The Derby Is Coming

This year's Kentucky Derby will be run at Churchill Downs this Saturday. Each year, in the past three years, there has been an outstanding winter-book favorite: in 1938, Stagehand; in 1939, El Chico; last year, Bimelech. But this year there has been no Big Horse.

Warren Wright's Whirlaway, top money winner among last year's juveniles, lost prestige in Florida in losing two of his first three races as a three-year-old. Our Boots, who showed his heels to Whirlaway in three races last year (including the Belmont Futurity), looked good to some folks--particularly his owner, Millionaire Royce Martin of Toledo, and his trainer, cadaverous old Steve Judge. But superstitious fans remembered that no Belmont Futurity winner has ever won the Ken tucky Derby.

Last week Whirlaway and Our Boots met in the mile-and-an-eighth Blue Grass Stakes, traditional Derby preview, at Lex ington, Ky. It was a holiday in horsy Lexington. Both Whirlaway and Boots were born within whinnying distance of Lexington's courthouse. Natives, who knew that Our Boots, by Bulldog out of Maid of Arches, comes from a family notable for speed rather than staying qualities, made Whirlaway the favorite.

Two other Derby eligibles were entered, just to make a race of it: Valdina Paul and Valdina Groom, two of Texan Emerson Woodward's herd, all named Valdina Something-or-other, that have invaded U.S. tracks this year. But from the flag's fall it was a two-horse race. Our Boots was ridden by little Conn McCreary, who is so small he looks like a pussycat on a horse. Puss McCreary acted like a wise old cat. Leading from the start, he eased Our Boots in the backstretch, let Whirlaway get in front. Then, rounding the home turn, Puss and Boots shot past Whirlaway, three, four, five, six lengths at the wire. Explained disappointed Kentuckians: Whirly won't run unless there is someone in front of him--he loses interest. "Don't count him out," they chirped, "it will be different in the Big Race."

But bookmakers promptly made Our Boots an 8-to-5 favorite. Quoted at 4-to-1 were Whirlaway and Charles S. Howard's Porter's Cap (son of The Porter and The Blonde), who ran away with the rich Santa Anita Derby last February. At 8-to-1 were Texan Robert Kleberg's Dispose, big horse of Florida's winter season, and J. Frederick Byers' Robert Morris, a 200-to-1 shot in the winter books--before he outran half a dozen older horses in the Excelsior Handicap at Jamaica last fortnight.

Still, the horseshoe of roses may well go to a longshot--such as Blue Pair, Little Beans or Market Wise, who was an unlikely starter until he beat King Cole, the East's leading candidate, in the Wood Memorial at Jamaica last week. Market Wise's owner, a Long Island businessman named Louis Tufano, took part of the $16.000 he won, hired a private car, shipped his Cinderella horse to Churchill Downs.

There may be a shortage of aluminum for shoes, but horse racing should boom this summer. Thoroughbreds are not likely to be drafted. Most trainers are too old and jockeys too small to serve in the Army. The five-day week will encourage workers with bulging pay envelopes to get acquainted with the "sport of kings." Last week at New York's Jamaica race track, in suburban Long Island, fans set a world's record for pari-mutuel bets. In the first seven days of its spring meeting, $5,786,152 was wagered--an average of $826,593 a day.

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