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STEEPLECHASE PROSPECTS. "All signs point to an exceedingly good fall season of steeplechasing and hurdling, and there is very little doubt but that next year this popular sport will be placed on a very high plane. "Without attracting any pointed attention, several prominent steeplechase enthusiasts have been buying a number of eminently suitable horses for next season, and these are not soured, unsound flat course culls, but are high class animals, sound and specially chosen to develop along steeplechase lines," says an editorial in the Spirit of the Times. " In the west Mr. J. W. Colts colors have been regrettably absent this season, and his return to steeplechase activity will bo warmly welcomed. He is reported as having bought several suitable animals and looking for more. When Mr. Harry W. Smith was in New York a week or two ago he also bought three or four of which he has very high expectations, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Zinziber may again be seen on a metropolitan course. Mr. Chamblet has several horses of high caliber, sound as the proverbial bells, one or two of them which have been specially handled with a view to steeplechase excellence, and these, with the good Widener and the Lawson stables, should make quite a showing at the fall chases of the various clubs. "Of the horses which were variously drafted into the ranks of the jumpers late last season, some have done well and others have been retired. As a matter of fact several of them should never have been retained even so long as they were. Redpath, for instance, was run time and again, but showed littlo capacity to carry his action along with him, and then at his best showiug,,he was taken from the jumps and returned to the fiat. Miss Mitchell, on the other hand, which, in her multitudinous races CONTINUED ON SECOND JPAGE. STEEPLECHASE PROSPECTS. Continued from First Page. never won a race, in fact quoting from memory about twice in the money was the best, has developed into quite a cross country horse. "The question has often arisen as to the way in which American cross-country performers comparo with those of England, and while it is not possible to come to a very close conclusion, there is little doubt that, taking both countries in the gross, the Americans will bear the test better than those across the water. Of course, it must not be forgotten that our fences are more or less abortions, which have been lowered in height until a horse simply strides over or through them, but this is a topic for later consideration. As the case stands today, time is the only line. This year nothing startling has been done in time, and this was due in a great measure to the long continued drought, which made the ground hard as steel on the metropolitan tracks. This was rather hard on the horses, and after they had covered three or four jumps, those with any tenderness plainly showed it, and in several cases deliberately flunked their fences instead of taking them in the free manner natural to the average cross country horse. So bad was this drought that in several cases clouds of dust arose under the feet of the leaders, practically blinding those following, rendering fencing unsafe, so that rather strong criticism was evoked as te why the associations had not watered the grass courses. "One of the best time performances of this season was by that good horse of Mr. Chamblet, the queerly named Adjidaumo, Iwho covered the two miles in 3:55, coming close to the dead heat time of Diversion-Cosmopolitan, in the spring of 1900, that being 3 :53, later by Cock Robin at the Brooklyn fall meeting of that year. Adjidaumo, however, carried 135 pounds and Cock Robin 150 pounds. This represents a speed decimal of 45.70, which is very high for that type of going. Somers, at his best, ran two miles and a half in 4:36 J, and Plato in 4:391, while at three miles and a half Vanship ran the distance in 7:05, or 42.10 percent. The Cad in 7:12, or 40.10 per cent., and Zinziber, last year, lowered it to 7:02. Mr. Coventry, the English expert, has said : During the past twenty years the averaged time for the English Derby, one mile and a half, is 2:48. During the same period the averaged time of the Grand National, a long four miles and a half, has been 10:13. This is to say, a mile at Epsom has been run on the fiat in 1 :52, and at Liverpool in twenty-four seconds more, that is, 2 :16. There are on the Liverpool course some thirty jumps of formidable size, and the going on the turf is worse than at Epsom, while there are some ploughed fields to bo crossed. Moreover, the Derby horses have carried eight stone ten pounds 122 pounds, and the Liverpool horses an average of nearly eleven stones 140 pounds. Reckoning the weight for age it will be seen that a Grand National is run at what is almost the pace of the Derby, maintained, it must always be remembered, for thrice the distance of the Epsom course. This is naturally a wonderful showing. Taking the above quoted performances of American horses across country, compare them with the corresponding distances on the flat. This gives David Garrick, in the Annual Champion, two miles and a quarter, 123 pounds, 3 :56, or a mile in 1 :46 sustained and averaged. Looking down the list, it will be found that the American time is faster than the English, on both flat and cross country, but that the average difference between the two courses is about the same as in England. This should be considered an eminently satisfactory showing, and encourages one to think that with a little booming on the part of the associations, a little delicate encouragement of the new blood which is now taking such a live interest, and a clear understanding of the type of horse required if all this be given consideration, and the jumps raised to the normal standard of height, there appears no reason why the Grand National should not be carried off by an American horse, owner, trainer and jockey, and this is as it-should be won."
