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; o Peabody Expected to Attract Twelve Postward Tomorrow Sandtop Draws Considerable Respect Off Recent Form; Several Candidates Work HAWTHORNE, Cicero, HI., May 28. Regardless of track conditions which have been mostly on the "off side" during the first half of Lincoln Fields current meeting at Hawthorne, the 5,000 Peabody Memorial stakes on Friday will draw about a dozen three-year-olds as starters in the twenty-fourth running of that one and one-eighth miles holiday fixture, according to the outlook today, 24 hours before the entry box closes tomorrow morning. Probable starters include Reverie Knoll Farms Smoke Screen, H. G. Bookmans Happy Go Lucky, Red Top Farms Red Charger, Sam E. Wilsons Gushing Oil, William W. Stones Sandtop, Allison and Prestridges Marcador, Buddah Stables Dance Nsing, J. L. Knight, Jr.s, Baybrook, Mrs. Sayde Smiths Our Beauty, Emil Dene-mark, Jr.s, Stuyvesant, Hasty House Farms Sea Ripple. If the track should be xfast trainer N. R. "Yorky" McLeod is expected to couple-Dark Count with Marcador. Most of the early discussion and speculation about the Peabody have been concerned chiefly with such candidates as Gushing Oil, Smoke Screen, Red Charger, Marcador, Happy Go Lucky, and the newly developed contender, Dane Nsing. Close observers also have been expressing considerable respect for Sandtop. That Chestnut son of Some Chance Madam X., has earned such attention in recent weeks. On May 17, final day of the Churchill Downs spring meeting, the Cincinnati-owned colt won a mile handicap at the Louisville track, beating Lot-A-Brass, Happy Go Lucky, Old Fiddle and five others. Aweek earlier he was a seven-length winner of a seven-furlong allowance race in which his victims included Walmac Farms Blue Licks, a possible started in the Peabody. Prior to that he finished third, beaten only a head by Sky Ship for the big end of the Florida Derby, with Handsome Teddy splitting them in the tight decision. Failed to Win at Two Sandtop, who had failed to win in seven starts at two, although placing four times, broke his maiden at Hialeah on February 19 in a field of 12 at seven furlongs. Trainer Stanley "Buck" Hazzard has engaged jockey Herb Lindberg for Sandtop, that veteran from Gotenberg, Sweden, having ridden the Stone colt in his three latest starts. Baybrook appears to be training well in coming up to the Peabody, which will be his first start of 1952 if he goes to the post Friday. The son of Brookfield Coralie B. was one of the better two-year-olds of 1951, winning the George Woolf Memorial, placing second in the Babylon Handicap, third in the Primer and Cowdin, and fourth in the Washington Park Futurity and Prairie, State Stakes. He had a total of four wins in 12 starts and earned 4,775. Several Peabody nominees breezed over the heavy track this morning. Happy Go Lucky went five-eighths in 1 :04M, Sandtop the same distance in 1:04, and Gushing Oil in 1:07. Dance Nsing went a solw half, Irving W. Huggets Yaleman, a slow three-eighths. Attracting considerable interest was Miss Lydia Webers good Illinois-bred colt, Espinos Image. With jockey Johnny Adams up, he broke from the gate and stepped a half in :51. Espinos Image, a hard-hitting juvenile last year, was injured at the New Orleans Fair Grounds during the winter. He has been training again for some time, and although nominated for the Peabody, had not been considered a likely starter. Red Chargers impressive victory in the Sun Beau Purse on May 21, when his six victims included the Peabody eligibles Our Beauty, Stuyvesant, and Emerald Hill Stables Eternal Moon, projected him into the foreground of the Peabody picture. He will be ridden by Douglas Dodson. Kenny Church will have the mount on Smoke Screen, and Adams is expected to ride Marcador, with J. D. Jessop on Dark Count, if that winner of the San Luis Rey Stakes starts as Marcadbrs running mate.
