Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1903 — FAMELESS COLT, THE PICKET, WINS THE AMERICAN DERBY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAMELESS COLT, THE PICKET, WINS THE AMERICAN DERBY

Canters Under the Wire Before 70,000 People, While Famous Rivals Struggle for Place.

NEW TIME MARK MADE . ' -v '~ - .. '; _ Remarkable Race Is Witnessed by the Largest Crowd Ever Assembled in Washington Park.

LMOST six lengths ahead of a field of eighteen straining, struggling t h o r o ughbreds, The Picket, a plebeian colt unknown to fame, untried and without record, won the sixteenth American Derby

in, Washington Park, Chicago, Saturday. Seventy thousand spectators, nineteen colts, n new record for the stakes; the largest crowd, the biggest field, and the best time in the history of the classic event; first honors won in a canter, and a fierce struggle for miner glories; favorites hopelessly beaten before the final quarter is reached—all that, and the floral saddle, for The Picket, is the Derby. As the winning colt won this, the first victory of his racing career, the Washington Park records for the Derby went to smash,laud the new mark of 2:33 was set up in place of the 2:33 4-5 of Robert Waddell in 1901. Same Old Story Retold. That Savable, the conqueror in the Futurity and the pride of the Drake stables, and Claude, the winner of three Derbies, and Bernays should* pound their way around the track with" the heels of an untried horse digging the dirt far ahead of them, was in strict accordance with wliat is expected in the American Derby. When it was over it was easily recalled that this is the way it always happens. Jumping into the lead before, the quarter was reached, The Picket saw his competitors no more until they were gathered around him at the judges' stand. Turning slightly on ids mount from time to time. Jockey Helgesen could see the struggle behind him, but it carried no terrors for the speedy colt of Middleton & Jurigbluth. As he passed the stand the first time around he was in the lead. As the flying bunch reached the first mile he was increasing his lead. When they entered the stretch the race was hopeless for the other eighteen, and as he crossed under the wire it was in a canter. The real struggle was-six lengths behind him. Cobb News tftjtsia Minor. While The Picket was being walked up and down in the cooling blanket a cablegram on its way to an interior town in Asia Minor. It told the whole story of tiie -day. It went to Karl Jungbluth, part owner of the fleet son of Falsetto and Yoltario. And all it said was: “Picket wins.” Not a cent of Its owners’ money did The Picket carry. For them he won the $27,000 representing the net value of the first money, and nothing more. That move people saw the.runuiug of this race than have ever seen a horse race in the West, if not in the country, is asserted by officials of the Washington Park Club. Within the grand stands the jam was so great that movement was Impossible. The betting ring was a gigantic sardine box in a turmoil. The clubhouse was a crush of fashionable finery, brilliant with colors. The Infield was a small ocean of vehicles. The rail along the track was lined with humanity stacked in row after row. Enough spectators were hanging to housetops and poles outside the track to have packed the grounds for an ordinary race. Enough were gathered outside the gates with no chance of getting the smallest glimpse of the race to have made an army division.