Judges Stand: Belmont Route Seems to Fit Escadru; Longdens Technique Proves Effective; Armed May Find 130 Heavier at Age of 7; Lea Lark Is Candidate for Easts Oaks, Daily Racing Form, 1948-05-05

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JUDGES STAND BY CHARLES HATTON LOUISVILLE Ky May 4 Free Staters who went about singing Maryland My Maryland when Challedon won the Preakness in 1939 now have a rooting interest in an ¬ other threeyearold classic colt that W L Brann reared in their commonwealth This is of course Eseadru who is trained by Ed Christmas of Laurel Further he is by Challenger n out of a Sir Gallahad in mare so that he is bred from the same cross which produced Challedon and the amazon Gallorette Chat ¬ ting with Christmas here recently we ventured that the mile and a half of the Belmont Stakes might fit Eseadru better than the route of any other threeyearold special I am inclined to think so too he said adding that His races suggest that he can stay It is quite possible that Eseadru will develop into a worthwhile substitute for Gallorette who is to be retired to the stud at the end of 48 and bred to Bull Lea Gallorette hasTeturned to the races in splendid form this spring Many felt that she was out of her element opposing Rippey at six fur ¬ longs but she ran him to a neck Gallorettes record must be particularly gratifying to Christmas Unlike most of his profession who prefer to train colts Christmas said that he is partial to a good mare That was at the Spa several years before he became the Brann trainer and developed Gallorette from a leggy yearling to The Worlds Richest Race Mare t Johnny Longden has been a most perseverant rider arid his record of more than 3000 winners seems likely to stand long after his stirrups have been made into book ends Longden is an unaffected little pigskin idol with a mild tenor drawl and a talent for getting a lot of run out of horses The only criticism we have ever heard of his riding is that he hustles his mounts to the Belmont Route Seems to Fit Eseadru Longden s Technique Proves Effective Armed May Find 730 Heavier at Age of 7 Lea Lark Is Candidate for Easts Oaks front and we think that one may well ask if that is bad His records attest that his technique is effective JBy the way he has become a successful western cattle rancher and is also a breeder of thoroughbreds in a small way A A A AArmed Armed may reappear soon in he East He now is a veteran of seven and we do not expect him to be quite so formidable as in past seasons although he may win some important races Armed is like an athlete in his late 30s and it would be rather extraordinary if he could pick up 130 and consistently whip younger rivals at much weight disadvantage We well remember that Exter ¬ minator won 10 races at seven but then Armed puts a good deal more zip into his performances and the handi ¬ cap leaders of today are almost constantly encountering fresh horses This observer is quite content to leave the handicapping to the handicappers but were afraid that we cannot agree with the school of thought that the modern horse is a weakling compared to the weight car ¬ riers of the heat race era When the Kentucky Associa ¬ tion adopted its Rules and Regulations in 1926 its scale of weights was as follows Twoyearolds a feather threeyearolds 80 pounds fouryearolds 94 pounds fiveyearolds 106 pounds si yearolds 114 pounds The maximum was 120 on aged horses and fillies and geldings were allowed three pounds Nearly all of our most successful jockeys of today would have been considered too heavy heavyA A A A Col Duvie Headley is rather conservative in his opinions but he says of Charlton Clays Lea Lark that this is a good mare Clay tells us that while she was winning a mile event at the Downs her dam Colosseum was foaling a full sister to her at his Paris stud She also has a yearling sister Clay went on Their photo ¬ graphs at that age are interchangeable I am breeding the mare to Count Fleet this spring Clay declares that Lea Lark has more sense than any other horse I have ever owned She has been a contender with Calumets Bull Lea filly Bewitch pretty much as Durazna was with Twilight Tear This seemq to illustrate Ben Jones point about selling seasons to Bull Lea The Clay filly will spend a good deal of her time in the East this season She is in the Pimlico Oaks Delaware Oaks Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks Clays experience with Colosseum is something to convince one that even after breeding the best to the best it often helps to also have luck He bought Arena at auction for 2600 when she was three and from her bred Amphitheatre whom he sold and Colosseum whom he could not When Colosseum was a yearling she ran into a paddock fence and thrust one hoof through a thick plank v We had to saw down the fence to get her out Clay reminisdes Of course she could not be offered after that and she was always a cripple but she was game and equalled the world record for four and a half furlongs furlongsA A A A ATurfiana Turfiana Ed Johnstone reports that the mare Diane de Portiers a daughter of the celebrated Plucky Liege has foaled a bay colt by Hunters Moon IVIhat is 41 inches at the withers at birth Two halfbrothers of Bull Lea have spent a good deal of their time siring hunters One was Espino who sired three foals in his first stud season one of them Esposa and an high per ¬ centage of stakes winners in several other small crops before he died in Virginia The other is Ten Carat by Jean Valjean who is serving in Michigan is 13 and is said to have two foals tohave raced one a winner at Ohios Ascot Park


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Local Identifier: drf1948050501_40_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800