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Reports From Foreign Racing Centers Italy 1 Royalty Charmed By Ribot, Braque By DESMOND McGOWAN Our Rome Correspondent ROME. — After 4 days of cloudy and unsettled weather the sun shone down in all its Elory for the visit of Her Majesty The Queen Mother and Princess Elizabeth to see the stallions Ribot and Braque at the Marchese Incisas Ol-giata Stud on the outskirts of Rome. Having expressed the wish that their last day in Rome should be spent quietly, no members of the press were present and the whole atmosphere of the visit was one of charming informality. After 15 minutes spent visiting Ribot and Braque in their large, airy boxes, we had the honor of being presented to the Queen Mother and she told us that she was particularly interested in Braque since she had heard quite a lot about him but had never seen him run and was it true that he was a very good horse. We ventured the opinion that if Braque had had the opportunities that came Ribots way, he might have proved himself very little behind the champion. The Queen Mothers expert eye had not failed to note the quality of the pasture and we told her that before Olgiata had been converted into a breeding farm, it had been the annual practice of transferring the foals from Dormello so that they would be able to obtain the benefits of the. sun and grass during the winter months at Olgiata. The second half of the visit included a tour of several of the paddocks where broodmares and foals were enjoying the | ! sun and the Queen Mother proved herself j no stranger to horses as she walked amongst them. An enjoyable hours visit was terminated by a look around the modern, spotlessly clean boxes where the | visiting mares are housed and the Royal ! j party were visibily impressed by the whole | layout and congratulated the Marchese Incisa on what must be one of the most up- ! [ -to-date and perfectly supervised studs in the world. ! The Marchese Incisa told us afterwards that Botticelli will probably stand at Olgiata when Ribot departs fir his five-year spell in America. He is not tremendously keen on having two half-brothers standing together and he would like to lease a first-class British stallion in Botticellis place but the difficulty is that nearly all the top stallions in Great Britain are syndicated. I I The Mantova Stables three-year-old Rio I | Marin once again put himself at the head I I of his contemporaries when he scored a , j two lengths victory in the classical Premio I Emanuele Filiberto run over 10 furlongs on perfect going at San Siro. Rio Marin put up the very fast time of 2 :03%, the third best for the track but conditions were all in favor of fast times. Nine runners faced the starter with the Marchese del Penninos Sputnik being an unfortunate absentee. The colt had been declared a runner in the morning but he knocked himself slightly before the meeting opened and had to be withdrawn. The injury is not serious and he must have stood a fair chance of winning had he run. Rio Marin hit the front with 2 furlongs to go and though he was a comfortable winner we gained the impression that he had little in reserve had there been anything to challenge him at the finish and we give the palm to jockey Saverio Pacifici for the way he took up the running once Prin-ceps had dropped out after making the pace for stablemate Marino. Palatino and the Roman-trained colt Marino, the conqueror of Sputnik in the Premio Lazio. had a great struggle over the last 300 yards with Palatino winning a place. The Razza Dormello-Olgiatas De-v place. The Razza Dormello — Olgiata s De-Voos and the Razza del Soldos Chera finished well back and both failed to stay. It looks as if the former stable might be without a runner in the Derby but the Razza del Soldo now has great hopes of Mileto winning the Blue Riband since he scored a 12 lengths victory during the week over the filly Azia who had finished third in the 2,000 Guineas and he is therefore the first of the Derby hopes to have won over the classical distance of one and one half miles. The Marchese del Pennino and trainer Count Vittorio di San Marzano, immediately following the withdrawal of Sputnik, took a fast car down to Florence and San Marzano arrived in time to saddle up the four-year-old Ouragan who was one of the fancied horses to win Italys oldest handicap, the ,000 Premio dellArno run over 11 furlongs. Bought by Mario Coccia to act as a lead horse this year for Sputnik, Ouragan was a useful winner in England last year and he took full advantage of being let in the handicap with the lightweight of 105 to win comfortably from the fancied Arsie in a field of 14. This was a welcome win for Pennino and San Marzano and it fully compensated them for the disappointment in the Emanuele Filiberto. Ouragan is more than useful and it would not surprise us to see him add more large stakes to his name as the season progresses.
