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IMPROVEMENTS AT BENNINGS. A surprise is in store for patrons of the Bennings meeting, which begins one week from tomorrow. Visitors will find practically a new course and the property so generally improved as to place it on a plane with the very best racing establishments in the country, says a letter from Washington to Morning Telegraph. "The .most notable improvement is the new one mile and seventy yards course, which will be known as the Columbia course. This course has its beginning back of the former seven-furlong chute, where the unsightly old stables known as Irish Row have been torn down. From the start there is a straight run of four furlongs, as level as a billiard table and one hundred feet wide throughout. The turn is a particularly long easy one, and the new work joins the old track just before the stretch turn is made. This new construction is probably one hundred yards back of the old track, and at the far turn runs considerably beyond the steeplechase course, the trees at the steeplechase turn having been cleared away. "From the stand a clear and unobstructed view may be had of the horses from start to finish. The course is now much the shape of the new Aqueduct track, but the racing is I never at any time so far away as on the far turn of the latter track. A small stream Hows between the new and the old course, which is crossed by a culvert, the cost of which was 5,000. This will give some idea of the extensive outlay for the new improvements. It was not- all expended on the new course, however, the old track having been practically rebuilt from start to finish. "The top dressing of Potomac river loam, which made the track a fast one when the weather was dry, but which resembled a huge kakhi colored mortar bed in rainy weather, was all removed. In its place has been put a top dressing of sand. The sand is not so fine as that put on the Saratoga track this season, and it is believed that the track will be faster after a continued hard I j rain than when dry. Fast time will be out ; of the question this fall, at any rate, but few of the horsemen here have any regrets on that score. j "On the front stretch, where the horses have j been working daily, there is a loose surface of two or two and one-half inches. Under this there is a good clay bottom. The new course will be much faster than the old, as its cushion is not nearly so deep. Even if the track is not fast, it will be safe, and the chances for muddy going greatly reduced. "The steeplechase course has also been greatly improved. It has been built up several feet at the low spots, and crowned so as to shed the water. The course has been resodded, and looks in splendid shape. The jumps have all been rebuilt. There will be no more wading contests like those which characterized some of the racing through the field at the spring meeting. Steeplechas- Continued on second page. IMPROVEMENTS AT BENNINGS. Continued from first page. ing is a popular sport at "Washington, and the indications are that it will be seen at its best during the coming meeting. "Another improvement that will be appreciated is the roofing of the grandstand. More than one suit of clothes has been ruined in the past by tar, with which the roof was patched up, dropping on them. A porch has been built to the clubhouse, with a roof over it, and it will no longer be necessary for the club members to witness the races from behind the glass doors in rainy weather. "All in all, the improvements are in line with what the public was led to expect when the announcement was made last spring. Everything has been done on an extensive scale. The horsemen who are the most interested iir the track proper are all loud in their praises, while the public cannot help but appreciate the improvements that have been made for their benefit. Everything is f in readiness for the opening, and one might easily have believed today that it was at hand. The day was perfect, and several hundred persons were out to see the horses at exercise. "There are about 250 horses at the track , mow, :and there will be no scarcity of racing material when the meeting opens, and there
