Gossip of the Turf., Daily Racing Form, 1900-07-24

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: : i , , i ■ I i I i i i , i i 1 I GOSSIP OF THE TURF. v i The wonderful thing about the Washington Park meeting was the attendance. The New f York tracks have a vastly greater population to t draw from, yet there has never been a meet ing | held there that attracted so great an average f attendance as the recent meeting at the banner , track of the west. The attendance on American Derby day was not equal to that of the same day of the Worlds Fair year, but for the other j twenty four days of the meeting it was j steadily in excess of that of 1893. There , was no such thing as an "off" day during the meeting. It is doubtful if , there was one day of the twenty-five with less j than 10,000 paid admissions. It was a striking , attestation of the local popularity of Washing- , ton Park. Racing is popular here no matter , whether conducted on one track or another, j but Harlem and Hawthorne have at present no , chance to attract the great gatherings that are so strikingly characteristic of Washington Park. New Yorkers do not discriminate to | any marked degree between Sheepshead Bay. Gravesend and Morris Park. Perhaps i_ time, particularly if the enactment of a law protecting racing is brought about, the Chicago Jockey Club and the Harlem Jockey Club may grow in fashion and popular esteem until, instead of one truly great racing organization and two of minor importance, we shall have three great clubs whose annual racing programs will be rich enough to command the presence of the leading turfmen and the most famous horses of the east as well as of the west. So far as the mere racing at the great South Side track was concerned it cannot be said that it was distinctly better than that conducted over the other local tracks. From the fact that iu the main the same horses are raced over all three courses the racing there could not well be vastly different from that at Harlem and Hawthorne. But at that it was as good as the western division of horses can furnish and as well conducted as racing can possibly be. From start to finish it was singularly free f re m races of the kind denominated as "suspicious." It may well be doubted whether the average class of horses in competition was as high as in some years of the past but they were good enough to furnish capital sport and were sent for the money with commendable and gratifying in- tegrity. The astonishing form shown by Sid- ney Lucas was easily the feature of the meet- ing The officials of the club were immensely gratified because of the phenomenal success of their meeting, as well they might be. Their official expression of their appreciation of thp superb public support awarded their efforts in behalf of good racing was extremely prompt and iu the highest degree practical. There is no other case on record of a great racing club announcing on the closing day of a highly successful meeting that it would double its added money to its already rich stake list. The Washington Park Club has always made money through its racing department, but it has always methodically divided its profits with horse owners through annually increasing the value of its stakes and purses. The quick announcement of its grand program for next year was strictly in line; with this traditional policy of the club and holds out a pleasant hint to owners of other rich increases and additions in other ears to i I come. Adding 0X00 to the American Derby-was ■ bold stroke of sagacious policy that make- it at once the foremost three year-old event of the United States and it will be a strange thing if some of the recognized eastern stars of next year do not come out to battle v i f t | f , j j , , j , , , j , | with the picked three-year-olds of the west for its big first money. While a substantial outline of what may be expected at Washington Park next summer has been published it may be anticipated with confidence that other important features will be devised and announced in good time. It is quite probable, though not fully determined, that the Club will return to its former custom of closing stake entries in October. It has set aside ,000 to endow four new stakes, presumably designing to add 2.000 to each, but it is not limited to what it has already declared is its intention of doing and it will not be surprising if some new stakes of importance will be found in the list when it shall be offered for consideration by the horse owners of the country. The club would do an extremely popular thing if it restored the Cup to its old place in its list of stakes. There is a growing tendency to revive long distance racing on the part of the New York clubs, as is evidenced by the Brighton Cup, The Advance, and Champion Stakes at Sheepshaad Bay. and the Municipal and Morris Park Handicaps at Morris Park, and Washington Park should join in this movement. Long distance racing is immensely popular with people who go to see the sport, and a contest over the conventional Cup distance of two miles and a quarter between a few good horses would draw as strongly as the American Derby or the Wheeler Handicap.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1900072401/drf1900072401_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1900072401_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800