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r :.,.,,--, — " ,.,.,.-,..-.,,..,,.,,., .j+ "t" j ■■HUM-: : v. . :..:•:-:-:x | Weighing In I By Evan Shipman Derby Field Represents Survival of Fittest Foreign Names Dominate Classic Pedigrees Eddie Arcaro Sought Mount on Good Fencer BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I.. N. Y., May 10.— Returned traveller from Kentucky found a willing audience at the track here yesterday, the stay-at-fc :.,.,,--, — " j homes homes all all expressing expressing keen keen regret regret r ,.,.,.-,..-.,,..,,.,,., .j+ "t" homes homes all all expressing expressing keen keen regret regret that they will be given no opportunity to see the astonishing Californian, Rex Ellsworths Swaps, in the remaining three-year-old classic races this spring. Like this columnist, a few local horsemen had seen the big chestnut Khaled colt on the occasion of his winning race in last Februarys Santa Anita Derby, but they were quite unable to reconstruct struct; j last Saturdays Saturdays smashing smashing ■■HUM-: : v. . :..:•:-:-:x | struct; j last Saturdays Saturdays smashing smashing performance on that basis. The winner of the winter feature had impressed us all as a "good enough" colt, but this Kentucky Derby obviously was something else again. There is a whale of a lot of difference between earning a tough decision over a rival such as Jeans Joe and administering a sound licking to as distinguished an adversary as Belairs Nashua. What those of us who had previously seen Swaps, too hastily forming our estimate of his class, had failed to take into account was that he had come up to his Santa Anita Derby engagement practically "off nothing," and that he had improved — had every right to improve — immeasurably in the 10-week interval. Throughout the early winter, Swaps had been sidelined with an ailing foot; it was an achievement to get him to the Santa Anita race at all. Since that time, Rex Ellsworth and trainer Mischa Tenney have been lucky enough, or skillful enough, to maintain a regular schedule, Swaps thriving and blossoming out as he approached the stables great objective. Classic Starters an Impressive Band Studying the field of 10 colts in the Churchill Downs paddock before the start of the Derby, it was once again brought home to us that this race represents a ruthless elimination of the unfit. For everyone of these 10, several hundreds had failed to make the grade. As a group, we found them a fine lot: sound, good size, excellent conformation, well balanced dispositions, radiant health as expressed by gleaming coats and alert eyes. Here we see illustrated the "survival of the fittest," and, as we saw them, American trainers, if not American breeders, could take pride in the fittest, even though the race itself evolved into a match between Swaps and Nashua. A good colt, we have often observed, is likely to be a kind and clever colt — certain noteworthy exceptions to the contrary — and this Derby field could not be faulted on the score of manners. Just as the jocks entered the saddling ring to get a leg up. a sharp thunder shower broke over the Downs, but these well behaved, well settled individuals took all that in stride, the vivid lightning flashes bothering the high-strung trainers far more than they did the colts. As you will, of course, have remarked, foreign-born sires dominated the pedigrees of the Derby field, just as they had the afternoon before in the Kentucky Oaks. As was the case last year when brave little Determine won the Derby, our most famous three-year-old race was a triumph for the family of the English Hyperion, but beyond that, if you subtract the names of Hyperion, Nearco, Blandford and Tourbillon— all from overseas — from modern classic pedigrees, what have you left? The answer is hardly flattering to our breeders. Nevertheless, if we were to single out the American racing interest on which to place the blame for this humiliating situation, the accusing finger would inevitably point in the direction of the various racing associations, the blanket indictment being that they do not — and have not — offered owners and trainers the kind of racing programs that throw stock worthy to perpetuate the breed into relief. For reasons of their own, racing associations allow their programs, year in and year out, to card meaningless sprints in a proportion that means extinction to a native breed. There are no special scapegoats; the condition is general, and the blame must be accepted by our greatest and oldest associations as well as by the newest track just opened in territory ignorant of the sports traditions. Chenerys Permian Promising Jumper Returning to a more pleasant topic, Casey Hayes showed us a mighty shifty hurdle performer in C. T. Chenery s Bossuet gelding, Permian, sparkling winner of Belmonts offering for this interesting specialty yesterday. With stakes to his credit on the flat, Permian has a touch of real class, and his form over the little obstacles is so certain that Eddie Arcaro pleaded with this capable young fencers trainer for the mount. Unwilling to risk our premier riders valuable bones we suppose, Casey vetoed a suggestion that, if accepted, would have delighted the "off day" crowd, and it was the familiar Bob McDonald who capably piloted this even money choice to a hplf dozen lengths score over Khumbaba and Actinic. The latter, by the way, was victim of an atrocious start, his race being far better than a superficial glance at the chart would suggest. Another in this field who will bear watching was Mrs. Ogden Phipps veteran Antagonizes returned to the wars after a long absence. This Bostwick-trainer fencer showed all of his old foot, but was decidedly short and will do far better at the next asking.
