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GOSSIP OF THE TURF The improvements that were begun at the Ben nings race course last summer have now been com ¬ pleted and today visitors at the track may see one of the most perfectly appointed courses in America The street car company will have a large and com ¬ modious covered station at the track and the road from the street car track to the entrance to the grand stand is now a wide boulevard the narrow plank walk is now a broad covered walk direct to the stand and pavilion The ladies club houso has a big wide piazza in front The secretarys office has been enlarged The jockeys room is one of the largest in the United States and is equipped with a shower bath room The handsome stand erected last summer has had many additions and improve ¬ ments suggested by the crowds of last autumn the entire north end has been enclosed by heavy plate glass windows and big skylights have been placed in the front The ladies cafe or dining rooms have been enlarged as have all the ladies cloak rooms The entire stand is painted in white with the gird ¬ ers in black The layers pavilion has been widened the entire length and patrons will now have no difficulty or crowding in making wagers The admission to track and grandstand will be 150 H Eugene Leigh will found for the second time a thoroughbred stud in America but this time it will be composed entirely of English mares and stal ¬ lions Keeno Richards spent a fortune in import ¬ ing pure blooded Arabian horses to cross on Ameri ¬ can thoroughbred mares He went back a hundred years to breed a race horse but his venture was a failure Leigh being more of a practical turn of mind than the great breeder of War Danco fame is now engaged in a new venture ventureThis This fact until now closely guarded has just come to light and investigations disclose that it is Mr Leighs intention to establish a breeding stud in Kentucky of entirely imported bred mares and stallions He has formed the opinion that as an average the English race horse is superior to ours but he also believes that nowhere else on the face of the globe does the race horse thrive and grow to such perfection as in the Blue Grass region regionLeigh Leigh now proposes to demonstrate that the Blue Grass land of Kentucky can raise the best race ¬ horses in the world and to accomplish this he will use English weapons by mating imported mares to imported stallions So far he has three stallions which are at present at McGrathiana Stud Milton Young having a breeding interest in them They are Sempronius br h by Wisdom Hamptonia by Hampton HamptonKing King of Coins br h by St Simon Lady Minting by Minting MintingMcNeil McNeil ch h by Galliard Zariba by Hampton Exchange Jockey Bullman will carry the maroon scarlet sleeves and black cap of August Belmont on all the big metropolitan tracks this year He has signed a contract to ride for the president of the Jockey Club but at what figure it has been impossible to i ascertain Bullman has arrived in New York from San Francisco where he has been riding all winter and is in condition to go into the saddle at a moments notice The jockey had much to say about racing on the coast He says that from a financial standpoint it has been a big success Of the jockeys he says Jackson is one of the best light weight riders he ever saw and although twenty five years old he can ride at ninety pounds He avers that racing on the coast is held on the level and no complaints are made as to the methods that are being used in conducting the meeting The stable of A Featherstone is wintering excep ¬ tionally well at Kenmore Farm Lexington Ky Trainer Julius Bauer will return from California in i about ten days and will begin working the young ¬ sters a bit before shipping east about April 15 There are thirteen twoyearolds in the barn in ¬ cluding the brother of Mesmerist called Mesmer and the sister to the Brooklyn Handicap winner Dr Rico named Mary Street but it is said that Bauers favorites of all the youngters are Ingold a bay colt by Ingoldsby Radiance Peeper a brown colt by Halma Bo Peep and Model Prince brother to Blennenworth George C Bennetts Derby candidate Of the older horses Black Fox is the most improved The noted Imp the only mare that ever won the Suburban Handicap and who was Queen of the turf i in the last few years arrived at Lexington Ky several days ago from Chillicothe O to end her career as a broodmare she having at last been allowed to bid her adieu to the turf Sho was greeted with a perfect ovation by horsemen and i taken to Willamette Stud to be bred to J B Ewings Top Gallant An eastern millionaire has a i standing offer of 10000 for the first stud colt she foals provided it stands up in three days The recent reports that E J Baldwin was dying at his beautiful Santa Anita ranch in the San Gabriel valley California were promptly denied The explanation of those reports is that Baidttirr was very sick when he returned to Santa Anita several weeks ago and a touch of pneumonia was regarded as dangerous The climate soon brought him out however and a visit to Santa Anita a few days ago showed that the old turfman appears to have received a new lease of life Leon Neal seventeen years of age a jockey in the employ of Counselor Bill Brien whose home is in Cincinnati met with a serious accident at the Lexington track last Tuesday He was exercising the twoyearold filly Behind the Times of the Mc Corkle string when the animal stumbled and Neal fell his foot catching in the stirrup Ho was un ¬ able to extricate himself and the filly dragged him along the track stepping on his chest dashing him against a post and breaking his arm The Kings chances of winning the Grand National steeplechase with Ambush II went out Tuesday the odds going from 6 to 1 to 20 to 1 This was brought about by the horse pulling up lame after doing a good two miles in his exercise gallop at Newmarket in the morning The unwel ¬ come intelligence which is much regreted by all classes of sportsmen has been confirmed by Mr Lushington who is the manager of the Kings steeplechasers Mr Lushington says tho horso jarred himself badly but he cannot yet say defi ¬ nitely the extent of the injuryfsustained Joseph E Widener of Philadelphia may send a number of steeplechasers to England His stable manager J Howard Lewis Jr has gone to the other side and will see among other events the Liverpool Grand National If Mr Lewis makes a favorable report it is said that Mr Widener will send over next fall a strong stable of steeplechase thoroughbreds to compete in the Grand National of 1903 Among tho steeplechasers and hurdlers in Mr Widenera stable at present are Fulminate Miss Mitchell Eophone Valdez Borough and others His regular jockey is James Mara MaraEd Ed Hopper secretary of the Latonia Association says that he has received assurances which make him confident in predicting that Latonia will have one of the most successful seasons in her history Of stables now at San Francisco Harry Stover T H Ryan and C T Boots have promised to send I horses and others will undoubtedly follow their r lead Hopper who is now at San Francisco will 1 leave for Cincinnati immediately upon tho close of f the California Jockey Club meeting April 26 With the week ending March 8 the sum of 20663650 has been distributed among tho owners B by tho Crescent City Jockey Club and this amount t has been awarded to 206 different stables 146 of which have won 250 or more
