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Kentucky 1 By Oscar Otis 1 1National National Honors for California Matron MatronJSbme JSbme Added Color on Saga of Donerail DonerailChanges Changes Suggested in Trial Conditions ConditionsCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky April 30 On Tuesday night the Kentucky breeders will follow up the running of the vitally important Derby Trial with their annual dinner at the Brown Hotel at which time train ¬ ers of Derby contenders will be allowed to have their say and precedent will be shattered by awarding for the first time in history to a California matron the honor of Broodmare of the Year This dam is Iron Reward whose Swaps won the Kentucky Derby last year in decisive fash ¬ ion from the great Nashua a vic ¬ tory that to many people in America Swaps latter defeat in that match race at Wash ¬ ington Park could not tarnish In yast years the KTBA Dinner has been considered one of the most news ¬ worthy events of Derby week for in addition to the re ¬ marks of the trainers a distinguished guest speaker always was on the agenda This year there will be no guest and more time will be devoted to hearing the trainers But whether this will really be productive of any startling jaews is doubtful because good manners and modesty precludes a trainer from making really rosy predictions of his Derby chances chancesRoscoe Roscoe Goose a leading figure in the KTBA no longer tells the story of Donerail and his memorable Derby win in 1913 a retelling that was a part and parcel of KTBA dinners of earlier years But nonethe ¬ less every year some new story crops up about the Donerail race which adds to the legend and makes it one of the great Derbys of all time This years ad ¬ dition comes from our California friend Walter Tay ¬ lor who was riding that year and at Churchill Downs that very day but not in the Derby Recalls Taylor Happy Buxton rode Ten Point against Roscoe Goose and Donerail that day and Happy made the mistake of rushing Ten Point early a way of riding in those days that was called balling the jack Those who bet on Ten Point even made up a song about it going some ¬ thing like this There goes Happy down the Churchill track there goes Ten Point balling the jack Anyway Ten Point the G5 favorite was distressed at the end and Donerail at 911 and Roscoe Goose came along to win it Taylor incidentally would have hit Derby Tiding Immortality the next year 1914 with a pretty good horse from Audley Farm named Hodge except ¬ ing that he had the misfortune to run into a horse called Old Rosebud RosebudGoose Goose Does Derby Public Relations RelationsWe We for one are willing to admitfhat the Donerail Roscoe Goose Derby combination either marked the end of an era or established a new one in Derby annals we arent sure which But it is apparent to everyone that in the transition of the old Derby into the new world classic that it is Goose has taken the trouble to take each new turf writer appearing in Louisville for his first Derby to recount at length the fascinating details of every Derby since Donerail Goose and others like him have done much to keep alive the true Derby tradition The only flaw in the setup this year is that Goose honorary president of the knock down the fa ¬ vorite club by reason of his 18490 straight payoff with Donerail an alltime Derby record cant come up this year with a flyer to beat the chalk The few strong horses in the Derby this season he insists are invinci ¬ ble on past performances performancesTuesdays Tuesdays Derby Trial is a race the conditions of which baffle us and which might well be changed to good advantage of both man and beast We refer to the race being a stake in its own right which is okay but a man must name for the race and put up 50 to be eligible regardless of his nomination for the Derby it ¬ self At the same time the modern conditions of the race specify that to be eligible to nominate for the Trial you must have named for the Derby This seems a situation which calls for a dual entry as being the most sensible especially as a sweepstakes in its own right the Derby Trial confers absolutely no prestige upon the winner A classic example we vividly recall came when J J Amiel shipped Count Turf in from New York to run in both the Derby and Trial dis ¬ covered after he got here that Count Turf was not eligi ¬ ble for the Tuesday mile He worked the horse instead and won the Derby anyway A somewhat similar situ ¬ ation prevailed in New Jersey anent the worlds richest race The Garden State the first year that fiscalbiggie was raced and it was quickly corrected correctedFilm Film Patrol Showed No Regrets Potential PotentialNo No Regrets the California Derby winner is due to make his Kentucky Derby tuneup in the Trial Tues ¬ day and owner Buck Britt tells us the colt was named because he was the highest price we paid in the Keeneland sales and we were just hopeful there would be No Regrets over the purchase Britt also confirmed reports from the West Coast that the colt made Derby tradition of a sort by being flown here on the basis of film patrol pictures I had only seen this colt run once at Santa Anita explains Britt and I had not witnessed any of his good races So when I got to Tan foran prior to the California Derby I had the pictures run of f not once but several times and made a decision to ship then and there barring an accident or some ¬ thing unforeseen in the California Derby The outcome of that race only confirmed my opinion that this colt was entitled at least to his big Derby chanced
