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AQUEDUCTS PECULIARITIES. A well known Chicagoan who "took in" the recent meeting at Aqnednct writes to Daily Racing Form as follows concerning the track, its management and its distinguishing features: To the racing public of the west and south a description of the track, etc., may be of interest. Aqueduct is reached in forty minutes from Broadway by way cf the Thirty-fourth street horse cars, the ferry and the Long Island railroad. The trip over and back costs fifty cents. The train runs alongside the enclosure and one strikes the course jnst opposite the first turn. To the left is the grandstand, club-house and betting ring; to the right the paddock. The buildings are new and in good order. The grandstand proper will seat not more than 1,200 persons, and is a single decker, well raised, however, for the purpose of supplying space underneath for the sample and refreshment rooms. Opposite the last sixteenth post a stand has been bailt to accomodate such patrons as may be caught in the betting ring and this with the members stand and club-bouse verandas will bring the seating capacity of Aquedact up to 2,500. In front of the grandstand is a raised board "lawn" the inclines of which allow a good view of all parts of the course. The track itself is sandy and much too narrow. The turns are altogether too sharp. All about are cinder paths, suggesting dry feet in wet weather. The marker of the bulletin board got his education from tea boxes and the deciphering of his hieroglyphics is productive of profanity. Aqueduct is said to be a better dividend paying irack than any of the others around New York city. Monday, the opening day there, drew in twenty-six regular bookmakers and some forty others. The pencilers pay no money to the association, but the big books each buy some • Ml or 0 worth of admission tickets .50 for "gents" and 00 for ladies, as per the sign at the box office at the gate, while class No. 1 on the dead line invest 5 each similarly, this amount shrinking to 5 for class No. 2. The difference in these classes consists in the fact of the first sitting on stools, the others stand-ins up. What is most impressive to a stranger familiar with the outcries and bustle common to all western and southern tracks is the a bsolute quiet, not only during the betting on the race, but when the horses are finishing. Eddie Burke, who had backed L Alouette from 15 to 1 down to 4 to 1 for the first race, was standing within a few yards of the wire as the filly was finishing with Tynan. "Shes beaten," said Burke, and walked into the betting ring. Every one supposed that Tyrian had won until the numbers went up — that of LAlouette on top — yet there was no outcry, and holders of Tyrian tickets quietly remarked. "It must have been mighty close." Tyrian had come in the final eighth hard held, the winner under the whip. So with the finish between Maximo Gomez and Tyr Shena in the last race of that day. The poor etarting by C. H. Pettingill deserved censure, yet the only comment was, "the fields are large." A splendid innovation is the barring of venders of "Jacks tips, stable boys," etc. from all approaches, and at the ferry, on the train, and at the track gate this nuisance was absent. If there were any touts they did their work very quietly, and in the betting ring was never beard "Ill bet you a hundred" of the grandstand bookmaker. All this is quite in line with the refinement shown by eastern sporting men : in fact, a westerner imbibss a habit of stillness before he Uvea long iu Gotham. The Jockey Board is left intact until the horses are at the post: there is a jockey board in the betting ring, and on the bulletin board are posted the jockeys for the next race. The betting ring is entirely too small, it not being as large as the one at Lakeside, and the crush around the big bookmakers is appalling. Stable accommodations are said to be none too good, but excellent water is supplied by two windmills. Newspaper boys are allowed to work inside the track gates. To scratch a horses costs nothing, the owner paying an entrance fee and suffering no further tax. A horse may be scratched up to the time to weigh out. W. O. Scully said: "The above is an excellent rule. Anywhere bnt in the east one is forced to scratch at 10 oclock. Suppose the morning to be bright. A man naturally stays in. Then a storm comes up and he is forced to start a dry track horse and, with no chance of winning the race, knocks out his animal perhaps for the season." The number of starters is limited and arbitrarily settled by the several track officials to suit the peculiarities of the course. For instance, at Aqueduct purse races at short distances can only be contested by twelve starters, where at seven-eighths mile twenty-one are allowed. The twelve starters are the ones first drawn from the entry box. and in the event of there being more entries such appear on the program as eligibles in the event of the scratching of any of the twelve. Of course there is a chance for an owner having a poor horse to scratch and allow another to start in his place, but no fault can be found with this as good material is the desideratum. Monday, the opening day, three of the "additional" entiies won races in LAlouette, Duke of Middleburg and Gaze. Tony Licalzi was present, as "fat as a seal," and "Jimmie" McCormick, just from West Baden, looked like a two year-old. The first had at Aqueduct Donna Rita, Al Fresco and Lady Ellerslie. On the last-named filly he admits having won at her first start this year more money than he ever gathered at any one time, the owner having "down" ,200, most of it at 10 tol. Around the betting ring were seen Walbaum, "Duke of Guttenberg," Joe Ullman, Geonge Wheelock, Eddie Burke, Lucien Appleby, Jack McDonald, Mattie Corbett, "Circular Joe," Dink Davis, George Randall, Joe Caspar, "Pittsburg Billy" Martin, Joe Cotton, "Eole" Pear-soil, Mike Dwyer, "Colonel Wise" Pulsifer, "Cad" Irish, "the Brooklyn handicapper," "Cliff" Doherty, Tom Sheedy, Sam Austin and Richard Roche. Willie Martin said, coming home on the ferry : "King Barleycorn does not like to be hustled along the first part of it. In a longei race he will do better."
