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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Good news comes from the winter home of another distinguished horse, that went into winter quarters with his future as a racing proposition shrouded in doubt This is Golden Maxim, J. P. Kraners good three-year-old, that should have been returned winner of the Realization in the opinion of many who saw the race. J. J. McLaughlin, who has trained the colt during his entire racing career, is strong in the belief that should no further accident befall the Golden Garter colt, he will come to the races next year a good horse. So strong is this belief that Golden Maxim will be named in all the important stakes which close early in January, including the spring handicaps. "Golden Maxim was fired some weeks ago," says McLaughlin, "and is just now recovering from the effects of it His legs are hard and look in the best of condition. If he continues to improve, I see no reason why he should not race creditably next season. My horses, Golden Maxim with the rest, have been running out in paddocks built for the purpose, and are only housed up at night. As a result, they show a rugged, hardy appearance. I find they do much better than when kept closely boxed up all the time." "For the last three months of racing at St. Louis last year, Starter Dade did not fine a jockey," says the St. Louis Republic of Dec. 16. "This was so unusual and unheard of that Secretary Woodruff of the Western Jockey Club wrote to Secretary Hachmeister, asking him if he had not forgotten to remit jockey fines to the proper quarter the W. J. C. When Mr. Hachmeister informed Mr. Woodruff that Mr. Dade had not levied any fines, the Chicagoan wrote Mr. Hachmeister a letter in which he said that it was well that he Hachmeister was a man of well-known probity. Were it not so, said Mr. Woodruff, T might think you were holding out on the W. J. C In two days last week Starter Fitzgerald fined the boys riding at New Orleans 00. That is more than Mr. Dade fined all his boys in 184 days of racing. Asked to explain his system of moving starts, Dade said: The most important thing you have got to do is to control the boys. Get them to come up walking and without nudging and hunching their mounts. Then it is simple. I found it hard to get them to do this. Finally I found a remedy. When I saw a boy nervous or overeager and acting as if he were going to try a "steal," I at once laid down the button. Hence, they saw the gate could not go up, and that their super-alertness was of no use. Then I made them come up and stand flatfooted and break. I never sent the field back any distance, and made them walk up again. If I missed the first parade, I made them stand flat To Dade unquestionably belongs the honor of originating, or rather perfecting the moving start to a gate. He used it at Del-mar in July. Joe Murphy saw him work it at Kinloch. When Murphy went back to Canada he put Maurice Cassidy next to the trick. Cassidy sprung it at Kenilworth and Aqueduct, and got all the credit for it Caldwell first tried the moving start ten years ago, but could not make it go." Horsemen are all agog at Lexington, Ky., oyer a very sensational performance by the yarling chestnut filly, by Meadowthorpe Lucinda B., by Wagner, owned by the well-known trotting horse driver, George B. Hayes. The latter, in a friendly banter with another trainer, wagered a dinner for a party of friends that, carrying 136 pounds, his filly could run an eighth in twelve seconds. To the surprise of those who witnessed the trial, the daughter of Meadowthorpe with this crushing weight on her ran the distance in 111 seconds. Hayes bought her at the yearling sale f her breeder, W. L. Simmons, for the insignificant sum of 00. Word has been received in New York that George B. Hill is seriously ill at Silverbrook, N-. J. This unwelcome news was that the young trainer was confined to his bed and present indications are that he will be under the care of the doctor for some time. The horses in the care of Hill are all stabled at Monmouth Park, and at the close of the Bennings, meeting they were shipped to those quarters.
