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FEATURES OF AQUEDUCTS RACING. Advantages of Its Long Homestretch Clubhouse Commissioners and Their Foes. New York, November 5. There is one draw-back to the new Aqueduct race course, for new It practically is, there is so little room for ladies in the clubhouse end of the stand. There are few boxes, but as a rule they are taken by the same party of men day after day. To be sure, there arc not many women visitors to the track just now, but if there were, most of them would be compelled to sit with the majority of the crowd in the grandstand. What is needed at Aqueduct is an upper story to the clubhouse, with a verauda large enough to hold several hundred of the gentle sex. That at least one prominent society lady is fond of racing has been demonstrated here day after day ever since the cold weather set in. Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Wilson, Jr., are most assidious devotees of the sport. Mr. Wilson is a frail man, who at times during the summer, was very ill. His wife, formerly Miss Mason, -of Roston, is his antithesis, and is a living example of the good effect of out-door sport on her sex. As cold and raw a day as was Saturday, the opening day, Mrs. Wilson was on hand. Her husband hud several horses engaged that day, including Monfort, the Ornament colt which ran second to Rrookdale Nymph in the Aqueduct Handicap. Monfort ran a remarkably good race, dropping far back at first, then closing up very fast through the long homestretch. It is this feature of the unostentatious track which has commended it to horse owners and trainers. They realize that there should be little or no excuse for the defeat at Aqueduct of a horse which on paper looks best. On Monday it was tills that saved Rrancas backers, for the awkward gelding was all tangled tip over on the far turn, and did not begin to overcome the leaders until well down the stretch. Even then he was in jeopardy, for Hotter, on .7. F. Donohue bore out from the rail at the same time that Delaby, ou Killaloe, bore in a trifle, and it then appeared as if Rrances would be shut out completely. To the relief of his backers, the game old gelding found an opening and got home first, while immediately behind him the once formidable "red and blue" of "Phil" Dwyers Red Friar was so rapidly overhauling Rrancas that he might have won in a few more strides. Rrancas pulled up very lame, but gradually walked out of it. It is, by the way, a source of great regret that "Phil" Dwyers colors are so seldom seen in front nowadays. He replenishes each year with a dozen yearlings, enters them liberally, which costs him another large amount annually, and not since Major Daingerfield and the others sold by him to James B. Brady and F. C. MeLewee for 0,000, has the veteran horseman had a, really good year, though Knight Errant, but for unsoundness, might have developed into a line performer over a long distance of ground. Mr. Dwyers horses are trained by Richard Miller, a protege for many years back of the Messrs. Dwyer, and the man who handled Africander when that high-class racer was at the height of his fame. Of course, any man who trains for Philip or Charles Dwyer, is always open to the suggestions of those experts, but of late neither uncle ilor nephew pays much attention to the details of training, and so the Dwyer horses are now more than ever in the hands of theij-actual trainer. Charles Dwyer is a clubhouse commissioner at intermittant periods, but unless the character of the program and the nature of the day promises a large clubhouse attendance, Dwyer does not "weigh in" with the clubhouse admission fee, which, for a "commissioner," is 0 a day. Some days there have been as many as two seore commissioners at work in the clubhouse at Belmont Park and Shceps-head Bay. The 0 a day includes admission to the course, $ admission to the clubhouse, additional, and .2 for information," the tissue supplied to all layers and eommisSiohers. containing the official list of jockeys, weights, corrections, etc. From this source alone :t handsome revenue is gleaned, one of the various sources from which the tracks obtain the millions from which the state derives its five per cent., or 00,000 annually. Those who frequent the clubhouse do not by any means, confine themselves to picking a probable winner. It. has become the vogue to "lay" a horse or horses in the clubhouse. The extremely shrewd division which includes Alphonse Hudson, a close friend of Messrs. Gates and Drake; Henry Dryer, Fred Johnson, Jesse Lewisohh and others will often lay a point better than the market price, or rather the price quoted by the clubhouse commissioners, which are not, you can wager, "dutch books," and in a spirit of pique the "amateurs" will lay a better price to the commissioner than he will offer them. Thus quite some betting is done that never goes out of the clubhouse into the ring, aud this has given cause for more or less protest on the part of the large operators, who naturally wanf all the money bet to be in circulation. For several years this was the cause of strong feeling between Wheelock, Jones, Cowan and other well known layers against the associations and the abolition of fees for the privilege of bookmaklng, which took place three yeas ago at Belmont Park, was to a certain extent the result of this feud. However, this attitude of the layers was regarded as a good business exaction, and a recent decision of the stewards ot the English Jockey Club would appear to sustain the American hookies. Of late there had grown up In thk clubhouses at the various English courses a state of affairs now existing here that Is, amateurs had turned layers. Coatiaued ou second page. FEATURES OF AQUEDUCTS RACING.. Continued from first page. and recently the members of Tattersalls and other iiillucntlal layers protested to the turf authorities that this was not the correct thing. The consequence is that, according to the latest English papers, it lias been ordered that there shall be no more "laying" by amateurs in the track clubhouses. The money must be bet iu "open market" according to the decision of the nfost eminent turf bodies in the world, and this precedent ought to le a good one to follow elsewhere. From a friend abroad I hear that "Winnie" OConnor will renew his engagement next year witli the German turfman, Ilerr Weinberg, for whom Willie Shaw rode this year with great success. Shaw is back and will no doubt renew his alliance witli the Farrell-Sullivan-Johnson stable, so ably trained by Frank Weir. "Johnny" Reiff will ride in Germany also, at a retainer of 5,000. Milton Henry will remain in Baron Rothschilds employment and Jay Ranch will ride for James Hennessey. Bellhouse, who is not an American, will again ride for W. K. Vundcrbilt. Cormack, after several years success in France, is leaving XMrc for his home in Canada, where be is a neighbor of "Jack" Martin. This last-named rider has bought a lot of property at Hamilton, Ontario, of late. J. J. Burke.
