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Weighing In I By Evan Shipman 1 1Waive Waive Derby Assignment to See Grey Lag Nashua Fit for Stern Jamaica Encounter Le Beau Prince Yet an Unknown Quantity QuantityJAMAICA JAMAICA L I N Y May 2 Picking up the thread where a bout with a virus forced us to leave off reoared to do our puny best that Saturdays running of the Kentucky Derby does not completely overshadow our own local feature the nine furlong Grey Lag Handicap With the permission of pur editor we are staying right here for the busy week end a first glimpse this season of Nashua ample compen ¬ sation for passing up the trip to Churchill Downs where this pre ¬ sumably moderate generation of threejyearolds will be given its first rpfli test Nashua on the other hand is a known quantity as Jimmy Kilroes imposition of 128 pounds this involving considerable concessions to all the others in the excellent Grey Lag field indicates beyond a doubt The syndicateowned Belairbred Nasrullah fouryearold already possesses the prestige for which his juniors without too much hope of ultimate success are still vying Should Nashua as a great many horsemen believe he will prove equal to Saturdays task we give you fair warning that the chances are certain to be diminished the penalties for such a victory in terms of weight being considerable When as in the 195455 seasons Nashua raced in the popular colors of William Woodward and later of his son it may not be farfetched to say that sentiment played an important part in the arrangement of the colts schedule The change in ownership Nashua now representing the greatest investment ever made in a race horse distinctively alters his status as a public entertainer saddled with what one might describe as a crushing burden of debt herculean effort both on the track and later at stud is obligatory if this husky imposing bay colt is not to turn into a husky imposing white elephant elephantFour Four Top Challengers for Certain CertainNashuas Nashuas current form is assured by the fact that his veteran trainer Mr Fitz the man who made the colt is lending him to the post but in addition we have the testimony of smart morning trials that the big fellow is at or near his peak With Maine Chance Farms Jet Action apparently a very doubtful starter the leaders of the handicap division opposed to Nashua in the Grey Lag are Fisherman and Joe Jones each with 120 pounds aboard and the surprising Find with 118 the latter returned from a year on the shelf in better form than anything he had previously shown us Even more interesting than the attempts of these fa ¬ miliar thoroughbreds to cope with the fouryearold champion will be the emergence from what but a few short weeks ago was complete obscurity of the French bred gray Le Beau Prince This importation whose racing record on his arrival in this country consisted of two unplaced starts as a juvenile at little Belgian tracks has now won all four of his American starts won them literally in a canter The truth is that nobody knows just how good Le Beau Prince is including his connections but as to that Saturdays engagement for which this intriguing foreigner will be in receipt of 17 pounds from Nashua should give us an excellent idea ideaTom Tom Waller the well known Virginia horseman who has Lee Bau Prince in charge believes full well that in this gray French fouryearold whose pedigree is almost as uninformative as was his racing record at his arrival on these shores fate may have handed him a true phenomenon Conservative through long experience however Waller is waiting on performance before giv ¬ ing voice to any extravagant enthusiasm we have all known morning glories But it is the ease the supreme ease with which Le Beau Prince gets his work done that has set us all guessing On Monday picking up a substantial 124 pounds the French colt coming off a mile and onesixteenth effort it should be noted met a field of moderate sprinters at six furlongs Not only did he win as the English say with a stone in hand but his time equalled that of two of the best short distance specialists in training Impasse and Blessbull that pair disputing a later dash on the same program programRecall Recall Haynes Fortune With Epinard EpinardMention Mention of the French turf reminds us of the death in Los Angeles this week of Everett Haynes the jockey whose name will always be associated with that of the great French horse Epinard Haynes had made a name for himself riding for August Belmont then chairman of The Jockey Club before he ever went to France but it was Epinard and that horses campaigns in England and this country as well as in his native France that brought the tall exKentuckian enduring fame His connection with Pierre Wertheimers champion also made Haynes independently wealthy for life Almost as obscurely bred as is the Le Beau Prince we have just been talking about Epinard was not named for any of the French classics of his threeyearold year To get a race he had to go to England and try for the allage handicaps and it was when he won the Stewards Cup at Goodwood under unprecedented weight that owner Wertheimer Wertheimers turf manager Count Robert de Nexon trainer Eugene Leigh and jockey Haynes cut a mellon that wellauthenticated rumor placed in the neighborhood of 200000 pounds in those days a coll million in American dollars dollarsIf If Haynes connection with Epinard gave the exrider fame and security some of the fame was of a i i n c c WEIGHING IN INBy By EVAN SHBPMAN Continued from Page Four Fourkind kind that embittered this extremely sensi ¬ tive man for the remainder of his life He was generally blamed for Epihards defeat by the great mare Verdict in the English Cesarewithch and the next season when he rode Epinard in the f amour match race with Sir Gallahad at St Cloud the Werth eimer horses defeat was ascribed to Hayhes weak finish Beyond any doubt we saw that match Frank ONeil outrode Haynes but what his critics do not take inr to account is that Haynes was just out of the hospital Owner Wertheimer and train ¬ er Gene Leigh insisted that he ride and it was not his fault that he was unable to do his fount full justice in a head and head finish Later Haynes also came in for blame when Epinard was defeated first by Wise Counselor at Belmont Park and then by Ladkin at Aqueduct That criticism is harder to explain way One year ago we quoted the late Walter Vosburgh secretary and handicapper for The Jockey Club on that touchy subject and Haynes never for ¬ gave us He worshipped the memory of Epinard as he had every right to and you may be sure that he paid in terms of re ¬ pressed suffering for any mistakes he may have made in his idols races
