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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Biskop Poole, trainer for M. H. Tichenor and Co., had intended to ship Flocarline, Waswift, Elsiet L., Harry and, perhaps, one other of the string which the Chicago firm has had at New Orleans since the beginning of the meeting, to Memphis Friday, bnt did not secure a car. Trainer Poole has wired Mr. Tichenor to send one of his own cars down from Chicago and on its arrival the horses named will be taken to Montgomery Park to be freshened up. Flocarline is ineligible for the Crescent City Derby and, Iwith the good colt, Sidney C. Love, she will be given a special preparation over the Memphis track for the big Memphis events. ! "Sam" Doggett is gradually becoming accustomed to the new role which he has undertaken ; that of trainer. He still keeps up his riding and is to be found daily exercising some of his horses on theltrack at Qravesend. So far he has but four, all ofiwhich will carry bis own colors. But as time goes on and he shows his capability, his number will surely increase, for Doggstt has always been noted as a hard worker. At present his little team occupies one end of th3 M. F. Dwyer stable, which is hstdy t? Dossil jocse. oo iband oth?? side of the Brooklyn Boulevard. Turfmen begin the new year with high expectations. They look for better racing, mora valuable stakes and purses and general prosperity all around. Ever since the season of 1902 closed tLare have been indications of a further boom for the sport, which already has won popular favor to a phenomenal degree. In the year to come it is probable that new owners of wealth and influence will add their names to those already in harness, while new jockeys are bound to be developed to take the places of those that have either retired because of an inability to reduce their weights or have gone to seek their fortunes on foreign tracks. The entries of the various big handicaps and important stakes are about to close, and when they have been made known, together with the imposts for the former, the public interest will once more be centered on coming events. . Trainers who have precious charges in their care will soon begin active labor in preparing for the next campaign, and all other individuals interested in the sport of i kings will get themselves ready for their favorite pastime. New York Sun. A New Years visit to the Sheepshead Bay course found the Coney Island Jockey Club grounds to be in grand winter shape. . The track, though covered with slush and snow, afforded good footing, and many racers were sent to easy exercise over it. It was a birthday for every racer at the track, and after the Trinity Church bells sounded out the beginning of the new year every racer became a year older. Thus yearlings that formerly frisked over the track and paddocks took on a new dignity, and will be carded on the progams of the two-year- old events under the names claimed for them. The older racors do not escape the inevitable of the racing scale, for Hermis, River Pirate and others are a year older and will have tocarry the weight assigned them for their years. Trainer Frank McCabo, of the P. Belmont string, is a. firm believer in track exercise for his string. During th9 morning River Pirato, the two-year-olds Algonquin, Molitia and others were sent to easy exercise over the track. Mr. Belmont was present and enjoyed seeing his string at work. Owner and Trainer F. A. Jones showed his lot in a paddock adjoining his stable. Thoy are all in fine trim and in good health. Contrary to the report that was circulated toward the close of last season, Col. James E. Pepper will not retire from the turf, but instead will be represented by a high-claBS string which will be trained by "Crit" Davis, who handled the Pepper Stable last year. Since returning to Kentucky Colonel ! ; Pepper has greatly improved in health, so that he believes with the material in hand it will be of advantage to try one more year to win a fair share of the rich turf prizes. Colonel Pepper has not yet engaged a jockey to fill Redferns place, but he has several promising boys in view. The Pepper stable will bo composed of the three-year-olds, Love Note, Fleeing Venus and Mint Leaf, and these two-year-olds: Chestnut colt, by Meadowthorpe Witchs Ster-lina; black colt, by Meadowthorpe Bramble Leaf; chestnut gelding, by Kantaka Lady Pepper ; brown gelding, by Meadowthorpe Maid Bramble ; brown gelding, by Meadowthorpe Topsy III.; black gelding, by Meadowthorpe Fair Ladye; chestnut filly, by Kantaka Queenie; bay filly, by Kantaka Him-yara; chestnut filly, by Kantaka Ten Drop; bay filly, by Kantaka Longleaf ; chestnut filly, bj Kantaka Nattot; Coal Black Lady, blk. f, by Meadowthorpe Flirt; bay filly, by Meadowthorpe Ondina. Of this lot the brother of Par Excellence, the sis-tor of Black Venns and the half-sister of Roxane have shown the most promising qualities. It is probable that the well-known Pepper colors would have been seen on the turf again even had the OoloaoJ reHwd.rfo- his wife, whr. ascend th stable several years ago with success, was prepared to go on with the proposition. New York, Sun. Ernest E. Featherstone, who bought Kyrat, holder of the worlds record at two and a half miles 4:241 for exportation to Austria several seasons ago, has just received a letter from the horses Austrian owner asking for his complete American performances, they desiring this information with a view to retiring him to the stud this year. Kyrat has held his own with the best horses in that country and is assured of receiving a liberal stud patronage. He is a son of Teuton Anna, by Longfellow, and was bred by trainer James Murphy, whose sudden death was chronicled a few weeks ago. Kyrats dam is now in Franco, the property of VY. K. Vanderbilt. H. G. Crickirore, of the Westchester Racing Association and Washington Jockey Club, was the center of a pleasant company at the offices of The Jockey Club on New Years eve. The occasion was the presentation to the veteran official of a handsome little testimonial in the shape of a combination thermometer-barometer, prettily mounted in white and gold. An impromptu spread followed later, at which some well-known persons sat down. Matthew Byrnes, the well-known trainer of race hoses, sailed for Europe Tuesday on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Qrosse, accompanied by Frank Kir-wan, his foreman; Charles Milburn, an apprentice, and Fred Cowan, a jockey of experience, who has ridden in England for the last two seasons with success. All four of these Americans are under engagement to Eugene Boross, a resident of Budapost, Hungary, who will at once construct stables and a private race track on his estate between Vienna and Budapest, whore Byrnes will prepare his racers for their engagements. Mr. Boross and wife will also sail on the Kaiser Wilhelm. Byrnes had an offer of S3.C00 per annum for three years from an English turfman, but declined it in favor of the Hungarian offer, which is for two seasons. Trainer G. W. Poolf . said recontly ihat ho would weed out his stable at the Memphis meeting and would ship a carload of the best of them east, racing in the east the greater part of tho season. He now has twenty-eight in training, including some promising two-year-olds. The best of his older division are Waswift, Cambrian, Elsie L., Flocarline and Sidney C. Love. Poole eold Ditty and Jim King to his foreman, George Forbes, and will leave two or throe of the cheapest of his lot in charge of Forbes.
