The Count of Stoner Creek

Cabman John D. Hertz once refused a cool million for a horse named Reigh Count. This year the Hertzes have their reward: a colt that is faster, smarter and shows promise of being greater than their 1928 Derby winner. He is Count Fleet, Reigh Count's three-year-old son.

All winter U.S. railbirds have been buzzing about fabulous Count Fleet. Those who saw him run in the Champagne Stakes last fall can never forget the sight of the Hertzes' yellow silks flying down the Belmont backstretch. That was the fastest mile (1:34 4/5) ever run by a two-year-old, and was only 2/5 of a second away from the world's record set by the late great Equipoise when he was a four-year-old.

By the end of the 1942 season the Count's followers were countless. They made him the shortest priced winter-book favorite (5-10-2 on Feb. 14) in 69 years of Kentucky Derbies.

Trial at Jamaica. Last week 25,000 turned out to watch the Count run in the Wood Memorial, Long Island's traditional Derby preview. Few days before, in a tune-up race (his 1943 debut) on a sloppy track, he had proved that he could run in any kind of going. This time, against the cream of the three-year-old crop and despite a gashed hind leg, he really showed his class. From the time he entered the backstretch, where he overtook Blue Swords, his chief rival, he made the race a runaway. His time (1:43 flat) was only f of a second slower than the track record for a mile-and-a-sixteenth.

If Count Fleet goes on to win the Kentucky Derby next week he will make John Hertz one of the world's luckiest turfmen. A little over a year ago, Hertz was willing to sell the son of Reigh Count for $4,500. The colt's conformation was faulty: his weight and power had grown in front instead of behind, where experts insist it should be. His forelegs were slightly knock-kneed and he ran with his head held high like a show horse. He seemed destined to be no greater than his mother, a commonplace selling plater named Quickly. Since no one wanted the Count, he was put to work to earn his oats.

Trial to All. From his first workout, Trainer Don Cameron and the staff at Stoner Creek, the Hertzes' Kentucky farm, had their hands full. Count Fleet was mischievous, willful. During a morning breeze he used to stop suddenly and paw the air. He walked sideways, jumped over his shadow, bucked his riders off. Stable boys nicknamed him Count Cuckoo.

But somewhere in his awkward, perverse system he had the makings of a winner. By the end of his two-year-old season, stiff-necked Count Fleet had won ten out of 15 starts, had earned $76,000, was tabbed the fastest juvenile in the history of thoroughbred racing.

This year the Count's behavior has improved. So far he has had no romantic notions--as he did in last fall's Belmont Futurity when he took a shine to a filly named Askmenow and refused to pass her in the stretch. But he still refuses to be bullied. He makes his own decisions during a race, diving into narrow openings that would stump a less self-possessed, less determined horse. Each race he takes in stride, even eats an enormous meal immediately afterward -- a rarity for a highstrung thoroughbred.

At Churchill Downs there will probably be at least ten contenders ready to challenge the fleet Count. Those with the strongest backing:

> Radioman Allan T. Simmons' Blue Swords, a Man o' War grandson who has kept closest to Count Fleet's heels (but finished four lengths behind him in the Wood Memorial last week).

> Automan Charles T. Fisher's Amber Light, winner of a Derby tune-up at Churchill Downs last week.

> Warren Wright's Ocean Wave, brother of famed Whirlaway.

> Vera Bragg's Gold Shower, clocked at 1:35 3/5 for a mile (only one second over Count Fleet's record) and 2:04 for the Derby distance of a mile-and-a-quarter during a workout at Belmont last week.

> Planemaker William E. Boeing's Slide Rule, who beat both Blue Swords and Gold Shower in the Experimental Handi cap at Jamaica fortnight ago.

> Louisville Hotelman J. Graham Brown's Seven Hearts, a superior mudder, winner of last month's Arkansas Derby.

> Burnt Cork, owned by Negro Comic Rochester (Eddie Anderson), Jack Benny's radio stooge.

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