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- England Piggott Evaluates Crepelios Status Ey CLIVE GRAHAM Our London Correspondent LONDON", England. — The results at the Royal Ascot meeting this week will help materially to decide the question of Crepel-los lo s true true status. status. Is Is he he lo s true true status. status. Is Is he he - a champion — or merely the best of a moderate group? Lester Piggott, his 21 -year-old rider, shows unexpected lack of enthusiasm in his evaluation of Sir Victor Sassoons colt, on which he won Newmarkets 2,000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby. The young rider has always always placed placed the the un- always always placed placed the the un- unpredictable Zucchero first in his regard. In a TV interview last week, he would do no more than move Crepello up to share Zuccheros position. It will be recalled that the Donatello II. colt won the Guineas in a driving finish by half a length from Quorun, with Pipe of Peace a head away third. Pipe of Peace finished in the same position in the Derb3% with Ballymoss intervening, but the distance between the two English colts was increased to two and one-half lengths. Scobie Breasley, however, thought he would have been closer, but for catching a bump at Tattenham Corner. Crepello has been taken out of the Grand Prix de Paris, and it remains to te seen whether he will oppose the French Derby winner, Amber, for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot next month. Pinza ran for both races, but broke down shortly after winning the Ascot prize, and was unable to contest the St. Leger. It would be understandable, therefore, if Sir Victor decided against risking a repetition of such injury. At this time of writing, we are in the middle of a heat wave, and the training grounds everywhere are now brick hard. Unless there is a break in the weather, Noel Murless, who has rested Crepello since his Derby triumph, may not be able to get him back into top racing condition. The merit of Ribot has also come in for some searching criticism during the past few weeks, owing to the defeats of both High Veldt and Talgo. High Veldt, second to the Italian champion at Ascot last July, has been beaten this season both at Newbury and Epsom. This observers personal opinion is that the distance of these races, one and one-lialf miles, was a quarter mile beyond his best. Talgo, runner-up in the Prix de lArc de Triomphe, appears to have lost his form entirely, and was taken out of his Ascot engagement last week. Harry Wragg may take him across to race in Paris* where the courses are watered, later this month. , The famous ex-trainer, II. S. "Atty" Persse, who celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday on Monday, was present at the Kempton evening meeting to see his good colt, Table Wine, register his fifth victory in succession in the all-aged Charles Greenwood Stakes. The three-year-old son of Le Lavandou Djebel had previously won at Brighton, Chester, Epsom and Newbury. He would have won his only other start at Hurst Park in March, but for being impeded when another horse cannoned into him at the quarter mile pole. Mr. Persse, trainer of The Tetrarch, Bachelors Double and other giants of the past, has been considering offers for Table Wine from America and Australia. Winners last week included Court of Kings, who won The John OGaunt Stakes at Manchester for Andy J. Crevolin. This Court Martial colt, five lengths third to Eiffel Tower on his previous appearance, will race in America later this_ year. He is trained by Sam Armstrong, who was exonerated from the charges leveled by Epsom stewards against the alleged discrepancy in the running of his horse, After Twelve. Local stewards continue, however, to be active, and Jack Colling was sent for at Kempton last Thursday after his horse, Master Of Arts, had won The Mark Hall . Handicap. SHORT ITEMS: Another for My Babu. Mrs. Anne Bullitt Biddles Milesian won the important Salford Borough Handicap at Manchester in a canter, and the Irish colt will return to England to contest the Stewards Cup at Goodwood at the end of next month. . . , Apprentice riders have been enjoying phenomenal success in the big handicaps this year. Continued on Page Seventeen ZUCCHERO— The Irish-bred who was third in the 1952 Washington, D. C, International at Laurel, is to be syndicated for stud duty by The Curragh Bloodstock Agency. . i Report From England Br CUVE GRAHAM Continued from Page Eight . . . Greville Starkey won both the Zetland Gold Cup on Sunrise and the Manchester Cup on Orinthia, the filly which he also partnered to win the Kcmplon "Jubilee". . . . The Zetland Gold Cup at Kedcar is one of the newly sponsored races, and attracted a record attendance of 41,000 to this progressive North of England track. The attendance was 1,500 down on previous best, but receipts showed an increase of S14.000. . . . Accounting for this, Leslie Tetch, Red-cars able Clerk of the Course, explained "There is more money about now in the North of England than in the South. . . . Peteh also manages York, where the Ebor, the richest handicap race ever to be staged in England, closed last week with 108 entries. Held in mid-August, It wiU gross about 515,000.
