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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Will McDaniel has announced that he would not send his Tennessee Derby candidate, Fore and Aft, to Memphis for the Montgomery Park event. He stated that owing to the bad weather it was impossible to get the son of George Kinney ready for the race. McDaniel has been counting on starting the Gerst colt in this race all the winter, and his failure to have him in shape was a great disappointment to both him and Mr. Gerst, as he was confident that Fore and Aft would have captured the big end of the prize. In speaking of the colt trainer McDaniel said recently: "I dont think there is a colt at Memphis that can beat him. There is not a horse in the Schorr or Bennett barn in his class, and it was these stables that I would like to beat. Fore and Aft is a much better colt than the public gives him credit for being, and I am going right out after the big derbies with him." The only stable that will be shipped to Memphis from Nashville will be that of J. G. Greener and Co., in charge of Albert Franklin. The string numbers fifteen, and includes the Tennessee Derby candidate, Postmaster Wright and Maizavena and Olefiant, both eligible to the Oaks. Franklin thinks his chances for the Montgomery Park features are very good, and will start in both races. There are several shifty two-year-olds in the collection that should give a good account of themselves. At the close of the Memphis meeting the stable will return to Nashville. Unless there is a decided change in the weather, owners and trainers located at Nashville are going to have trouble getting their charges in condition to race by the time the spring meeting at Cumberland Park opens. For the last two weeks it has been raining, causing the owners and trainers to confine their operations to the covered track. The main course has been closed most of the time, and the equines are backward in their work to a certain extent. If there is no change in the weather by the latter part of this week, the owners will have to prepare their horses in the mud, which necessarily means that the good ones will remain in their stalls. The following is taken from the New York Sun of March 1G: "One week from today the racing season of 1903 in the east will be opened at the Bennings track, which will be oper ated in future by the same men who control Morris Park. This means that Bennings will have higher class racing than ever before, and that in another year the Washington Jockey Club will probably offer even more attractive stakes than those gracing the program for the fall and spring meetings. Reports from Bennings say that there will be more prominent owners there than in the past, and that there will be more horses in the stables in and about the track than at any time since the gates were first opened, all of winch shows that when the racing season in the metropolitan district begins at Aqueduct on April 5 the campaign will be under full sway and the public interest will eclipse all previous records as to attendance and enthusiasm. During the week many trainers who have been preparing their horses at Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay will load them on the cars for Washington. The weather here has been so mild that the work of getting the thoroughbreds in shape has progressed rapidly, so that it will not take long to put them in real racing fettle. Many owners who have been racing all winter at New Orleans and ori the coast will also turn eastward so as to be on the ground in time to begin operations at the Nations capital. The spring meeting at Memphis will be a convenient stop-over for horsemen coming from the far west, at the conclusion of which they can get here in time for the opening of the Westchester meeting at Morris Park.- Had Rightful, J. W. Schorrs candidate for western Derbys, shown over a distance of a mile as fast as he did last Monday, the chances are that he would have been shipped to New Orleans and started in the Crescent City Derby. Accompanied by Ord-nung, the aged performer in Schorrs string Rightful went the fastest mile of the season at Montgomery Park. Ordnung started from the stand and was joined by Rightful at the three-quarter post. The pair fought it out all the way, but at the finish Rightful was an easy victor, and the time was less than 1:43. Rightful carried most weight, and his performance makes him a likely candidate for the Montgomery Handicap, in which he is in with 99 pounds. Montanic, Rolling Boer, Nitrate and Crilon were given work over the jumps for the first time Monday, and it is the intention of Trainer Durnell to make timber toppers of them if possible. Old Montanic took to his new task nicely and fenced like he had been asked to do so on former occasions. - The racing string of A. W. and R. McKenzie has arrived at Memphis from Canada. The horses include Maiden, Heather Bee, Wire In and some juveniles. B. Trotter has arrived from New Orleans with Scorpio, War Cry, Apple Sweet, Showman and others.
