Son of Bold Venture

In picking a winner, it usually helps to know a horse's pedigree. In picking the winner of the Kentucky Derby, which is run before the three-year-olds have learned all that even good trainers can teach them, pedigree is a prime consideration. Most of the crowd at Churchill Downs last week paid more attention to past performances.

Taking their tips from spring form charts, the customers pretty much narrowed the Derby down to a race between the California speedster, Your Host (9-5), and the Virginia-bred come-from-behinder, Hill Prince (2-1). The obvious question was whether Your Host could keep up his blazing speed for the Derby distance of a mile-and-a-quarter. Third choice, after an impressive win in the Blue Grass Stakes (TIME, May 8), was the fast-improving Mr. Trouble (6-1).

Always a Bridesmaid? This tidy simplification of the 14-horse Derby field all but ignored a sleek chestnut colt named Middleground--even though, in Handicapper John Campbell's experimental weights, he had been voted the three-year-old most likely to succeed. This year, Middleground had run a good second in each of his four races. As a formful bridesmaid who never quite got to be a bride, he was 8-1 as the horses cantered to the post. The bettors had forgotten, or were unimpressed by the fact that Middleground was sired by Bold Venture, winner of the 1936 Derby; that another Bold Venture colt, Assault, had won the 1946 Derby; and that the man who trained both of them, and Middleground too, was canny Max Hirsch of Bob Kleberg's King Ranch.

When the horses broke from the Derby gate, Your Host rushed into the lead as expected. If he was not to be allowed to steal the race, somebody had to push him. Mr. Trouble's jockey, Doug Dodson, elected to do the job, and did it so successfully that Your Host stopped all over after a sizzling mile, ended up ninth. Hill Prince, with Eddie Arcaro riding for his fifth Derby victory,/- hung in the middle of the field until the stretch, then made his bid, finished second. Mr. Trouble, used up too soon, held on well to take third money.

It was not until the stretch that the 90,000 people in Churchill Downs paid much attention to Middleground.* Eighteen-year-old Jockey Bill Boland, an apprentice riding in his first Derby, had been given explicit instructions by Trainer Hirsch: "Don't pay any attention to Your Host at all. He can't go the distance.Ride against Hill Prince and those other horses."

Loose In the Stretch. Jockey Boland did exactly that. He kept Middleground well up all the way, turned him loose at the quarter pole. Hill Prince almost came even with him for a few yards, but Jockey Boland had more horse under him than Jockey Arcaro had that afternoon. Middleground won by a length-and-a-quarter. His time: 2:01 3/5, the second fastest in the Derby's 76-year history (fastest: Whirlaway's 2:01 2/5 in 1941).

Your Host, which set the pace for most of the mile, and Hill Prince, whose race was good enough to have won most Derbies, had lived up to their spring performances. Middleground had lived up to his pedigree.

/- Arcaro also went by the form charts. He had his choice between Hill Prince and Middleground as a Derby mount, made his decision after riding Hill Prince to victory over Middleground in the Wood Memorial (TIME, May 1).

*Sooner than radio listeners became of him. As he had done a year ago with Derby Winner Ponder, gravel-voiced Radio Caller Clem McCarthy overlooked Middleground's stretch rush, barely got him under the wire.

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