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NORTHERN CIRCUIT PROSPECTS. "Racing associations on the northern circuit will have ambitious offerings for horsemen next season, and undoubtedly they will be taken advantage of by many owners who have not in their stables material of the caliber necessary to win on the metropolitan tracks nowadays," says the Morning Telegraph of Dec. 21. The season will begin at Toronto May 21, and will continue without intermission practically until well into October. Trainers may not hasten to the conclusion that any decrepit animal can canter off with the purses that will be hung up, but at some of the meetings, at least, there will be abundant opportunity for the horse of medium class. Just as the circuit has progressed in its care for a proper observance of the rules of racing, just in that measure it has prospered. The associations which lagged behind have had to conform to the standard set by the others and demanded by the communities, in which they conducted their meetings, and this standard is gradually measuring up to that which has been set in New York. "The effect of the presence of the Buffalo Racing Association has been for good. It enforced the rules of the Jockey Club-rules that were new to the majority of the owners racing in the north but which became popular when understood and when practiced with rigid impartiality toward all. It is not in the least improbable that the system will become uniform throughout the circuit, although, as a matter of fact, beyond its territorial location Buffalo has no association with the other organization within the district. Giving more money in stakes and purses, however, with the prestige of New York behind it, and the cordial support of Buffalo the next greatest sporting city east of Chicago the pace it will set is bound, to be followed with consequent good results J to every horseman. jr "Next season what has come to be know as the northern circuit will begin at Toronto on May 21 and continue to June 4. This always is a good meeting, and the fact that Buffalo has generously avoided any conflict of dates, even at the cost of Decoration Day, will aid materially. Its program will appeal practically to the class of horsemen who will fill in the overnight races at Buffalo, as well as to the stake horse, and many who originally mapped out their plans for Buffalo will first go to Toronto and thence to Buffalo. After eighteen days at Buffalo the Fort Erie Association will open on the Canadian side . and continue until the first week in August, when Highland Park, at Detroit, will be in evidence, and will race until the Autumn meeting at Buffalo. In the fall there will be difficulty about dates, but every year there is a growing abundance of horses and a conflict may not necessarily be serious to the association, which may find it impossible or impractical to avoid it. There will be a. one-week meeting at Hamilton, Ont., in June, when Kenilworth will be racing, but neither will suffer materially from the opposition. The distance between Buffalo and Hamilton is so great as to preclude and serious thought of the attendance at either place, suffering i! by reason of the clash." i
