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" GOSSIP OF THE TURF. It is announced that the Harlem Jockey Club has determined to give a handicap, to be decided next spring, that will rank in importance with any in the country. This is a step in the right direction and should be supplemented by other action in the same line. The Chicago racing field is highly important; but, returns received by its various racine organizations considered, it does not yield enough money to the turfmen who annually race their horses here. Especially is this true of purses. Four hundred dollar purses were all right a few years back, but they are not sufficient now, and Daily Racing Foem hopes to see 00 the minimum next year. The local clubs cannot afford to overlook the great advance in the value of overnight races in the east and must respond by a general advance if they wish to keep the good western horses here. Too many western owners take their horses east now. The simple reason is that there is more money to be won there. Chicago responds generously to any offer, of big attractions, and no local club will lose anything by ipcr?asDg ,,its inducements to, owners. TuTcracewliScrrSecreta "anff presi dent Condon of the Harlem Jockey Club are now planning will have at least 0,000 added money, and its gross value will not be less than 5,000 when the entry, declaration and starting fees are figured up. This amount is considered by Mr. Nathanson a conservative estimate of the full value of the stake, and he backs it up by pointing to the records of the last few years, which show that in the west the number of entries for the principal existing handicaps average nearly double those of the eastern fixtures. It is to be a handicap for three-year-olds and upward at a mile and a quarter, weights to be announced the middle of March, declarations to be made some time in April, and the race to be run early in June. He believes such an event will attract quite a number of eastern entries and will combine with the American Derby to bring here some of the best horses in the east in an en-deavor to capture the double event. " One feature of the present racing- season is the grand showing of the get of Atheling, the English stallion owned by W. P. fc B. F. Clyde, now at the head of their Goughacres Stud, Bryn Mawr, Pa, With Dublin to represent him among older horses Caithness, Laracor, Aden and Gayhilda among the three-year-olds, and such good two-year-olds out as Alan, Morca, Hedge, Athelroy, Shorthose, Shrine, Athlana and Athel, Atheling rauks up among the very great sires of the present year, and had he been brought to tuis country earlier he might have been a Leamington or a second St. Blaise. Atheling is now nineteen years old. He is a son of Sterling, out of a sister to King Alfred, by King Tom, his grandam being a daughter of the British Derby winner, Bay Middleton. He raced very little, but won the Scarborough Stakes, and before being brought to this country sired a number of winners on the English turf. His owners, who con. trolled the Lloyd line of ocean steamers, only utilize Atheling as a private stallion, with the aid of their own mares, to furnish material for their racing stable, so his showing as a successful stallion is all the more remarkable, and had he upon his arrival from England been installed upon some great public breeding farm of Kentncky, it would be hard to guess his standing in the American breeding world today. Persimmons winning total as a stallion this sea-son now exceeds 50,000, the three victories of Mead, Perfectionist and Sceptre at Goodwood making his pile that amount, while Persimmons sire St. Simon, is second with over 15,000, Isin-glass third with 3,000 and Carbine, which. Jms -stood still the last few weeks, fourtlMHHHHi 9,000 to his creditw H
