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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. J O. Keene, owner and trainer, who has spent the last two years on the Russian turf, has arrived at Memphis with his stable of : thoroughbreds, with which he will compete at western tracks next season. There are no old horses in Keenes string, and an even dozen represent a modest investment which the young Kentuckian has placed in year-: ling sons of Rossington, Goldfinch, Inverness and other well-known sires. Keene will also have charge of three horses owned by Col. Thomas Sellers, of Lexington. The Keene eleven, are: Bay colt, by Rossington Conceal. Bay or brown colt, by Inverness Sau-teuse. Chestnut colt, by St. James Water Rake. Chestnut colt, by Eon Clara Belle. Bay colt, by Juvenal Prosaic. Bay colt, by Goldfinch Miss Motley. Bay colt, by Inverness Helena, Chestnut colt, by Bassetlaw Twinkle. Chestnut colt, by George Kessler Beetle. Chestnut gelding, by Flying Dutchman. Brown colt, by Longstreet A colt by Rossington Linen died shortly before Keene left his home at Lexington, but the remaining youngsters shipped to Memphis in good shape. The Inverness Helena colt is a half brother to the American and Kentucky Derby winner, Spokane, and the dam of the bay colt by Goldfinch will be remembered as a splendid race mare by both western and eastern racegoers. The youngsters owned by Colonel Sellers, which are being handled by Keene, are: Joe Ross, b. c, 2, by Scorpioja Belle Richards. Bay colt, 1, by Scorpion Belle Jliohards. Chestnut colt, 1, by Governor Foraker Miscue. All of the yearlings are as yet untried. Keene will commence breaking them at once, and will continue their preliminary trials until spring racing time. Horsemen may have overlooked a very interesting clause in the conditions just announced for the Advance Stakes, to be run at Sheepshead Bay during the June meeting of next year. This is a weight-for-age race for three-year-olds and upward, at one mile and three furlongs. For horses that are nominated by January 4 next, the subscription is 50 each, half forfeit, or only 5 if declared out by March 15, or 0 if declared out by May 2. But the event is still left open for further entry of horses up to June 7, by subscription of 00 each, half forfeit. The beauty of this is that it lets in any mans horse for 00 in June to run in a stake guaranteed to be worth 5,000 and only a couple of weeks away. Many a good horse is developed during the early spring meetings. Under the old arrangement, none of these would bo eligible for the rich Advance Stakes, unless nominated in the winter entry, but now, when he shows the necessary ability to go such a route, his owner has a chance to get in at the last minute, so to speak. Last summer there were all sorts of efforts to get up special races in which champions could meet, after it had been found that there was no chance of their starting against each other in their regular engagements. Take the single case of Water-boy and McChesney. The western horse had not been entered in the events in which Waterboy was eligible. With two such horses developing in the early racing months, both could now go in such stake as the Advance, which the Coney Island Jockey Club has modified and has raised in value. The news comes from down in Kentucky that The Picket, the winner of the American Derby and second to Waterboy in the Century, is wintering finely near Beards at the Waldeck farm, under charge of trainer Carroll Reid. The horse was ailing when Reid left Sheepshead, but two months in the paddock has given the son of Falsetto a rotund appearance, and he is doing as well as his trainer could wish. He has free range in the paddock, and is kept out of doors as much as possible, being stabled only at night and in the most Inclement weather. The horse" has broadened and filled out, and is reported as looking in fine fettle. Another of the Middleton and Jungbluth horses, which was not seen on the eastern tracks, Santon, is doing well. Ho is the winner of the Sheridan Stakes at Washington Park, and took the measure of Woodford Clays game filly, Flying Ship. Reports from the south say that the stable is expecting to do great things with him next year. Morning Telegraph. May Overton, president of the Tennessee Breeders Association, expresses himself as entirely satisfied with his dates for the meetings in 1904, as allotted by the Western Jockey Club. He says while he asked for more days, believing that Nashville was entitled to longer meetings, he recognizes the fact that the Jockey Club had a hard task In adjusting dates that come under its jurisdictidn. "Nashville expects to have the best meeting in her history," says Mr. Overton. "On April 21 they will run their third Derby, and the race will have ,000 added. The other stakes will be the Belle Meade, two-year-old fillies; Avondale, for two-year-olds; the Carter Memorial, and the Citizens Handicap. All stakes will be added money events, and will have added from ,000 to ,000 each. Nashville will hang up over ,500 a day for her racing program." Yearlings were out in full force at both Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend last Monday, and there was considerable exercise of a useful character accomplished. At both trades there was an unusual bustle in the return of the racers that closed the season at Bennings recently. The horses all appeared to have shipped well, and will go into the long winter rest in the best of health. With the return of the horsemen from Bennings it is promised that tracks about New York, where winter quarters have been established, will be much livelier than they have been at any time since the close of the meeting at Jamaica. There are numerous yearlings that have to be put through their kindergarten paces, and trainers who have been busy with their racing division will turn their attention to the development of the youngsters. Frank Jones, the veteran trainer of Sheepshead Bay, has given up the notion of spending the winter in San Francisco and will be one of the cold weather colony at the course of the Coney Island Jockey Club. The sturdy old horseman has five likely looking yearlings in his care, and he will devote his time to fitting them for a two-year-old racing season. Fortune did not have a very broad smile for Jones last season, although early in the spring he sent some useful performers to the post. Julia M., the two-year-old, afterward sold to Andrew Miller, gave promise in the early racing of the year that she failed to live up to later. Prince of Arragon, a handsome three-year-old, won a ;jood race, and then broke down hopelessly. Jim Kelly, a two-year-old, that was easily best of the Jones string, after winning several good races, broke a leg in a race and had to be destroyed; and the others did not accomplish anything startling. J. C. Milam has purchased for a private price the entire crop of yearlings of Edward Frazier, the breeder of Race King, Miss Crawford, Waring and other cracks. The list is as follows: brown colt, by St. Maxim Astertia, by Potentate; bay colt, by Dr. MacBride Sweepalong, by Longflight; brown filly, by G. W. Johnson The Broom, by Himyar; chestnut filly, by Dr. Hasbrouck Flo II., by King Galop. While excercising Anirad at Oakland some days ago Frank Knoch, a thirteen-year-old lad in the employ of James Coffey, met with a serious and possibly fatal accident. The two-year-old broke away at the six-furlong post, and, getting beyond his control, collided with the filly St Winifrede.- The boy was thrown to the ground and struck on the head and chest by the animals hoofs. The sufferer was later removed to Fabio.la Hospital. Len Marders, the well-known Lexington, Ky., trainer, has bought from T. C. McDowell the two-year-old chestnut colt, Chief Deputy, and from J. F. Offutt the three-year-old bay filly, Mint Leaf, by Kantaka Long Leaf, by Longfellow. Marders bought the horses for J. N. Miller, of Detroit, Mich., and will train them for that owner next season. Mrs. W. S. Barnes, of Melbourne Stud, has sold to Henry T. Oxnard, of New York, the four-year-old broodmare, Pearls and Diamonds, by Sir Dixon Esmeralda, by O-Malley, for ,500. Pearls and Diamonds was bought by Mrs. Barnes as a yearling at the Clay and Woodford sale and was never raced. She is now in foal for the first time to Wagner. The two-year-old brown colt Robin Hood, by Kingston Belle of Maywood, recently purchased by John E. Madden, has arrived at Lexington from Bennings to go into winter quarters at Hamburg Place. With the colt came several of the string of A. Feather-stone and Ed Graves, which were sent to Kenmore Farm for the winter. Coburn will not be permitted to ride around San Francisco, but will doubtless be received with open arms by Los Angeles. Coburn was reinstated with the understanding that he could not ride at any of the tracks controlled by the California Jockey Club. "Sandy" McNaughtons lightweight jockey, Connell, underwent an operation recently for a growth in his ear and has been confined to his bed for the last week, but will probably be out in a week or so.
