Evening star., 1941-05-02
From the
Press Box
Fish-FY Group Backs
Our Boots for Derby
BY JOHN LARDNER,


Special Correspondent of The Star.
NEW YORK, May 2 (N.ANA).
The Our Boots Fish-Fry and
Mandolin Society now will come to
order The secretary will skip the
minutes of the previous meeting and
read our selections for the Kentucky
Derby, as follows:
l. Our Boots.
2. Robert Morris
8 Whirlaway
At the moment it looks as though
II horses would start in the Derby
at Churchill Downs tomorrow, give
or take a horse, and Boots should
beat all the others, come rain, hail
or dust.
Naturally, the Our Boots sh-Fry
and Mandolin Society feels uncom-
Portable about backing favorite.
The members strictly are long-shot
players and hunch men by nature
and training. We would prefer to
have some obscure camel like Gal
lahaGion, last years winner, which
paid 35 to l. But at least, we got
aboard Our Boots before he became
the public choice, before he whipped
Whirlaway last week, when Whirl-
away was favored.
We couldn't expect Our Boots
to hide his talent until the very
start of the Derby. Glass is bound to
tell.
Father Mother Sweet
Gray-Hoired Couple
And now Is the time to describe
the life and habits of the splendid
animal which will carry the 81 bills
of the Fish-Fry and Mandolin So
ciety (as well as Jockey Conn Nc
Creary) on his back tomorrow
In Americas favorite horse race.
Everybody will be telling you about
him after the race. We will beat
the gun.
Our Boots father and mother are
q sweet, gray-haired couple (neither
of them born in a log cabin named
Bulldog and Maid of Arches. Bull
dog is a good father and husband
and You can't blame him if he comes
home after dark once in a while.
He used to do the same thing when
he was racing, if the distance was
more than mile.
Our Boots was bought by Royce
G. Martin as a yearling for $500,
and when you consider that he won
s72,551 his first year on the track,
you get sort of vague impression
that Mr.. Martin knew what he was
doing. Cliff Porter was Boots first
trainer. He broke him out in a
maiden race in June, 1940-a late
start, as these things go-and Boots
won by four lengths.
New Trainer Brought Out
WoodyoIe Horse
Boots went to Arlington for the
July racing, but his luck was no
good. He buckled his legs in a trial
race and didn't even start in the
Arlington Futurity. in which the
parade was led by Swain.
We now will skip a month in our
hero's life. There is nothing to
hide. mind you; Boots did not take
to drink, or indorse toothpaste, or
sell phoney gold mine stock. All he
did was acquire new trainer, Steve
Judge, Martins partner in the Wood
vale Farm. While Whirlaway and
New World were romping away with
the glory at Saratoga, and King
Cole was guiding visiting horses to
the finish line at Aqueduct, Our
Boots was lying low. He burst into
bloom at Belmont in the fall.
They ran 2-year-old race down
the chute there, before the Belmont
Futurity, and Boots beat the stuff
ing out of New World and Whirl-
away. The critics agreed that this
was all mistake.
Our Boots Showed En-
Ii Was No Mistake
The Futurity came along, the
country's richest race next to the
Santa Anita Handicap, and the
boys ignored Our Boots. This also
was mistake. He collared New
World, Whirlaway and King Cole
and passed them as though they
Wc1S SeoAld4A1S QUILL, WAllSll I11Cy may
well have been.
In the Pimlico Futurity, in the
mud, Boots racing luck was not so
good. He was cramped and jostled,
but he ran to a photo finish with
Bold Irishman, the winner, and
once more he gave the back of his
hand to Whirlaway. That race
showed that Boots liked the slop
as well as the dry, and that he could
carry his speed for more than a mile.
The kids 3-year-old debut came
on April 10. He win easy, as we
say on the turf. Last week he
whipped the nearest horse Cyou
guessed it, Whirlaway) by six
lengths.
That's a mighty consistent horse,
Our Boots" says Mr.. Sunny James
Fitzsimmons. trainer of King Cole.
He'll run good every time out. And
he'll do everything you ask him to
do"
Okay. We're asking him to win
the Kentucky Derby. And I think
Our Boots is the baby who can do it.