Lord Derby's Derby

The English derby at Epsom Downs was founded by the racing Earls of Derby 153 years ago to amuse a boisterous party of dinner guests. Only twice in all those years did their house win it. The twelfth earl won in 1787. Roseate, rotund Edward George Villiers Stanley, the present Lord Derby, won it in 1924 with Sanso-vino, thereby gratifying one of his two life wishes.* Last week he surprised himself by winning it again, this time with Hyperion.

It was the 150th running of the race. To view it came King George in black morning coat and pin-striped trousers, Queen Mary in rose and beige. Nodding to lords & ladies, they marched ceremoniously to their box on the finish line, joined 300,000 countrymen in the cry: ''They're off!"

Unlike U. S. racetracks, the Epsom course is not flat. For a half-mile it runs uphill 100 feet till it reaches Tattenham Corner, slopes downhill to a level stretch, then rises at the finish. Tattenham Cor- ner, named after a manor house which mysteriously disappeared, is a dangerous hairpin turn with a sharp downdrop. At the start of the race, Hyperion's jockey, Tommy Weston, let his stablemate Thrapston take the lead. On Thrapston was Steve Donoghue, winner of six derbies, the oldtimer who rode Papyrus in his match race against Zev in the U. S. ten years ago. Donoghue's instructions were to win if he could, but otherwise to set the pace for Hyperion.

Thrapston kept the lead, with Hyperion galloping two lengths behind, till the race rounded Tattenham Corner. There Thrapston lagged. Weston shouted to Donoghue to pull over. Instantly Hyperion shot ahead on the inside rail, with King Salmon pounding at his heels. Once he began to slow up, but at a single crack from the whip he raced away from the field, plunged over the line four lengths ahead of King Salmon, splitting two-fifths of a second off the Derby record. King Salmon, the entry of Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, finished second; Statesman, owned by ambitious Victor Emanuel, president of U. S. Electric Power Corp., was third.

Out to the track ran rosy Lord Derby as the crowd cheered. He led Hyperion around the ring, then went to receive the congratulations of the King. Jockey Tommy Weston, bubbling with joy. cried jubilantly: "He's a jolly good horse and ran a jolly good race for a jolly good owner. I am the proudest jockey in the world."

That evening the King & Queen gave Lord Derby a banquet at Buckingham Palace, the table dressed with his black & white racing silks.

King George had more than one reason for feting the winner. He held a ticket on Hyperion in the sweepstakes of London's swank Maryborough Club. In Queens, N. Y. plump Telephone Operator Louise M. Popp. 27, won $118,500 with a 82 Irish sweepstakes ticket on Hyperion. John Byron, 73, Staten Island messenger, won $40,000 on Statesman.*

It was a big racing week for the King & Queen. Two days after the Derby they attended the 151st running of the Oak Stakes for fillies at Epsom Downs, watched E. T. Thornton-Smith's Chatelaine win by a length and a half.

*The other was to be Prime Minister, an ambition which he abandoned after the War because he was "tired of the limelight." *Last week in an interview with Sportswriter Westbrook Pegler, Postmaster General Farley announced a new liberal interpretation of the ruling which bars from the mails news of lottery and sweepstake winnings. Said he: ''The only publicity I would object to would be outright advertisement of the lotteries. The law says we can't have that. The papers can go ahead, though, and print all the news there is about the poor chambermaid or the unemployed coal miner who bought a ticket for a shilling or two and won $1,000,000 in cash money. I think that is a great story always and if it is going to impair our morals to know what goes on in the world that is a problem for our pastors, not the Postoffice Department."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.