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Delaware By Charles Hatton Bayou Points Next for Delaware Oaks Moves Front and Center in Title Race Family Grows at Famed Claiborne Stud DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., June 4. The ultimate rank of the seasons fillies and mares has become one of the sports imponderables. But we look forward with profound interest to the "Distaff Big Three" and the CCA Oaks in the hope these coveted events will help to clarify their rather equivocal form. It is perfectly possible that New Yorkers saw the eventful leader, of the three-year-old fillies when A. B. "Bull" Hancocks alluring blaze-faced chestnut Bayou won the Acorn mile on Monday. We may at least say that she had behind her the Kentucky Oaks winner Lori-El, the Black Eyed Susan winner Pillow Talk, and every other prominent candidate for the honors. This morning, we called Hancock to extend our felicitations. He had a bit of untoward racing luck recently, you -know, when Doubledogdare, his 1955 and 56 filly champion, had to be retired. After we exchanged the usual meteorological findings, the talk turned to Bayou. "She is a nice filly," Hancock permitted himself to say. "The sort that would run through a stone wall. She was pricking her ears at the end of the Acorn." Clearly, he could not have been more pleased, especially when he explained that, actually, she figures to like the longer distances of later engagements better than eight furlongs. - "We Hancock and trainer Moody Jolley plan to breeze her at Belmont the morning of the 13th," he continued, "then send her on down there to Delaware or the Oaks. After that there is the Coaching Club, and if all goes well, we may sprint her against those older mares in the Delaware Handicap." Bourtai Foals Winning Fillies As everyone, of course, knows, Bayou is a sister to Levee, who was narrowly beaten by Dotted Line in the Oaks here last summer, and who may herself be a Delaware Handicap starter. Further, she is a half sister to Hancocks Delta, who now is at stud. It thus becomes a redundancy to say they are out of a good producer, a genuine "old blue hen," in their case the Stimulus mare Bourtai. This is the family of Emotion, Sun Teddy and other high-class performers and Hancock says: "We have had the family at Claiborne for as long as I can remember." There is a disposition here to dwell on mares like Bourtai, who now has foaled four stakes winners. So many of our producers have everything it takes to be utterly commonplace. Again there is an impulse to go on about Bayous lovely individuality. She is a racier edition of her sister, if we recall correctly from the all too brief glimpse we caught of her at Jamaica. There are horses who should only be glimpsed, but Bayou "picks to pieces well," as racing men say. Hancock noted that Bourtai now is rearing a colt by Nasrullah who is "just about the best foal on the farm," and is a brother to Delta. The mare was returned to the famous Irish stallion. Doubledogdare is destined for his court next spring, becoming eligible when she was bred to Hill Prince, sire of Bayou and Levee, on her arrival at Claiborne about 10 days ago. Hopkins Assigns His All-Time Weights Freddie Hopkins has a wealth of vivid memories of the turf, reaching far back across the years,"all of which he saw, a part of which he was." Hopkins is an attache of Jim Langfords in the tote department here. Sometimes, in the early morning, he stops by to chat with friends in the press room, before he must proceed to his post. We daresay he has forgotten more about training thoroughbreds than many duly licensed present-day conditioners are ever going to know. He developed Equipoise, and those fine fillies Pandera and Boojums dam, Elf, in that golden era when the Eton blue and brown cap were the fastest colors in racing. Back in 1927, he saddled Whiskery to win the Kentucky Derby in a desperate stretch duel with Osmand. This morning, out of idle curiosity, we equipped him with pen and paper and asked him to list the 10 best race horses he has ever seen. That done, we pressed him to rate them, weighting them as if they were going to meet at a mile and one-quarter. Here is the result: Man o War 129 Sir Barton 122 Equipoise 129 Alsab 120 Grey Lag 126 Borrow 120 Exterminator 126 Old Rosebud 118 Citation 124 Roamer 116 Among the fillies, Hopkins gave Prudery dam of Victorian honorable mention. Among the sprint specialists, Billy Kelly. Among the marathoners, Boniface. Realistically, it must be said that comparisons of different generations are always invidious, and seldom other than lost labor, since subjective judgments are incapable of proof. Many will disagree with Hopkins opinions. It is a highly arbitrary matter. Different judges, different criterions. But the horses he lists are the "constants" whose names are remembered over the years, with never a flash-in-the-pan nor a nine-days-wonder among them. TSveryone was "a horsemans horse," impartial in the matter of track conditions and distance, unimpressed by the quality of the opposition and distinguished for regular attendance in the winners circle. Turf ana: Gallant Man! Does any contemporary performer more satisfactorily exemplify the adage "blood will tell?" Johnny Nerud may say again: "He is a champion in everything but size," and he can, conceivably, win the honors despite this handicap. ... It is not every two-year-old who receives such a baptism of fire as W. C. Freemans Noordeen did on first acquaintance with competition last week end, nor who comes through so gallantly. She ran like a granddaughter of Princess Doreen. . . . The 00 Lori-El is from the immediate family of Milcave, x busher who became a big-timer.
