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WHEELER HANDICAP DAY. The Washington Park meeting will close this afternoon. In the feature of rain and mud it is a record breaker and for the first time in its history the Wheeler Handicap is to be decided over a heavy track. Washington Park weather has usually been ideal racing weather and it is safe to predict that in the course of the next ten years the crack racing organization of the west will not once have to contend against such another remarkable succession of rainy days. It speaks volumes for the solid popularity of the Washington Park Club that, despite such unfavorable conditions, the people of Chicago have supported it magnificently and daily turned out in great multitudes to witness racing they knew in advance would not be up to the high standard of the club. Had the weather been clear and hot and the track fast the Wheeler Handicap would have been closely contested by the largest field in its history. As it is, eleven have accepted. This is a good field of tried performers and it presents an interesting feature in the presence of six three-year-olds that would furnish a hot race of doubtful issue if all of the older horses were withdrawn. Only one three-year-old, the mighty Morello, has ever won the Wheeler, but one of his age may repeat the feat-this afternoon. Wyeth 110, Aladdin 110, Otis 106, Lucien Appleby 105, Hunter Eaine 100, and Inspector Shea 91, will be hotly backed to defeat their elders in the big race. It is a pity that the condition of the track prevented gallant old Pink Coat from being a starter. At 120 pounds he was well in and over a fast track would certainly have battled valiantly for the big race which he won by a head last year and for which he was only beaten a head the year before.
