Evening star., 1938-05-01
WOODWARD COLT
VICTOR EASED UP
Runs Other Downs HopetuIs
Into Ground as He Nips
Gallant Fox's Time.
~ the Associated Press.

NEW YORK. April 80. Fighting
Fox, latest in the line of famous horses
from William Woodwards Belair stud,
headed toward Churchill Downs and
the Kentucky Derby tonight.
With a performance that surpassed
that of his famous brother, Gallant
Fox. the bay son of Sir Gallahad, Sd,
today took the measure OF eight other
3-year -olds, four of them also eligible
for the Derby. in the mile and 70
yards of the $4,000 Wood Memorial
at Jamaica.
He did 1t in a manner that indi-
Gated he will be real threat when
the distance is stretched out to a mile
and quarter at the Downs one week
from today Closing in the stretch in
q manner that recalled the feats OF
his brother, Fighting Fox crossed the
finish line lengths in front of the
fast-closing Can't Wait, Myron Selz-
nick's Derby hope.
Opera Hat Runs Third.
Opera Hat, a non-Derby eligible
owned by Mrs. Amory Haskell's Wood
land Farm. lost runner-up honors in
. photo finish, but had the satisfac-
ton of taking the measure of such
highly regarded Derby candidates as
Hal Price Headley's Bourbon King and
w. S. Kilmer's Nedayr.
Bourbon King. winner of the Chesa-
peake Stakes at Havre De Grace last
Saturday. was fourth. lengths back
Of Opera Hat, while Nedayr trailed by
another lengths in fifth place Mrs
w. P. Stewards Pasteurized. only other
Derby horse in the field. was sixth.
The performances of Nedayr and
Pasteurized eliminated them from Der
by consideration. as neither will make
tive trip to the Downs
Fighting Fox not only scored con-
vincing victory. but his time Of l:43
fat was three -fifths of second faster
than the time made by Gallant Fox
IN winning the stake in 1890. 1t also
was only second slower than Pom
pey's stake record, but lacked one and
four-flfths seconds of equaling the
track mark
The Fox. made the to 10 favorite
by the crowd of 1900 to win the
purse Of Sl7450. lost no time proving
Trainer James Fitzsimmons' conten-
ton that he is faster horse than
either Gallant Fox or Omaha. 1885
Derby winner.
Opera Hat broke in front. but
Jimmy Stout had the Fox right on
his heels from the start Never more
than length and half separated
the pair as they took the first turn
and swung down the back stretch with
Nedayr in third place. Bourbon King
fourth and Can't Wait far back.
Nedayr and Bourbon King closed in
at the turn out of the back stretch,
but were unable to maintain the pace.
Opera Hat still was in front rs they
hit the home stretch. hree-sixteenths
Of mile from the judges.
Winner Eased Up.
There Stout gave the Fox of Belair a
few cracks of the bat and the smooth
striding bay stuck his nose in front
and never stopped until he had the
situation well in hand. Stout eased
up in the final strides, but George
Woolf kept driving with Can't Wait.
getting the Selznick colt up in the
nnal strides for second place.
Fitzsimmons tried to make it q
double in s furlongs of the $4,000
Jamaica Handicap. but the speedy
Merry Lassie from the Wheatlev Stable
stopped in the stretch and yielded
honors to Walter Carter's Clodion. a
S-to-1 shot. A length separated the
pair at the finish. with E. w. Duffys
Grey Gold six lengths back in third
place.