Imperial Valley press., 1940-08-08
PARADE
BY HENRY McLEMORE

NEW YORK, Aug. 8. (UP) -
The greatest horse this country
ever produced-with the possible ex-
ception of Man O War, Extermin-
ator, Seabiscuit, Gallant Fox, Sys-
onby, Twenty Grand, Discovery,
Sun Beau, Cavalcade, Reign Count,
Hindoo Omaha, War Admiral, and
some 5000 others-will take another
shot at the 1910 three-year-old
championship on Saturday.
I speack of course of that bibli-
cally manner bran-ubrner Bimelich,
who started playing hell with us
experts at Louisville in early May,
and hasn't stopped yet. BY blowing
the derby, then the Withers, and
then the Arlington classic, he made
our faces so red that boy scouts
mistook us for Indians and stopped
us to ask how to trap muskrats,
the best way to cure scalps, and
if it were true that you could trail
bear by watching the way moss
grew on trees.
Bimelech, being a well-bred horse,
will try to apologize for his earlier
mistakes by winning the American
derby at Chicagos Washington
Park this weekend. He will carry
1875 pounds over the mile and one
quarter route, and most of them
will be strange pounds to him. Be-
cause los or so of the poundage
will belong to Basil James, the
jockey chosen by Colonel E. r.
Bradley to replace Freddie Smith
on Bimelechs back.
Now I wonder how he is going
to react to this change in jockeys?
When Washington Parks paddock
Judge calls riders up!" on Satur-
day, and James climbs aboard, it
will be the first time since Bime-
lech felt saddle on his back that
any other boy but Smith has taken
charge of him. Will he rebel against
a strange voice talking to him,
strange hands handling his proud
head and tender mouth? Will he,
somewhere down in his thorough
bred heart, feel that he and Freddie
came up together, and that he and
Freddie should go down together,
if that be the decision of the rae
ing fates?
The chances are that he won't.
Thoroughbred horses aren't exactly
Phi Beta Kappas, and besides,
Jockeys look so much alike, what
with their walnut-cameo faces,
that even their parents must have
trouble picking them out by means
other than their different silks.
The truth of the matter is, Bime-
lech probably will enjoy the ride
by Basil James.
According to men who profess
to know about such things James
is one of the cutest things on
horseback since Paul Revere, and
that Freddie Smith cuts one of
the sorriest figures since the now
Duke of Windsor spent Saturday
afternoons falling off. There are
some critics of horse flesh who
blame Smith, not Bimelech, for
the Bradley colts defeats, and who
say that with a star rider from
the first Bimelech would have lived
up TO all OF the race notices he
got prior to post time at the derby
in dear old Kentucky.
Well, we'll know better about
that around cleaning time on Sat-
urday. If Bemelech can head the
big parade at Washington Park,
he will come mighty close to rivet-
ing claim to the three-year-ol
championship. All his rivals will
be in there with him-Gallahadion,
and Midland. Gallahadion
nipped the Bradley baby at Louis
vile, and Sirocco whipped him in
The classic. But if Bimelech can
take this one, the victory, coupled
with his wins in the Preakness and
Belmont stakes, will make him the
top three-year-old of the year. If
he doesn't-well, he and Freddie
Smith can take quiet canter into
the country and talk things over.