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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Entres for many of the stakes to be decided at Saratoga this year, closed last Monday, and enough of them were received to show that racing at the Spa next August will be better than ever. Up to a late hour in the afternoon, however, "W. C. "Whitney, August Belmont, J. E. Madden, G. B. Morris, J. B. Haggin, J. "W. Schorr, J. R. and F. P.. Keene and other large nominators had not been heard from. It will take several days to complete the list. E. E. Smathers has entered McChesney in the Saratoga Handicap, the Saratoga Cup, the Champion, the Champlain Stakes, the Merchants and Citizens Handicap and the : Delaware. Handicap. He will also start Dick ; Bernard, his new two-year-old, in the Saratoga Special. L. V. Bell has also entered Hermis in the Saratoga Handicap, the Champion, . the Champlain and the Merchants and I -Citizens, so that there may be a meeting be t c 2 1 1 : : : ; . I tween these great four-year-olds, irrespective of a match race. Mr. Bell has entered Francesco and Colonel Bill in the Saratoga Handi- cap, Champlain and Merchants and Citizens and Colonel Bill in the Champion Stakes. J. A. Drake has nominated Savable, "Wyeth, Runnels, High Chancellor and Von Rouse for the Saratoga Handicap, Cup and Champion Stakes. F. R. Hitchcock has named Grey Friar for , the Saratoga Handicap, Cup and Champion Stakes and P. J. Dwyer has entered Merry I Acrobat and Memphis for the same events. j C. R. Ellison has not entered any of his horses for the Saratoga Handicap, but he has : named Skilful, Harry New and Captain Arnold for the Merchants and Citizens and the Delaware. "W. C. Rollins Herbert is entered for the Merchants and Citizens Handicap, which he won last year. The Sanfords have Chuctanunda and Rock "Water in the Saratoga Handicap, Champion and Champlain Handicap. The grandstand at the Coney Island Jockey Clubs course at Sheeyshead Bay is undergoing extensive repairs in anticipation : of the coming season. As a matter of fact, ; the stand will be virtually rebuilt from top to bottom and from "end to end before the work ; is finished. Every timber, every plank and ; every portion of the wood work of the great structure that shows the slightest sign of : wear or decay will be replaced by new material, so that when the great crowd assembles at the course to witness the running of the Suburban Handicap this year it will occupy a virtually new stand. "It is one of the greatest cares of the Coney Island Jockey Club," says Superintendent Clarke, "to have the grandstand in perfect order and absolutely safe every year. Not a timber or board that is in the least worn is allowed to remain from one year to another." Secretary R. "W. Whistler, of the Maryland Hunt Cup Association, has called attention to an amendment of the rules of the asso-tion which will be of interset to all identified with this partcular sport. The amended rule follows: "The race for the Maryland Hunt Cup shall be open only to owners and riders who are members of recognized hunt clubs in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, who are acceptable to the committee, steward or stewards and otherwise qualified under these rules." The steeplechase for the Maryland Hunt Cup was organized in 1894, for the advancement of the hunter or cross country horse in Maryland, and up to the present time has been virtually confined to the horses and riders of that state. The race having been thus run for nine consecutive years, it is believed that the primary object of the promoters has been attained and it would be well to open it so that members of all recognized hunts can compete if they desire. The race is run over an absolutely natural country of four measured miles the location being changed from year to year, according to condition of crops, etc., and is distinctly marked by flags. Riders and owners can at all times walk over the course from time of flagging to familiarize selves with it. The cup is a silver tankard of old English design, surmounted by the coat of arms of Maryland, value 00. The coming race, CONTINUED ON FO0BTH PAGE. 15 GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Continued from first page. Saturday, April 25, being the tenth anniversary of its organization, the committee has determined to commemorate the occasion by offering a gold-plated cup of the same size and design. The cup becomes the absolute property of the winner. Ard Patrick, the winner of last years Epsom Derby, is attracting a great deal of attention among racing men at present. It does not appear to be known that both Mr. Whitney and Foxhall Keene are competing for him. Capt. S. S. Brown, of Pittsburg, has offered 5,000 for the horse, but the pro-prfetor, John Gubbins, wants double that amount. A great effort will be made to keep the animal in England. Both Mr. Whitney and Captain Brown would take him to America,-but -if Foxhall Keene becomes the owner, the horse will stay on the other side. The probability is that a syndicate headed by Mr. Keene will eventually get the horse. What is regarded as the most promising filly raised at the Melbourne stud of Colonel W. S. Barnes is the Rainbow Marinette two-year-old .which has a very interesting history. She- is the first foal of her dam that bids fair to reach the starters flag, though Marinette is fifteen years old. The latter, a daughter of Audrain, is out of Mollie Cad, an own sister to the dam of Hindoo, and the grandam of Firenzi. For six years, when she first went to the stud, Marinette could not be bred, and in 1897, after being mated to Onaka, she produced the bay filly Pearlfields in 189S, which filly died of pneumonia early in her two-year-old form, without getting a chance to start. She was barren in 1899, but in 1900 she foaled a chestnut colt by Jim Gore. Her bad luck, however, still continued, as he died when a suckling. The filly that is ! how creating co much competition is her foal of 190L " This youngster, according to trainer Bey Paul, who broke her, can carry 110 pounds and run over the hill in 35 seconds. She ran this distance pulling up last fall in thirty-seven seconds, and did something no other yearling filly ever accomplished over the Kentucky Association track, running an eighth of a mile through the quarter stretch in 10i seconds. She is engaged in over 00 -000 worth of stakes, including the Coney Island Futurity. Just what sum has been offered for the flying daughter of Rainbow has not been made public, but it is rumored Colonel Barnes has priced the wonder at ,000. Sydney Paget was, it is said, the man who offered 0,000 for Africander. The offer was refused. Africander is, on all accounts, the best looking three-year-old down at Gravesend. It was learned a few days ago that Africander had come under the eye of James B. Haggin and that this veteran turfman wanted the son of Star Ruby Afric Queen. Last season Africander was a disappointing colt, but his races, nevertheless, were so good that his owner refused to let him go when he was put up at auction. Has P. J. Dwyer another Kingston or Hanover in Merry Acrobat, the sterling good son of Handspring Merry Thought? Many horsemen, especially those who are quartered at Gravesend, are of the opinion that he has, and they have a great deal upon which to found their opinion. Mr. Dwyer, personally, will not admit that Merry Acrobat is anything but an ordinary, every-day horse. But then, Mr. Dwyer was always modest in talking about his horses, even when such champions as Miss Woodford, Kingston, Hanover, Tremont and a dozen others were sweeping the boards of all the rich stakes. He prefers to let others talk while his horses do the winning. Whatever Mr. Dwyers opinion of the ability of Merry Acrobat may be, certain it is that he thinks" more of the colt than he has of any horse in his stable since the gallant Handspring was retired. "Just you take my word for it," said a Gravesend trainer recently, who, for various reasons, requested that his name be not used in this connection, "that, bar any accident in training, Merry Acrobat will prove a crack this year. I have reason to know that Mr. Dwyer is sweet on him. And he dont waste his sentiment on a no-account horse." Only fourteen short days to the first of the two spring handicaps of the Washington Jockey Club, with the season and all its delightful possibilities begin, says the New York Press. On the twenty-third day of the present month the bugle call will be heard at the capital, to be followed on April 13 by the Carter Handicap, at Aqueduct, and on May 7, by the Metropolitan at Westchester, these events standing for a continuous round of vacation pleasure until the sun gets well started on his return journey to the south. The well regulated turfman has already roused himself from his period of hibernation, has shaken himself together and begun to talk horse, read horse and think horse. To be caught studying the science of winner picking and the casting of equine horoscopes from the conditions that have prevailed across the continent, west and south, are no longer discreditable. The study of "dope" again becomes a part of a liberal education and is no longer followed furtively. There is, aside from the delights found in the occupation, no royal road to knowledge of the runners; and what, through disuse in the hibernating period, has become musty and indistinct in knowledge of form must be brightened up and made clear. From this time on the student of lead pads will be in constant evidence, and the amateur handicapper will be, an authority among men. The Coney Island Jockey Club will build a new track at the Sheepshead Bay course this spring. The track will be located on the property north of the grounds bordering on the Neck road, and will be designed especially with a view to accommodating horsemen with a trial ground for yearlings. The new track will be three-quarters of a mile in circumference. It will ge given a top dressing of sand and loam that will make it one of the best exercising grounds in this section of the country. There has for some years been a demand by horsemen for a track on which yearlings can be broken and exercised. Their presence on the main tracks at the various courses, especially during the time the older horses. are at exercise, is not at all desirable, and is more or less a cause of anxiety. A fractious, half-broken -youngster is liable at times to create a panic among the older horses and cause no end of trouble, if not a serious accident.
