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THE SARATOGA SPECIAL. The officers of the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed pf Horses have every reason to believe that the subscriptions to this years Saratoga Special will exceed by 15 per cent, the number of the subscriptions to the Special of last year and the season before. The most conservative of them look for above thirty subscribers, which will insure an eligible list of between ninety and one hundred youngsters and a field of sufficient strength to give the great ,000 a chance event a value of 20,000 or mor Half a dozen well known horsemen who were compelled by circumstances to remain out of last years pool have signified their intention of entering this year, and three or four outsiders who have not so far given the race serious consideration are thinking of coming in. The most prominent of the new men looked to, to take subscriptions are Joseph E. Widener, of Philadelphia; John A. Drake, of Iowa and Chicago; B. F. Clyde, of Philadelphia; Stephen Sanford and Sons, of Amsterdam; Burns and Waterhouse, of San Francisco; Henry T. Oxnard, of this city; Henry M. Ziegler, of Cincinnati, and Miles Finlen, of Butte, Mont. The Special is the greatest two-year-old race on the Saratoga program and always will be, without reference to the greater value of the Produce Stakes William C. Whitney and his associates in the Saratoga management instituted a couple of years ago. The Specials hold on the popular fancy is its sportsmanlike character. It is a blind pool, into which horsemen with promising -youngsters in their barns annually -put -up ,000 without definite forknowledge that they may so much as send a starter to the post. The" only line they may have on the youngsters is obtained through yearling Fall trials. This line is by no means infallible. As often as not youngsters that stop watches in three furlong dashes just after being broken fail utterly to make good the following spring. Whether they fail because they are tried out before they have attained sufficient maturity to stand a top speed gallop is a debatable question, but they fail just the same. Such a race is consonant with the spirit of the Saratoga enterprise. The stockholders in the plant at the Springs entered the scheme purely in the interest of racing. Dividends are a secondary consideration. They are content with legal interest on their investments and so far have turned over their profits to the management for improvements and the raising of purses. Morning Telegraph.
