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Weighing In I By Evan Shipman 1 1Career Career Boy Needles Fancied for Derby Mud May Compromise Chances of Both Countermand Seen as Perfectly Prepared JAMAICA L I N Y May 3 We stayathomes will have to make do with television for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon and you can judge for yourseii whetner it is sour grapes prompting us to say that we will be grateful for an uninhibited view of the gala proceedings at Churchill Downs Supposedly im ¬ mune from the prevailing hysteria in Louisville we will climb to the Jamaica jocks room shortly be ¬ fore post time there to see dur ¬ ing a graphic two minutes and some odd seconds just how much our oftenexpressed theories con ¬ cerning this generation of three yearolds are worth Consistency is nothing to boast about particularly when you are consistently wrong but for all that our appraisal of these colts has not changed materially since we digested the result of last autumns The Garden State a juvenile test that as we saw it should be singularly prophetic in regard to this seasons classics Prince John a narrow winner over Career Boy and Needles is removed from present consideration because of an accident at Hialeah That leaves the game brown son of JPhalanx Career Boy and the Ponder colt Needles We are frank to say that none of this pairs contemporaries has made an impression in any way comparable with the esteem they earned in the New Jersey race and subsequently in their various outings this season Recognizing that this may well be the openest Derby in many years none of the 15 rivals Career Boy and Needles will meet possesses anything like their imposing credentials credentialsWhitney Whitney Colt Must Have Fast Footing FootingThe The order in which Career Boy and Needles finished in The Garden State is the order in which we like them but before anything else is said an important reserve must be made If the Churchill Downs strip comes up anything but fast on Derby Day Career Boys chances will be hopelessly compromised nor is it likely that his trainer Syl Veitch will start him the C V Whitney stable relying in that event on the un ¬ aided efforts of Head Man Needles on the other hand appears to beperfectly at home over any type of strip but quite apart from the question of footing a colt who prefers to race far off the pace as does Needles will be at a marked disadvantage if he has to make his crucial bid picking his way in and out among a throng of tiring horses all of them slinging mud at him If Needles were a frontrunner or if he liked to run any ¬ where near the headend in the early stages the pros ¬ pect of a sloppy of muddy track would leave his con ¬ nections completely indifferent as it is trainer Hugh Fontaine must be nearly as anxious for the rain to hold off as is Syl Veitch VeitchDiscussing Discussing this generation with handicapper Jimmy Kilroe toward the close of the Santa Anita meeting we echoed what seemed to be the prevailing opinion among horsemen declaring these colts and fillies to be sadly wanting in class Kilroe however while readily agreeing that there were no Nashuas no Summer Tans nor Native Dancers among them went on to say that he was pleased with what he found to be the large number of colts just now rounding to their best form He went on to say that by midseason we might recog ¬ nize 10 or a dozen good ones who had been completely inconspicuous last year and he welcomed this slow development in contrast to the usual abuse of precoc ¬ ity In deciding what Derby eligibles deserve attention in addition to Career Boy and Needles we encounter just the sort of late development to which Kilroe made reference those now catching our eye being Brandy wine Stables Countermand Calumets Fabius D A Lozzis Count Chic and Mrs L J Tates Jean Bap tiste We will concede that others also belong in this category but the quartet mentioned are the ones im ¬ pressing this observer as most susceptible of marked improvement improvementProducts Products of Two Fine Horsemen HorsemenCountermand Countermand and Fabius the pair who finished close together at the end of a mile in 136 for Tues ¬ days Derby Trial represent the work of two of our best young horsemen Buddy Raines and Jimmy Jones They have been consciously pointing their charges for Sat ¬ urdays engagement these many months and you may be certain that when these colts strip for action they will be as fit as hands can make them Raines and Jones also trained the sires of Countermand and Fa ¬ bius Greek Song and Citation parentage that should count strongly in the balance when it comes to the gruelling last quarter of a 10furlong test of speed and stamina Citation of course needs no introduction but it is possible that you may not recall Greek Song a staying son of Heliopolis who came out in Middle grounds and Hill Princes year and who won the Dwyer and Arlington Classic before a training mishap retired him to stud We have always beileved Greek Song to have been cut out for an altogether exceptional horse and in Countermand he has sired a colt who may go on to take those engagements of which he was deprived by bad luck luckPassing Passing over Terrang and No Regrets two fairly prominent invaders from California in favor of the Count Speed colt Count Chic may appear a little ar ¬ bitrary but on the basis of what we saw at Santa Anita Count Chic is one who might and we em ¬ phasize the might develop into a true stayer Ter TerContinuea Continuea on Poge FofyFr WEIGHING IN INBy By EVAN SHIPMAN Continued from Page Four Fourrang rang for his part was one whose promise was revealed in fits and snatches we i were never convinced that he was genuine I i and we believed his major success last winter the ninefurlong Santa Anita i Derby was directly attributable to Willie Shoemakers brilliant horsemanship rath i 1 I er than to the intrinsic merit of the colt himself Count Chic on the other hand is perfectly honest while he can also take care of himself in the thick of things As for his class his showing Saturday will de ¬ termine that thatAnother Another dark horse and this time lit ¬ erally as well as figuratively is the robust j black son of the imported French sire Am biorix Jean Baptiste Attracted by this husky fellows individuality we spotted him as an interesting prospect last year and we were encouraged by his development until I i just recently he was guilty of a prepos ¬ terously bad showing in the Wood Memo rial Well give him one more chance but weather permitting hardly to the prejudice of our real Derby selections they remain Career Boy and Needles I
