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-i i * News From England Guineas Results Boon to Americans * I By CLTVE GRAHAM London Correspondent, Daily Racing Form LONDON, England, May 8. — We have , had ample time to evaluate our first classic races for the Two Thousand and One Thousand Guineas, decided over the straightaway Rowley Mile at Newmarket. First reaction, from the Anglo-American viewpoint, is that an unexpected benefice has fallen to the lot of American stallion buyers. Nea-rula, by Nasrullah, proved himself immeasurably superior in the Two Thousand Guineas, while Happy Laughter, by Royal Charger, out of Bray Melody, beat Tessa • Gillian, own-sister to Royal Charger, in what proved virtually a two-horse finish in the fillies classic. Bebe Grande, second to Nearula by four lengths in the Two Thousand, came out again in the One 4 Thousand, to be twice that distance behind j Happy Laughter. g This rating, though, _j cannot be considered exact. The Newmarket track has never been * in more beautiful condition than it was on the Wednesday. Then the rain start - « ed to fall. It never stopped for 48 hours, and the finest turf course in England was beginning to show deep imprints by the * time the classic fillies went down to post. Few of them knew how to handle this , deep stuff and, from half-way, only Tessa Gillian and Bebe Grande, in the center of the track, and Happy Laughter, drawn in a lower and more favored postposition, could be said to have any L chance of winning. The French fillies, Dynastic and Nastia, were floundering in that sticky Cambridgeshire "glue-f pot", many lengths behind these three all the way. b Happy Laughter is very much a daughter j f her sire, and has all his freedom of hock- and shoulder-movement, without the more masculine bulk which characterized * him in his racing days. Nearula is less typical of his sire. The pundits liked him very well when he stood in the winners rontimied on fagt forty-Four Graham Reports Continued from Page Fire circle, but there were plenty who could have been accused of arrant hypocrisy by any efficient short-hand writer, who could have heard their pre-race opinions. The writer does not rate him among the beauties of the turf. Primarily, his coat -color is against him. It is what we term "a mealy bay," somewhat of a nondescript drab color, without that mahogany sparkle of a Bahrain, or any of Blandfords best breed. He has a lot of white about him, and several gray cat-hairs on his forelegs, and a lot of gray in his tail. Hes a long horse on long legs. Put the Eiffel Tower across the Arc de Triomphe, and that would be Nearula, from the viewpoint of a critic who likes his horses of a different build. In his favor, he has a wonderful front to him — strong, well-sloped shoulders, a good-shaped if not very masculine neck that stretches itself out well to connect with a fine, intelligent, courageous head. Behind the saddle he is not so promising. He has the low-set Nasrullah tail and the sloping rump, typical of Nearcos descendants. Such points are not amiss, but he seems to lack strength between hip and hock. Bookmakers are installing him hot first choice for the Derby, and maybe we will be forced to eat these words on the evening of June 6. Pedigree on the dams side does not, however, inspire confidence that he will enjoy the same mastery at one and a half miles as he was able to display last week. The Queens Aureole, after being outpaced, came on well to finish fifth. This Hyperion colt is the right stamp for Epsom, and much depends on whether his trainer, Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, dare give him a couple of hard races before the Derby. Heres a colt who has had only three races in his life, and still has never really known what it is all about. If he gets the idea, and likes it, Aureole could be a serious Derby contender. There have been signs, though, in his training that too much hard treatment might act against him. So the captain has that razors edge choice. It would make matters so much easier, in this year of all years, of course, if Aureole happened to be owned by plain Mr. Bill Snooks. Gay Time, leased now to the Queen from the National Stud, caused something of a surprise when beating Lucius and Zuc6hero at Newmarket last week. Noel Murless, who trains him, saddled him for the race in a mood akin to despair. "He will probably be last of the three," he told his friends. This assumption was based on the way that Gay Time had been performing in his workouts. Zucchero, on the strength of his running behind Guersant and Wilwyn at Sandown, was first choice at 2 to 5. It was raining heavily when the race started, and soon after the first quarter a divot hit Zucchero on the nose, kicked up by one of his two rivals. That was the end of the contest so far as George Rolls horse was concerned, and he braked himself back into low gear. So the race devolved between Lucius and Gay Time, with the Rockefella colt drawing clear up the hill. Arthur Beasley rode in place of Gordon Richards, who passed his 49th birthday this week with his third week of rest from race riding due to a strained tendon in the thigh. He was promised his patrons, though, that he will definitely be fit to resume on May 11. The contemporary racing scene has seemed empty without him. The treatment has been so painful that any recurrence of this strain would almost certainly spell the end of his career as a jockey. "I cant think of retiring when Im only beginning to know something about the business, can I?" Such were our champions sentiments as he broke into his fiftieth year.
