Tilly Rose, Juliets Nurse, Sickles Image, Ruddy and Greek Pass among the probables. A thing that defeats form students is the complete lack of any indication what to expect when some of these attempt to go a mile and Calumet Adds Some Fanfare to 77th Derby Ky. Oaks May Show Champion Filly of 51 Repetoires Aunt Set IVi-Mile Mark Tax Proposal Threatens Stables, Studs a sixteenth. Among them the colorful Sickles Image. Her breeding is unfashionable, but she does things in a well-bred manner, without the moral support of ponies, blinkers and so on. The Hartwick filly is said to have been coughing, but won last week-end, and breezed yesterday. Horatio Luro hopes to win the Oaks with Herman Delmans highly rated How, and she may take an entertaining amount of beating, though she lightened up a bit after the Ashland. The leading fillies will go separate ways after the Oaks, some of them to Pimlico for the 0,000 Black Eyed Susan on May 12, others remaining in the Midwest, where they are engaged in Arlington-Washingtons opulent series of filly-and-mare events. AAA Virginians generally and Dr. F. A. OKeefe in particular have a rooting interest in Repetoire here Saturday. OKeefe bred the son of Happy Argo and My Hattie at his Pine Brook Farm in the Old Dominion, and he will offer Saratoga yearling buyers an Alsab filly who is the Wood winners half-sister. Jockey Pete McLean, incidentally, does not share the opinion Repetoire will be on a treadmill the last furlongs of the Derby. In any case he feels sure Repetoire would have beaten Battle Morn in the Wood even if they were going another lap. Repetoire is described as one of the sort who like to run head and head, and tend to loaf racing on the lead. His pedigree is a study in speed on stamina in their most extreme degrees. Happy Argo was a flyer, and My Hattie is a half-sister of Spiteful, who set a two and a half miles track record of 4:254/5 in the Great Western at Washington Park. She also set a Tanforan record for two miles and 70 yards. And My Hatties sire, Mad Hatter, was a distinguished cup horse, though he was not a successful stallion. Mad Hatter was a Fair Play, and Earl Sande once told us the only way he could induce him to try in a race was to convince the horse he was running off with him. AAA The Wall Street Journal recently published a report to the effect the House Ways and Means Committee in Washington is disposed to favor a Treasury Department recommendation which would have an immediate and extremely harmful influence on racing. As you may know, most stables and studs operate as a business, and may deduct losses for tax purposes in four of every five years. The loss allowed for such deduction now is 0,000 annually. As the Journal interprets it, the Treasury Department would reduce the maximum to ,000. You can readily guess how this would effect racing. Particularly those who maintain the largest and most important stables and studs. This would tend to defeat the purpose of the recommendation. For the salaries, feed, yearling prices, shipping expenses, supplies and other costs assumed by those who maintain stables and studs are subject to tax through the recipients. To say nothing of the excise tax to the Federal Treasury from the racing that is promoted by the operators of the more important stables. AAA Turf ana: The Derby film will be projected over Columbia Broadcasting System TV network from Dayton, Ohio, from 8:45 to 9:00 p. m., Central Daylight Time . . The Argentine Chiloe II. is a prospect for Waterford distance events . .The Chester, W. Va., track will be opened to horsemen next Monday . . . Sonics knees kept him on the sidelines much of 1950 . .Gov. Elbert N. Carvel of Delaware says, "I have great confidence that Repetoires fighting heart will bring many honors to our great state." . . .The Mikel colt is a prospect for the 5,000 Kent at Delaware Park on June 23 Norman Charlton will serve in the stewards stand at Waterford Park . . Woodbine is setting the stage for its historic spring meet, opening May 19 and extending through June 4, the final seven days under the auspices of the Greenwood Racing Club . . . The Ohio season opens at Beulah on Derby Day.
