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- - — "" ~ Italy Pier Capponi Wins Premio Filiberto ny DESMOND McGOWAN Our Rome Correspondent ROME. — The Allevamento Alpe-Ravettas three-year-old. colt, ;Pier Capponi, con-firmetT that he is still the. leader of his. - - generation generation when when he he| generation generation when when he he| 1 scored a convincing three lengths victory , in the ,000 Premio Emanuele Filiberto over 10 furlongs at San Siro. Allowed to start! at the exceedingly gen- erous odds of 3-to-l t owing to the rush of money for the Razza del Soldos Filogeo and the Dormello-Olgiatas Malhoa. Malhoa, Pier Pier Capponi Capponi i — "" ~ Malhoa. Malhoa, Pier Pier Capponi Capponi i drew away from his rivals in the last furlong and never looked like being caught by the Razza Ticinos Sedart who beat Filogeo for second place by two lengths with Malhoa another length behind in fourth place. Seven runners faced the starter with Malhoa being preferred to Beatrice Adams who stayed back in her stall. Minia ran as pacemaker for Filogeo and the rest of the field was made up by the inconsistent Vasto and the Premio Elena third, Rebeshina. .The start was good and the early pace was not exceptionally fast with Minia just ahead of Filogeo, Sedan and Malhoa with the other three slightly behind. Coming into the stretch with half a mile to go Minia gave, way to Filogcro on the rail with Malhoa, Sedan and Pier Capponi running level about a half-length behind the Soldo colt. Two furlongs from home, Filogeo was under . the whip but could produce nothing extra and with no extra speed coming from the long striding- Malhoa, Pier Capponi and Sedan gradually went to the front and had the finish to themselves. The winners time was 2:05 as against the 2:03% of Ribot and Botticellis 2:04 when the track was,. if anything, slightly faster. t Pier Capponi thus justified the faith, of | his owner; Comm. Perego, and ot his young . trainer, Giuseppe Galbiati, who turned the | colt out in perfect condition. After his defeat by Sedan in the Premio San Gottardo when he tried to give the Ticino colt nine pounds in heavy going, there were many critics who were prepared to write Pier Capponi off as just another precocious juvenile. When we reviewed the two-year-olds last December, we mentioned that the official handicapper might not have done full justice to him and that we would have liked to see him rated a more clear-cut leader. A lot of this prejudice against Pier Capponi stems from the fact that he started his racing career in a selling race but the only reason he did so was because he was so small as a yearling that no one would buy him and he finished up in a stable who run only in sellers. After winning in his debut with a reserve of ,000 on his head; Pier- Capponi was bid up to ,000 by cx-jockey Paolo Caprioli acting on behalf of Giuseppe Galbiati who had to leave the auction ring to saddle, a runner in the next race. Galbiati had had charge of the undersized colt as a yearling and was so taken up by something about him that he persuaded Comm. Perego to buy him and neither has had cause to regret it since. Unfortunately, his lack of size was responsible for not entering him in the classics and so we will not sec him at the Capannellc on Derby day. We were pleasantly surprised at the forward running of Sedan. He is another whom we thought was underrated by the handicapper last year.. Being by Prince Bio out of the Orsenigo mare Staffa, Sedan should have no difficulty in getting the classical 1 H miles in the Derby and Filogeo and Malhoa will have to show tremendous improvement to beat him on. May 15. We did not expect top much from Malhoa over 10 furlongs for he obviously needs a long distance to make his undoubted stamina pay off but we were very disappointed with Filogeos display and candidly, we think he was short of a gallop. As we remarked, the pace was not excessively fast in the initial stages and bred as he is, Filogeo should not have liccn in trouble after going a mile. He turned his head to the leftwhen Parra-vani went to work on him and continued to run that way until he was cased near the finish. We dont intend to condemn him for lack of courage after one bad showing but we would like to sec him slraightcr in condition the next time he runs and lie might do better if allowed to make his own .running. On the preceding day the Razza Dormello-Olgiatas unbeaten 3-ycar-old Tie-polo pushed himself to the forefront of the classic picture when he won the Premio Gian Glncomo Trivulzio over 12 furlongs by 2 £• lengths from ithe Razza dl Rozzanos useful Tantieme colt, Zandonai with Leon DOr another eight lengths back in third place. Tiepolo took up the running half a mile from home to win hard held in 2:35s. His win might set Enrico Camici something of a problem when he comes to choose his mount on Derby day. At the Capanelle, there was a surprise result when the" 11-furlong Premio Corife Felice Scheibler was won by the Razza Ciampinos three-year-old colt Ciampino who caught Kabul on the post to win by a short head in a photo finish. The Razza Ticinos Oviedb, recent winner of the Premio Lazio,. .was third, another, four lengths back with Conte Neni Da Zaras Contc Lucio fourth, The victory of Ciampino was a very popular one for the Razza Ciampino is the xnom de course of General Alcssandro Pirzio Biroli, one of the best-loved owners in the Rome area. The Old general has made many sacrifices to keep his small .stable and stud going and this was his first important win in many years. It would be one of the romances of the turf if Ciampino could go on to win the Derby for tlie old general, and he carries the best wishes of all of us who admire so much the small breeder in his struggles and- heartbreaks.
