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Hoist the Flag Set to Fly Over Derby Field

By James Morgan

Hoist The Flag is the best horse in America. A lot of people are saying that this horse is the best of all time, and almost everyone agrees that Hoist The Flag should walk away with The Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont and become the first Triple Crown winner in thoroughbred racing since Citation in 1948.

Hoist The Flag has never been beaten to the finish wire. Last year at two-years-old he won three of four races. In the Champagne he was disqualified for bumping other horses although he won by four easy lengths. It was one of the most ill-considered decisions ever seen in racing, and the jockey that day, Jean Cruget, has confessed to crying himself to sleep that darkest of nights.

This year, at the age of three, Hoist The Flag has run twice. He beat the best horses in Maryland by 15 lengths. Then he beat the best horses in America by seven lengths eased up. Hoist The Flag will run two more times in New York before heading for Kentucky. He should romp both times.

Professional horsemen have a high opinion of the animal. His jockey said. "I don't think he'll ever get beat unless he falls down." Reggie Cornell, trainer of the Calumet Farms horses, called Hoist The Flag a "super-horse," "the best since Count Fleet," and racing columnist Charles Hatton who has seen 50 years of horse racing claims that many like this horse better than the immortal Man O' War, Hatton of course, stands by the old timer Man O' War, but concedes that Hoist The Flag's rivals have no chance to beat him unless they push him off the roof of the grandstand first.

A really great horse surfaces about once every generation, and it looks as though Hoist The Flag is unbeatable. Go out of your way to see him and bet without fear of losing. The spectacle will be worth it. There may never be another like him.

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