Evening star., 1941-04-06
From the
Press Box
Four Derby Fovorites
On Winter Book
By JOHN LARDNER,

Special Correspondent of The Star.
NEW YORK, April 5 CN.AN.AD
In the winter book of DR.. James
J. Carroll. prominent logarithmist
of st. Louis. the odds on the Ken
lucky Derby (subject to change
without notice. show Dispose, Our
Boots, Porter's Cap and Curious Coin
to be the favorites in the betting.
Odds on the better horses are as
follows:
Dispose, Our Boots, Al.
Porter's Cap, Curious Coin, 6-1.
Whirlaway, 81.
Bold Irishman, King Cole, l0-l.
New World, Attention, Starry
Hope. 1871.
Blue Pair, Blue Reign, Harvard
Square, Ocean Blue, Signator, The
Rhymer, Swing and Sway, 20-l.
Winter Prices Quoted
Pretty Accurate.
Granted that all winter book
makers should be compelled to car
nv jimmies as a sign of their trade.
those prices are pretty accurate,
The safest bets at the moment, prob
ably, are Dispose, Porter's Cap,
Whirlaway, Curious Coin and The
Rhymer-becauSe they have been
running this winter and have proved
themselves sound and competent as
S-year- -oldS
Our Boots, the co-favorite and the
most consistent of the rich winners
last year, will be strictly mysterious
until he makes his first start this
spring, either at Jamaica or Keene-
land. Till the 2-year-olds begin
to run as IS, you simply can't tell.
Let us examine history in the case
of these here now winter books.
Once in a while the winter book
maker gives you something you can
get your teeth in. Not often.
According to the chronicles of F.
Graustark Menke, winter book ia
vorites have won the Derby three
times in the last 81 years.
Monarch One of Best
Touches on Record.
He speaks, of course. of opening
favorites. El Chico, for instance,
was the opening favorite two years
ago, while Johnstown opened at l2-l.
BY the time the books closed, a
couple of days before the race,
Johnstown had gone down to ITO,
and bookmakerS carried guns
around with them, prepared to shoot
themselves rather than accept a bet
on Big John.
One of the incest touches in the
records was Norwich, Ben Blocks
brown colt, which never lost race as
a 2-year-old Naturally, Norwich
went right to the top of the class
when the winter books hit the mail
the following March. He opened at
81. which practically was charity.
In later years the professors would
have made him 81 and the h--l
with it-as they did last year with
Bimelech. a horse with the same kind
of record.
The Norwich adventure had a
happy ending, for the cold won the
Derby by a length and half, True,
he never won again-but that was
cold comfort to the widows and Or
phans of the winter bookmakers.
Sinclair wos Lucky
In Stortine Zey.
For that matter. Bimelech, opening
as favorite in the books and runnil z
second in the Derby, came much
closer than most of the early
choices. If you bet Bimmy across
the board, you probably came out
little better than even.
Besides Norwich, the winter IA
vorites which won the Derby were
Reign Count, in 1923, and Gallant
Fox. a sort of chilly co-favorite, in
1880. Half the time the favorite
doesn't start the race. Owners don't
start horse just to please the
betting public.
Sometimes they don't even start
him to please themselves. Harry
Sinclair, in the early months of 1923,
made bet of $4,000 to S25,0O0 that
his horse Zev would start IN the
Derby but when the race drew near
concluded that the animal was just
a sprinter, and decided to scratch
him. sending his own five grand
down the drain pipe.
Only the last-minute pleas of Earl
Sande, who needed a Derby mount,
made Sinclair change his mind
again. 1t was nice that he did, for
Zev won easy, as the saying goes.
This year your correspondent has
not yet picked q winter book spe-
cial, but Harvard Square, at 20-1,
Is tasty if we can persuade Mr.. Max
Hirsch, his trainer, to run him.