The Kentucky Derby is over and Ben Brush wears the crown, but his victory was obtained only by the narrowest of margins, and while his neck was clothed with flowers after the race, his sides were sore and bleeding from the marks of the spur, and his giant muscles ached as they never did before. Simms gave him the garlands, Ben Eder caused the other things. Ah! it was a "hoss-race!" Such a field of three-year olds had not met since the old standard of Spokane-Proctor Knott Derby, in which Once Again, Bootmaker, Hindoocraft, Cassius, Sportsman and Outbound followed behind the fighting leaders. And in the finish of the race to-day there was the same desperate, hair-raising finish, which marked that most famous of Derbies. Ben Brush was all out. Not only that but he needed all of the skill and strength and vim of a jockey famous on two continents to help his quivering nostrils first under the wire. And withal he is the best horse in the race. Not that Ben Eder with jockeys changed might not and probably would have won, but it was a matter of condition. Ben Eder was fit to a hair. Made fit in the only way to secure perfect condition, i. e. in actual racing, and McGuigan, after three months of constant care and thought, brought him to the post as exquisitely adapted for this particular race as any modiste fitted a Worth gown to a Parisian belle. There is now no doubt that all of Ben Eder's "prep" and races down the line were made with an eye single to this one race. And how artistically Bill McGuigan managed it. Always racing, yet taking on no penalty, and yet thanks to Lady Inez the only genuine "Umbrella" McGuigan still took down the money. Then came the time when Lady Inez would no longer do. The finishing touches must be given; the razor edge put on. This was done, and when Ben Eder cut a hair at Nashville his trainer knew he was ready and that in the Kentucky Derby Ben Eder would race the race of his life. And he did. He will never run a better one, perhaps, while Ben Brush will. This is the difference. Ben Brush, on the other hand, was in his first race of the season, and while he was by no means much too "high" and out of condition, still he had a host of other engagements up the line, some of them far richer in money than the Kentucky Derby. Ten thousand seemed to await him at Oakley, $12,000 at Latonia and $20,000 at St. Louis and Mr. Dwyer is not a sentimental man. His trainer could not afford to have Ben Brush too fine, and when the struggle came with Ben Eder the Bramble colt had only his class in his favor, and this was supplemented by Simms.