Evening star., 1940-04-30
Would Break Streak
Of Nine Failures BY
Winter Choices
Many Juvenile Winners
Lack Stuminu to Make
Grade in Long Race
By ROBERT HENRY,

II Bimelech wins the Kentucky
Derby on Saturday he will become
the first horse to achieve the most
priced racing double in the world
the Belmont Futurity and the Ken
lucky Derby Since 1888 some so
thoroughbreds have had chances to
win both races.
Last year Bimelech scored handy
victory in the $4,000 2-year-old race
at Belmont and when the winter
books for the Derby opened three
months ago Col. E. R. Bradley's un-
beaten colt was quoted at 8 to /. the
shortest priced winter book favorite
since long range odds first were
quoted in 1919. Since that time only
three of these choices have gone on
to victory in the Louisville classic
They were Norwich, Reign Count
and Gallant Fox. The last nine
have failed
A sensationally fast colt named
Proctor Knott - unbeaten as a
Juvenile-Won the first Futurity and
was an odds-on favorite the follow
ing spring in the Derby. However,
after a bitter struggle through the
long Churchill Downs stretch a 10
to-1 shot named Spokane nosed
him out. Since then only one
Futurity winner has been able to
finish even among the first three in
the Derby. That was Pompoon, which
chased War Admiral home in 1887.
Many Fail to Start in Derby.
Of course, many Futurity winners
failed to start in the Derby. Such
great 2-year-olds as Man O. War,
jamestown, Top Flight, High Strung
and Anita Peabody won the Futurity
and missed the Kentucky race the
next year. Usually front-running
speed horse wins the Futurity, a
6l2-furlong dash run over a straight
course, and few of them have the
stamina to win the main 3-year-old
prizes later on. High Strung was a
notable example
After Proctor Knott made his bid
for the Futurity-Derby double it was
not until 1916 that another Futurity
winner started in the Derby. That
was the late Harry Payne Whitneys
Thunderer, the favorite. However,
the late John Sanford's outsider,
George Smith, won as Thunderer
finished fifth.
Following that failure 10 years
before another Futurity WIN
ner ran in the Derby This time it
was the late w. R. Goes Pompey.
Although well-backed second
choice he, too, failed to finish in the
money as Col. Bradley's favored
pair of Bubbling Over and Baggen-
baggage ran one-tWo. The late
Laverne Fator, who rode Pompey,
won the next Futurity aboard Walter
M. Jefford's Man o. War colt, Scapa
Flow, which started for the 1926
Derby a 7-to-1 shot. Whitney's
greatly improved horse, Wiskery, was
the choice and won easily as Scapa
Flow tired in the stretch to finish
ninth. Man O. War, which won the
1919 Futurity, was not nominated for
the Derby by his owner. Samuel D.
Riddle.
Kerry Patch Inconsistent.
It was five years later that another
Futurity winner went to the post
for the Derby That was Lee Rosen-
berg's surprising colt, Kerry Patch.
which had won the rich juvenile
race at odds of so to 1. In the Derby
Kerry was Is to l and ran a poor
seventh as Col. Bradley won his
fourth Derby with the previous nom
winner, Brokers Tip.
The next year Mrs. John Hay
fleet but faint-hearted
Singing Wood tried for the big
double, but ran as 24-to-1 shot
figured to run and ended up in
eighth place as Mrs. Dodge Sloan's
great Cavalcade thundered home
first. Next to last in that Derby was
Alex Gordon's huge colt, Sir Thomas,
which had been nosed out by Singing
Wood in the Futurity. Gordon is the
trainer who gave Bimelech his early
preparation for this years Derby.
In 1886 Pompoon, owned by Jerry
cantered home in the
Futurity to become a strong winter
book favorite for the Derby. How
ever, along came Riddles colt, War
Admiral, to beat Pompoon, which
was an 8-to-1 shot that day. War
Admiral did not start in the
Futurity.
The next year Hal Price Headley's
good-looking colt, Menow, tried to
make the double. MenoW had won
his Furity in world record time, but
found the IA miles of the Derby
too much. An 8-to-1 shot in that
event, he set the pace for a mile
and then folded as Herbert Woolf's
8-to-1 shot, Lawrin, bounded in first.
Reign Count Sacrificed.
A colt named Reign Count, owned
by Mr.. and Mrs. John D. Hertz,
could have won both races except
that he was pulled up in the 1927
Futurity to allow his unbeaten
stablemate, Anita Peabody, to win.
The next year Reign Count won the
Derby by three lengths with Anita
on the shelf.
In 1884 Col. Bradley watched his
highly regarded colt, Balladier,
badly bumped at the start of the
Futurity, come from last place to
second behind Joseph E. Widener's