Pride of the West

California-bred Your Host had won February's $136,900 Santa Anita Derby, but most Eastern racing fans had to be shown why that entitled Californians to think he would win the Kentucky Derby. The East's stubbornly simple logic was based on the facts that 1) only one California horse, Morvich in 1922, had ever won the Kentucky Derby, and 2) Your Host had never run against the best of the three-year-old crop. Last week at Kentucky's Keeneland Track, Movieman-Owner William Goetz and his Louis B. Mayer-bred colt put on an impressive show.

Trainer Harry Daniels had shipped along some California hay to mix with the Kentucky brand, so that the chestnut colt would feel as much at home as possible. Veteran Jockey Johnny Longden had flown in from the West Coast to ride him in the seven-furlong prep race. The competition included Tulsa Oilman Tom Gray's Oil Capitol--Kentucky Derby favorite (5-2) and one of the best of the three-year-old crop by anybody's standards.

Your Host's demonstration was short and to the point. He got off first in a field of nine, stayed in front all the way, won by 6 1/2 lengths. His time for the seven-furlong dash: 1:22.4, a new track record. In fourth place (after C. V. Whitney's Mr. Trouble and Calumet's Theory), and eleven lengths behind the winner: Oil Capitol.

At New York's Jamaica race track next day, Derby Candidate Hill Prince (TIME, April 17 et seg.) put on a show of his own. With Jockey Eddie Arcaro holding him close to the rail, he took the lead at the head of the stretch, went on to win the $49,050 Wood Memorial in a closing rush. Hill Prince's time of 1:43.6 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth Wood was the second fastest on record (fastest: Count Fleet's 1:43 in 1943). Arcaro kept Hill Prince moving after the finish, worked the bay the full Derby distance of a mile-and-a-quarter. The time: a smashing 2:02.4. Only two Derbies have been run faster.

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