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WARREN WRIGHT Owner of Citation and Coaltown A victory by either in todays Derby renewal would give him three winners in the stake Whirlaway proving victorious in 1941 and Pensive three years later Citation Coaltown Top Field Of Seven in Kentucky Derby My Request and Escadru Main Rivals Of Calumet Pair in 100 000 Classic Entry to Be ShortestPriced Choice in History of Famed Churchill Downs Feature FeatureV V By BOB HORWOOD HORWOODCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky April 30 Six thoroughbred threeyear old colts are scheduled to parade to the j post at approximately 430 oclock 530 Central Daylight Time tomorrow after ¬ noon in the seventyfourth running of the Kentucky Derby Seven were named over ¬ night but one Galedo is extremely doubt ¬ ful fulThe The busy industrial city of Louisville be ¬ gan its annual bursting at the seams Thursday evening as visitors poured in from all parts of the country indicating that 100000 fans will fill every inch of the rambling stands at Churchill Downs in an attempt to see what promises to be a unique renewal of the classic mile and a quarter event with a net prize of 83300 computed on the basis of six starters awaiting the owner of the winner who is generally expected to be Warren Wright master of Calumet Farm In fact there will be some surprise if Wright doesnt also annex the 10000 accruing to the owner of the sec ¬ ond horse so formidable do his two colts Citation and Coaltown or as some prefer to put it Coaltown and Citation appear on the eve of the 100000 added stake stakeLoom Loom One to Five in Wagering WageringThe The bearers of the Devils red silks loom the shortestpriced favorites irrthe history of the Derby at not more than 1 to 5 The shortest previous odds on any Derby can ¬ didate was the 1 to 4 offered on Himyar in 1878 and it may interest the bridge jumpers to know that Himyar finished two lengths behind Day Star who led all the way wayFor For the first time since modern pari mutuel wagering was introduced at Churchill Downs in 1908 there will be only straight wagering on tomorrows Derby Though six horses representing five inter ¬ ests are expectedto go postward Col Matt Winn presiding genius of Churchill Downs has decided to eliminate place and show wagering in view of the overwhelming fa ¬ voritism of Calumet Farms Citation and Coaltown which would certainly result in a substantial minus place pool if either colt is first or second All of the 42 sellers win j dows which will open for early purchases of tickets on the Derby will be converted to sell win tickets tomorrow Winn made the announcement after a conference with mutuels manager E A Weidekamp and general manager Russell E Sweeney at which Sweeney said that he has been defi ¬ nitely informed that Galedo would be with ¬ drawn leaving six starters Citation and Coaltown will be opposed tomorrow by Ben F Whitakers My Re ¬ quest W L Branns Escadru Walmac Farms Billings and Mrs John Payson Adams Grandpere C A ONeil Jrs Galedo also appeared in the entries this morning but is an exceedingly doubtful starter starterMy My Request is generally conceded the i best chance of causing an upset if there Galedo Entered but Wont Fill Engagement To Offer Win Wagering Only on Race must be an upset The son of Requested won five stakes and an overnight race in his 13 starts last year and is unbeaten in four appearances this season In that re ¬ spect his 1948 record is as good as that of Coaltown and better than that of Citation who suffered one defeat at Havre de Grace After winning an overnight handicap at New Orleans Fair Grounds My Request won both the six furlongs and the mile and onesixteenth divisions of the Experimental Handicap at Jamaica carrying top weight in both races and scoring easily Eddie Ar caro who will ride Citation tomorrow rode the Whitaker colt in both ends of the Ex ¬ perimental With Doug Dodson in the saddle My Request came back last Sat ¬ urday to win the Wood Memorial with speed to spare and six previous winners of that fixture have gone on to win the Derby in which his daddy finished four ¬ teenth after winning the Wood Dodson will ride again tomorrow and the former Calumet rider appears to fit the colt well wellIn In most recent years My Requests per ¬ formances to date would be considered good enough to send him to the post a solid Derby favorite He will probably be no less than 5 to 1 tomorrow Such is the reputation of the Calumet colorbearers colorbearersThe The vast majority of the throng at Churchill Downs will be attracted by the prospect of obtaining a dramatic answer to the question of which is the better of these two colts the established champion or the Johnnycomelately JohnnycomelatelyChampion Champion Colt of 1947 1947Citation Citation ranked at the head of his gen ¬ eration last year winning eight of his nine Starts and only succumbing to his stable mate Bewitch at that time a phenom ¬ enally fast filly He showed he could go a distance at the end of the season by win ¬ ning the Pimlico Futurity at a mile and a sixteenth on a muddy track This season he beat olddr horses at Hialeah then cap ¬ tured the Everglades Handicap and Fla ¬ mingo Stakes at a mile and a furlong scor ¬ ing with ease but not beating very rriuch and showing a tendency to loaf in the Everglades Moving north to Maryland Citation was beaten at six furlongs by Saggy in the Chesapeake Trial but fully avenged this defeat in the longer Ches ¬ apeake Stakes a week later On Tuesday of this week he had no trouble disposing disposingContinued Continued on Page FiftyTwo Citation and Coaltown Head Seven In SeventyFourth Kentucky Derby My Request and Escadru Main Rivals of Calumet Pair in 700000 Race RaceContinued Continued from Page One Oneof of Escadru in the Derby Trial at one mile mileIncidentally Incidentally Citation is going up against a double hoodoo no previous winner of either the Belmont Futurity or the Derby Trial ever having been able to win the Derby but Coaltown began to electrify all beholders he was regarded as a virtual certainty to smash two of the traditional jinxes of this uncertain sport sportCoaltown Coaltown did not race as a twoyear old being troubled with an abscess in the region of sinuses that once caused him to fall with a hemorrhage while galloping and later suffering from a throat condition However he began to dazzle workwatchers at Hialeah and was made a favorite over a large field for his debut winning easily and in good time In his next appearance at the Florida track Coaltown equalled the sixfurlong track mark scoring by a dozen lengths with the late Albert Snider liter ¬ ally holding the reins with all his might to keep the colt from running right out from under him himAfter After being freshened Coaltown came to Kentucky and beat a sharp field of older sprinters with ease in the Phoenix Handi ¬ cap at Keeneland not taking the lead until the quarter pole then running away from his rivals Newbold Leroy Piersbn who will be in the saddle tomorrow rode Coaltown for the first time in this race Skeptics still insisted that Coaltown was a sprinter though he was a son of Bull Lea like Citation His dam Easy Lass however is a sister to the speedy sire Easy Mon but her dam Slow and Easy was by Colin ColinCoaltown Coaltown answered almost all doubts as to his ability to go a route when he smashed the Keeneland track record for a mile and a furlong in the Blue Grass Stakes with Pierson reaching for more wraps in the stretch Coaltown showed Wednesday morning that he retains all his speed by working six furlongs over the safe Churchill Downs strip in 112 with no apparent effort Horses have not been equalling that time in most sixfurlong races at this meeting though Citation was timed threequarters in 110 under wraps in the Derby Trial TrialSome Some observers feel that Escadrus effort in the Derby Trial in which he was beaten a little more than a length by Citation is not to be taken at face value While the winner finished under wraps the Brann colt was certainly not punished Escadru finished far behind My Request in both divisions of the Experimental at Jamaica lugging in on both occasions a habit he displayed last year He then scored an upset in an overnight race at a mile and a sixteenth in which he knocked King Ranchs betterregarded Better Self right out of the Derby and ran straight and true all but about three strides of the way Ar ¬ nold Kirkland who will ride tomorrow had no trouble straightening the son of Chal ¬ lenger II when he did try to bear in at the head of the stretch stretchA A muddy track would enhance the pros ¬ pects of both Escadru and My Request to some extent while the Calumet entourage believe that their colts prefer a dry strip stripGaledo Galedo a twin suffered a gash on a hind leg in his last race and trainer Tommy Tault has said that there was a bare possibility that he would run if deep mud prevailed tomorrow Indications are for clear skies and a fast track trackBillings Billings and Grandpere are the more or less forgotten horses in this years Derby They are both nice colts but have been lightly raced this spring and hardly seem teady to offer serious competition to the Calumet colts or My Request as yet Mel Peterson a capable West Coast pilot who has been doing well in Kentucky this spring will ride Billings while the veteran Johnny Gilbert will handle Graridpere GraridpereEddie Eddie Arcaro who is tied with Earl Sande and Isaac Murphy for the Derby record of three winners is donating a substantial portion of his share of the winning riders percentage of the purse to the widow of Albert Snider who would have ridden either Citation or Coaltown had he not been lost in a storm off the Florida keys last March It is the custom in the Calumet entourage to divide the winning riders 10 per cent equally among the jockeys of the stable when they are running an entry in a stake
