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BANNER CROWD FOR CLOSING DAY. Montreal Jockey Clubs Inaugural Meeting Proves Popularity of Racing in Quebec. Montreal, Quebec, June 15. Over 7,000 people were out for the sport of the closing day of the spring meeting at Blue Bonnets. In size and enthusiasm it was the banner crowd of the meeting and the racing was exciting. The track was lightning fast and the weather clear and warm. The thoroughbred has entirely won the city and large as the plant is, it was inadequate to hold tbe eager patrons of the sport who congregated here today. The club has already arranged to double the capacity of its grandstand and have more stabling room for the autumn meeting, which opens on August 31, right after the close at Saratoga. The card today comprised seven good races with the Jacques Cartier Handicap as the stellar attraction. The race was for three-year-olds and upward and was at one mile. Belle of Jessamine proved a false alarm, and the mares backers were mortified to see the Walden mare finish, a poor fifth. Niblick, under a light impost, captured the event in handy fashion. J. Burttschells Lulu Young had no great difficulty in winning the steeplechase. The Long Tom mare went to the front when ready and won with ridiculous ease after being backed from 3 to 1 to S to 5. Centipede managed to last long enough to take second place by a half length from Butwell. The surprise of tbe day was tbe defeat of Lotus Eater in the opening race. The Walden horse was an odds-on favorite and attracted heavy backing. The horses backers were disappointed, however, as George S. Davis, third choice in the betting, came home a winner a length and a half in front of Lotus Eater, while Bobbie Kean was six lengths back. The two-year-old championship of the track was decided decisively today when Columbia Lad took the measure of Boll Weevil in tbe sixth race. Jockey Diggins put up a good ride 011 Columbia Lad, got bis mount away in front and won with four lentgths to the good, Boll Weevil, finishing three lengths in front of Etta Louise. The most exciting finish of tbe day came in the closing race when the three first horses finished heads apart. Gilpin was the first to catch the judges eye, while Ivanhoe got second place and Headley third. Jockey Goldstein carried off the jockey honors with three winners and one third to his credit.
