Evening star., 1939-03-26
Little Horse Earns
High Rating on His
Courage, Speed
Bought for $1,000, Wins
$84, 100 as 2-Yeor-OId
For Owner ZieeIer
BY MAX HILL.
Associated Press Sports Writer.

about a horse named Druco Syska
and that the colt won for him.
Nothing pleases an owner more than
to see his colors in front, and so
come summer Ziegler hied himself
to Saratoga and sought out a brown
colt with white blaze to match the
dream horse.
1t must be that the chunky sports
man plays lunches in the lottery
that is the Saratoga yearling sales
there are those who will tell you
It's as good way as any. He
went prowling around the paddocks
there the year before and found a
little colt that nobody else thought
much of.
Gets Bargain In Ell Chico.
He talked the matter over with
Matt Brady, his trainer, and then
one sultry August night he bid him
in-and has thanked his lucky stars
ever since.
There couldn't have been much
competition" said Ziegler. Look at
the price (s2,7OO) I paid for him."
He either couldn't remember or
wouldn't say who bid against him.
That would be rubbing it in. For
the colt he was talking about was
the chestnut son of John P. Grier-
La Chica Che has a good bit of red
in his coat, too), known to the turf
world as Ell Chico.
Evidently ziegler didn't have a
dream about Ell Chico. The matter
OF naming him was left up to one
of the Office girls.
The name the girl picked is Span
ish for "the little one" and Ell Chico
lived up to it last year, all right.
The books were balanced, though,
by his courage and almost perfect
action. He has a fine, free stride
that eats up ground.
Stars in Saratoga Special.
Chico. as they call him around
the stable, didn't even get in the
Futurity. That's how size fools even
good horsemen such as his breeders.
They didn't think it worthwhile to
make him eligible. So he was down
on Ziegler's Virginia farm taking
life easy when Porters Mite snagged
that rich prize.
Everything. including tradition.
seems to be against the winter book
favorite winning the Derby. Last
year 1t was Stagehand; he came
down with fever and didn't even
get to the post. Before that it
was Pompoon; he chased War Ad-
miral all the way and then a week
later in Maryland bowed to him
again in the Preakness.
There is this to say for Ell Chico.
He met the best of his age as a
juvenile, with the possible exception
of w. L. Brann's Challedon, and
sent them all back to their barns in
defeat. One August afternoon at
Saratoga he stepped furlongs so
fast that even his owner must have
blinked in astonishment.
That was in the Saratoga Spe-
cial-the bookmakers had healthy
fear Of him by that time and he
was held at 2 to sand he clipped
a second from the record for the
race and equaled the track record
Earns $84,100 as 2-Year- Old.
That record-1:1O and 2-5 Sec
onds-had stood unchallenged for
20 years. They say, too, that the
track now isn't nearly as fast as it
was then, and needless to say the
best horses in training have had
a crack at the mark through the
years.
AS 2-year-old Chico started
seven times, not once tasting defeat,
and only once coming close to it.
He earned s84, 100, which is a fancy
return on $4,000, to say the least.
Not so long ago we were at Bel
mont when they led Chico out onto
the track and sent him a half mile
in the easy time of 81 seconds. He
was full of run and the boy had
a time of it holding him in. Since
January they have been logging
him up with long gallops.
Brady has the traditional opti-
mism of the Irish and he thinks that
through the winter months Chico
has developed into a big little
horse" Since going into winter
quarters he has put on about 100
pounds of bone and sinew, and that
makes for stamina Everybody
knows the sort of blazing speed he
hands out.
Keen About Grier Line.
Bonn Smith, who handled Mrs.
Dodge Sloane's Cavalcade the year
he won the Derby and the 3-year-old
championship, has much good to
say of the Ziegler champion.
Hes well-made, nice-sized colt"
said Smith. "A horse doesn't have
to be big, strapping fellow like
Cavalcade and Gallant Fox to win at
a mile and a quarter" (The Derby
Is that distance and the Preakness
Is sixteenth shorter)
The deciding factors in Ziegler'S
decision to bid for Ell Chico. we un-
derstood, where his longtime ad-
miration for John P. Grier and the
fact that La Chica had dropped a
stake winning f1llly in Miyako the
year before.
Chico now is eligible for two-thirds
Of the triple crown for 3-year-olds
the Belmont and the Derby-and
Ziegler has said it's most likely he
will line up to pay the supple
mentary fee of $500 to get him into
the Preakness
There are those who eye Chico S
breeding with skepticism, and say
obviously that he's bred more for
speed than stay. For them Brady
has only one answer:
He went as far as asked him
to last year."