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WinterRpced Horses in Derby Skein Have Won Last Five Runnings of Event EventLast Last Five Winners Trained In Florida or California Could Become Six Today TodayBy By CHARLES HATTON HATTONCHURCHILIr CHURCHILIr DOWNS Louisville Ky May 3 If you would win the Derby you would do well to address your horse to some winter track Santa Anita Miami or pos ¬ sibly New Orleans lavender and old lace Fair Grounds There once was a popular shibboleth that it was a grave mistake for the owners of worthwhile threeyear olds to patronize winter meets no really good colts were ever seen at them and it was unthinkable to race one both in the winter and summer That was before the advent of the 100000 stakes which are never out of season and the Flamingo Florida Derby Santa Anita Derby and other features decided between the first of January and the first Saturday in May It was before any trainer took advantage of June in January weather in the deep south and far west to give a Kentucky Derby candidate the long demanding prep to be ready to carry 126 pounds a mile and one quarter They were all at the same disad vantage training in the North when in ¬ clement weather disrupted work schedules schedulesHow How very different now The records will Blue Ribband of the American turf has been won by horses that trained in Florida or California CaliforniaHill Hill Gail Started Streak StreakIn In 1952 Hill Gail came from Santa Anita to inscribe his name on the immemorial honor roll of the Downs classic classicIn In 1953 Dark Stair moved north from Florida and won the Derby at the expense of no less invincible a brival than Native Dancer who he debited with his only de ¬ feat in a career of 22 starts startsIn In 1954 Determine emulated Hill Gail when he won the Santa Anita Derby then journeyed to The Dark and Bloody Ground to complement his success in the Kentucky original of all the Derbys on this side of the Atlantic AtlanticIn In 1955 the pattern was identical JSwaps capturing the Santa Anita Derby by way of telegraphing his blows at Louisville More ¬ over his bitter rival Nashua had won the Flamingo and Florida Derby DerbyIn In 1956 Needles trained and raced in Florida winning the Flamingo and the Florida Derby on the palmy peninsula be ¬ fore coming here to add lustre to his stakesspangled record recordIn In 1957 the vibrant present colts trained and seasoned at the winter tracks once again loom formidably as the onestobeat for Major Bill Corums Run for the Roses Colts like Bold Ruler Gen Duke Iron Liege and Federal Hill It will be surprising to the casual observer and shocking to the form students if one or another of these does not pull up dripping perspiration and roses in the disputed territory of the win ¬ ner circle this Derby Day Whatever significance it may Jiave none of the five Derby winners mentioned just above dallied in New York or Maryland for any of the previews there but proceeded directly to Kentucky If this correlation be ¬ tween horses itineraries and success in the Derby continues horsemen are unlikely to ignore it or to dismiss it as pure coinci ¬ dence denceSome Some Good Shippers Some Not NotSome Some horses are gifted by nature to re ¬ produce their best form over anybodys race track and some are excellent shippers Conversely some are not good travelers and some appear to benefit from training on the seen e of the Derby acquainting themselves with their surroundings and getting the feel of the Downs racing sur ¬ face faceHorsemen Horsemen estimate that a ship is the equivalent of a workout One reflects that by the same token too much moving about in 1000mile junkets can conceivably take a bit of the edge off a horses form de ¬ pending on the individual and where he is in training trainingIt It win be interesting to note how this applies to the Calumets who came to Kentucky from Florida nonstop and to Bold Ruler who shipped first to New York looking in on Jamaica for the Wood WoodNone None of this Derby field will have an ad ¬ vantage over Cliff Lusskys Federal Hill on the score of familiarity with Churchill Downs and the racing surface The Louisi ¬ ana Derby winner who himself bettered the Gulfstream Park record though he ran out of gas in the Florida Derby is himself a home town boy He learned the rudi ¬ ments of racing at the Downs and won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes here last fall If he can win the Derby he will be the first Louisvilleowned winner since Old Rosebud set the stakes record in 1915 1915Most Most trainers of Derby aspirants arrange to give their charges at least one good work workContinued Continued en Page 49 D Winners of Last Five Derbys Have Raced at Winter Tracks With Gen Duke Bold Rulei And Federal Hill Starting List Could Be Upped to Six SixContinued Continued from Page 40 D Dover over the Downs surface before the magic hour arrives But a race is worth several works and Plain Ben Jones likes to have his mainstays run over the track Citation Hill Gail Ponder and Lawrin whom the Missourian trained for Herb Woolf saw actual competiton at the Downs before stripping for the Derby An exception is Pensive a lastminute entrant shipped in from Maryland Coaltown runnerup to Citation had raced at Keeneland KeenelandThough Though they are fewer than 70 miles apart there is a difference in the compo ¬ sition and texture of the soil at Keene ¬ land and the Downs Keenelands going is relatively deep and sandy more like Bel monts Horses are rarely sharp shod to race over it when it is wet wetSeals Seals Strip Against Rain RainThe The veteran track superintendent Tom Young understandably tries to present as good a surface as possible for the Derby He customarily seals the going against possible rainfall If he cared to he could have it hard enough to sting a Grand Cir ¬ cuit trotter and display Hollywood Park type times to the marveling gaze of the crowds But he is not too much concerned about time per se When it has a lot of moisture after a hard precipitation the going can become a gluey quagmire It is a typical midwestern course with soil in ¬ digenous of the area areaThis This training routine of conditioning a Derby candidate at winter resort courses to outwit the weather man is not entirely a new wrinkle Rather it is a sort of mass movement in pursuance of a program which was rather novel a few decades ago when one or two venturesome turfmen first tried it What was attempted tenta ¬ tively by Colonel Bradley and Harry Payne Whitney who shipped secondflight Derby eligibles to the formers New Orleans track now has assumed the proportions of a mi ¬ gration including front rank Derby can ¬ didates The accumulated evidence of the last five Derbys are significant significantBlack Black Gold trained and raced at New Orleans So did Bagenbaggage runnerup to his stablemate Bubbling Over in Matt Winns masterpiece And Hoop Jr doubt ¬ less would have raced at Hialeah where he trained during the winter except for the intervention of the war Now the Derby winner who hibernated in the North a la Gallant Fox Omaha and Reigh Count is the exception Perhaps the proof of the pudding is that Mr Fitz an oldtimer who manages to be realistic and contemporary has forsaken Aqueduct to follow the sun with his Derby horses
