The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-04-18
Lack of Standouts Makes
Classic Open Race,
VIM Asserts.
BY JOE WILLIAMS

New York World-Telegram Sports Editor
NEW YORK, April 18.-While
4 my old friends and intimate
associates, the dear old docs, are
trying to decide what to do with
and about my vermiform appendix
whether to freeze it into a the
rapeutic asset or yank it out as an
object lesson to hayward youths-I
find restful solace in the sport page
headlines.
I note, for instance, that w. r.
Goes Ladysman, champion 2-year-
old of 1882, and more or less popu-
lar choice in the winter books to
win the Kentucky Eerby, conceded
from eight to sixteen pounds to a
pretty fair field and yet hand1ly
won his first start as a Swear old.
And in the same dispatches, 1
note that Dynastic, the star of Mrs.
Payne Whitney'S Greentree Stable,
is moping around his stall out in
Lexington with a fever, wheeling
and coughing in such manner as
to indicate that he will not be
ready to start in the Derby.
To an old boss fancier this is both
good news and bad. I mean it is
good to know that Ladysman has
come back to the races with his old
speed, and it is bad to hear that
Dynastic, unplaced only twice in
ten starts a year ago, is ailing. I
have a sort of felt that if one of
these colts didn't win at Churchill
Downs the other would.
MOT many critics agree the 1888
- Derby is that kind of a race.
Among these is one man who ought
to know little more about the
Derby than anybody else in Amer
lea, because he has seen them all
every Derby that has been run since
1875, when Aristides, a smallish red
chestnut, came home in front to
win neager purse of $3.50.
l refer to Colonel Matt Winn,
whose combined showmanship and
business acumen has ballooned the
race into a $4,000 fixture-one of
the few such fixtures, incidentally.
that will be run at it's high-Water
tlgures this year. The Colonel in
slsts the Derby is anybody's race.
You know who'll be the favor
lte?" demanded the colonel, who is
round of face, frosty haired, nearly
seventy and ringer for Guy Kibbe |
Of the Pickering photographs.
well, I'll tell you," continued the
colonel. THAT old many-legged
boss"
The colonel patiently explained
5hat he meant the field. The field |
N racing consists of any number
81 horses, beyond nine, which in
the track handicapper's Judgment |
10 not figure to be in the money.
To be more explicit, when there
IS a race with more than nine start
9rs there is a field Odds are laid
Individually against nine of the
starters-the supposedly nine best.
All the others are grouped at one
price, whether there are two or
twenty others. Thus it is possible
70 have, in extreme cases. as MANY
as twenty hosses, running for you
On one bet.
NNLY at rare intervals does a
~ field boss win an important
race, and when this occurs naturally
t is a spectacular upset, because
generally speaking field bosses are
little better than third base UNI
olres. They don't mean a thing.
Still field boss once won the Derby,
Flying Ebony in 1925. with a handy
guy named Sande booting him
nome.
"And furthermore" went on
Colonel VIM, 81 wouldn't be sur
orised to see the field the favorite
his year" Now that is something
% ponder! The field the favorite in
most coforful race!
Obviously this is not high fiat
5ery for the Derby. 1t implies very
broadly that there isn't real boss
N the race And to the extent that
there is not a standout-a Reign |
Count, Gallant Fox or Twenty
Grand-this is unquestionably so.
The Colonel looks for the biggest
starting group in history. Maybe
twenty five" With twenty-five
here would be sixteen in the field.
and under the circumstances the
field might easily be the favorite.