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GOSSIP OF THE TURF. Superintendent Clark, at Sheepshead Bay, has his course in excellent condition since the recent rain. The harrows were put on as soon as was practicable after the wet weather, and they worked the surface into good condition. Several trainers continue to have regular daily gallops over the course, and it is promised that its excellent condition will be maintained as long as weather will permit. This will make "the Bay" a good training ground until the snow comes, and the present care will make its spring pre- i paration much easier of accomplishment. Work is going along on the new training track, and now there seems to be an excellent prospect of its being ready for use before the opening of the season. A large force of men and teams have so far advanced the work that a good idea is obtained of just what the course will be when it is completed, and it has met with the universal approbation of all horsemen who have seen it. Africander is still given very much his own way at Gravesend. and this great three-year-old is thriving wonderfully under his own direction. Dick Millet has not asked anything of the colt since his retirement, after the running of the September Stakes and in his idleness he has grown and taken on a much more robust appearance than he had at any time during his racing campaign. A paddock was constructed in the upper end of the infield for his especial use, and when the weather is fair he gallops about the little plot in perfect contentment. There is now a suspicion of a leg injury that caused his retirement, and when he is taken out for a serious preparation for his four-year-old campaign there is every indication that he will return with all the great promise that he fulfilled in the season that is gone. Myron McHenry, the well-known trotting horse driver, made his first step towards entering the running horse game last Thursday. He purchased from Jules Garson the two-year-old ch. f. Any Day, by Locohatchee Happy Day, and has turned her over to Archie Zimmer to train. Rufus Bush has sold Ethel Lee, by Whistle Jacket Marmora, to Capt. S. S. Brown. She is in foal to King Hanover and will be shipped from New Orleans to Captain Browns farm near Lexington. Ethel Lee is the dam of Crescent City, a horse that Mr. Bush bred. Crescent City is by Midstar Ethel Lee, and won several races as a two and three-year-old. After winning the fourth race last Thursday at New Orleans Aggie Lewis, entered to be sold for ,000, was run up to ,500 by Albert Simous and knocked down to him. Simons subsequently sold her to E. Trotter. E. K. Wheeler, owner of Inquisitive Girl, Tommy Foster and several others, has taken his horses from the charge of Jack Baker, who has been training them at New Orleans. Jockey W. Hennessey, who has been doing some good riding at the New Orleans meeting, has signed a contract to ride in the east next season for M. L. Hayman. A carload of horses has arrived at New Orleans from Lexington in charge of T. H. Sellers. The lot consists of twelve two-year-olds and four yearlings, the property of Frank Kelly. "The story sent out from Lexington to the effect that we have been offered ,500 by Capt. S. S. Brown for the yearling daughter of Sir Dixon Sailie McClelland is not true," says P. J. Gorman, of the firm of Gorman and Bauer. "We did have an offer of something approaching that figure from a party in New York, but it was promptly declined. She is not for sale. She has shown me more than I believe any filly at her age ever did show an owner or trainer, and she is worth just as much to Gorman and Bauer as a racing proposition as she is to anybody else in the business." This filly is now at Oakley Park, occupying the oldi Fleischmann barn, along with the rest of the Gorman and Bauer string, which is being trained by Bob McMillan. In the autumn she was sick, and for a fortnight in October and November her condition was such that her owners thought she would die. She pulled througn, however, and is now in fine shape. She has been named Martha Gorman for Mr Gormans baby daughter. There are four other yearlings in the string, which have been named as follows: Donald Wiley, br. c, by Esher Excellenza. Felix Fiddle, ch. c, by Pirate of Penzance Tasmania. Jungle Imp, br. c, by Pirate of Penzance Marmora dam of Zonne. Irish Jew, b. c, by Sorcerer Lady J., dam of Springdale and Mayme Coden. The little boy, Marion B. Wood, has been apprenticed to Gorman and Bauer, and a license has been asked for him for 1904. Flags were at half mast at Montgomery Park last Thursday in respect for the death of J. M. Peters, treasurer of the New Memphis Jockey Club, and a well-known figure in jockey club circles in the west. The deceased succumbed to a sudden attack of illness Thursday morning, and the end was totally unexpected.
