Today's Derby: Pick a Horse and Pray

The exciting thing about the Kentucky Derby this year is that no one really has the faintest idea about who is going to win. Ever since Hoist the Flag got injured and faded from the Derby picture, every owner and trainer from here to Zanzibar has fancied that he has the horse that can run a mile and a quarter faster than the rest on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

The race will be covered this afternoon by CBS between five and six o'clock, and surely a lot of different opinions will be offered by jockeys, owners and racing commentators about who should win the Derby; But as Mark Twain said in Piddin head Wilson-its a difference of opinion that makes a horse race.

There are a lot of different types of horses to choose from. There is a horse that has never won a race, and there is a horse from Venezuela, and there are horses from famous Calumet Farms, and speed horses, and come-from-behind horses, and horses that run well in the mud. After all when twenty horses are entered in the same race there is likely to be a little variety.

Jim French will probably be the favorite. He has the astounding record of having been on the board in his, last eleven races, all stake races. Recently he won the California Derby and looked awfully strong winning, but do not jump to any conclusions. In California horses are allowed to run on butazolidin. No such luck in Kentucky.

The Calumet Farms horses are a talented pair. Eastern Fleet has speed and stamina, and Bold and Able has speed and lots of it. Unfortunately for trainer Reggie Cornell. Eastern Fleet, who only runs well when he is on the rail, has drawn post position number eighteen and it is unlikely that the horse will show well.

Impetuosity, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes (many Blue Grass winners have gone on to win the Derby) has drawn the outside post position, and should he win, it could be considered a minor miracle. His stable mate. Twist the Axe, who ran second in the Blue Grass, is well placed in the middle of the field and his running style, rushing from behind in the last part of the race, is well suited to the Derby distance.

Unconscious, winner of four of his five races this year, will be out in front winging it when the Derby gets under way. Unconscious has class and speed and will be a tough horse to catch in the stretch, especially if he is not seriously challenged by other front runners in the early part of the running. Many top handicappers have picked him to win it all.

The rest of the entrants have outside chances to win, at best. To say that some of them are longshots is understating the case. Royal Leverage was running in claiming races in March, and Forulla has never won a single race. Canonero II. the Venzuelan horse, just recently got out of quarantine.

Yes, Virginia, it is a strange race this year. There is off-track betting on the race in New York, neither Hartack or Shoemaker have a mount, and possibly the best horse now in training-Good Behavior-was never nominated and cannot run. Also, the greatest horse to come along in twenty years, Hoist the Flag, must sit on the sidelines, remembered only by fourteen-year-old girls who write him letters at Belmont Park.

Some complainers are calling this year's Derby the worst parade of horseflesh since the milkwagon went out of style, and some are comparing the race to the Charge of the Light Brigade, but they are overlooking the special Derby magic-the beautiful girls, the warm spring sunshine, the mint juleps and the relaxed, holiday atmosphere. Besides, this year, it ought to be a damn close horse race.