ENGLISH DERBY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29520, 23 May 1961, Page 4

ENGLISH DERBY

Sovrango Admired

Some good English judges are predicting a win for Spvrango in the English Derby, which will be run on Wednesday of next week.

Owned by Mr G. A. Oldham, one of England’s more consistently lucky and successful owners these last few years, Sovrango made a big impression in winning the Chester Vase a fortnight ago. The distance of the Chester Vase is a mile and a half and for the first seven furlongs or so Sovrango. either through laziness or greenness or both, was off the bit and for a time steadily lost ground. Near the five furlongs the jockey. Mercer, in desperation, gave Sovrango a back-hander. The next moment —still riding hard and still with no apparent chance of being concerned in the finish—Mercer found himself overtaking horse after horse. "Like a hare in a field of tortoises,” said one English writer. In the end Sovrango was five lengths clear of the best of his rivals, a margin that could have been doubled or trebled without much bother. Stamina Sovrango has now won both his races this season and in both he has taken a long time to get going. That is not considered to be helpful in an Epsom Derby, but Sovrango's stamina could be decisive. As well as stamina he is not devoid of speed and when he gets going can produce a really powerful. resolute gallop, reminiscent, some say, of that good stayer. Alcide. On breeding Sovrango is considered to be an incredible bargain. He is by Krakatao out of the remarkable 24-year-old mare Painted Vale, which was by Gainsborough out of Abbot’s Glen by Abbot’s Trace Painted Vale is dam also of Musidora and Sovrango is in fact three-parts brother of the 1949 One Thousand Guineas and Oaks winner—since both her sire, Nasrullah, and his. Krakatao. are by Nearco.