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] | 1 . t ■ 1 • | • , . i , , i . j I t . . i , , , . . . , e a t e CHARACTERISTICS OF FAST JACK ATKIN. I Is Now a Better Horse Than When Racing Over the Eastern Tracks Last Year. S New Orleans, La.. February 2G.— Outside of Cha-pultcpec. unquestionably the best horse shown here this winter is Barney Schreibers great sprinter, Jack Atkin, by Sain— El Salado. Jack Atkin was a -good performer in the east last summer, but in the opinion of eastern racing men he has improved at least ten pounds since his arrival here at the beginning of the season. He has won with all sorts of packages on his back, reaching just about the limit when Secretary Maginn allotted him 145 pounds in an overnight handicap on Saturday last, which he won easily. Outside of gentleman races this is the most weight ever carried to victory by any horse in this section, at least in these later years of racing. With the exception of gentleman races and welter-weight races, the only horses the writer remembers as ever having picked up approximately 150 pounds and won were W. Lakelands Tattler and David Johnsons Young Duke. The latter, years ago. on a track that was deep in mud, won either at Linden or Elizabeth with 150 pounds on his back, and he won in a canter, too. Up to and including last Saturday Jack Atkin had started ten times here, won seven times and was second once to Pinkola. third once to Chapulte-pec and again second to Chapultepec. In his second start he carried 117 pounds to Pink-olas Sil and the Fizer colt l eat him easily. His first meeting with Chapultepec was in the Mer-chants Handicap at one mile, in which he carried 129 pounds as against 110 on Chapultepec, the latter spreadeagling his opponents and winning as his rider pleased. Chapultepec "had seven pounds the best of the weights, as according to scale he should have had up 117 pounds. A few days later the pair came together again in the King Cotton Stakes at one mile, this time at exactly scale weights, 116 imunds on Jack Atkin and 104 on Chapultepec. Chapultepec won easily in 1 :40i, but on this oc casion Jack Atkin trailed him chtsely from the start aud had him going for aliout all he was worth until the stretch was reached, when the pace and the weight told and Atkin tired badly. These three races when hooked up with horses ..f go.«l class, in spite of weight disparity in two of them, would hardly indicate that Jack Atkin is quite another Roseben. But that he is a really high class sprinter there can be no doubt. He is a very powerful, big. lengthy, raw boned horse, a wiry, wear and tear looking type that one seldom sees among big horses. He has seemed to thrive under racing here, so that when he goes east in the spring he is likely to be quite as good as he has proved himself to be this winter and may possibly develop even better form than he has shown here. The ■fleet that extreme weight may have on a horses stride was illustrated in the case of Jack Atkin Saturday. It was a fast run race considering that the track was dead and heavy in spots. The pace told on Atkin and after turning into the stretch he began to paddle. Normally he has a true, easy way of going aud is a horse of good action, The half-mile merry -go-round opposite City Park is planning to resutue racing on April 14, the Mon-. day following the close of the regular season, whi *h will be the wind-up of the last Fair Grounds meeting. Several parties have been trying to lease the track, but whether it is leased or not a meeting will be helil. As the Louisiana Driving Club, which con-; trols the track, is operating under a charter ami an amusement license also, the latter granted by the city, it is difficult to see how the meeting cau be stopped without legislative action. At the convening of the legislature early in May it is a foregone conclusion that race track legislation will receive early attention, inasmuch as that is being made one of the issues of the campaign. The race track interests will make a strong appeal for high class sport, and as a means to that end they will ask for the suppression of the half-mile Jerichos that for the last two or three years have been flourishing in and around New Orleans. But any turf bill that is passed by the legislature can hardly become op-. erative before mid-summer, so that the half-mile tracks will have at least three months clear sailing anyway. The Benning meeting will undoubtedly attract a . lot of the horses from the east that have been rac- ing here, so that there will be a very noticeable thinning out of stables right after the next City Park meeting, and the western brigade will have ! matters pretty much their own way for the closing two weeks at the Fair Grounds. Tlie recent little flurry over the change in the ■ mode of betting at City Park lends color to the I belief that another winter each of the local tracks , will employ its own set of officials, with the possible exception of the starter. Many occurrences ; of the season force one to the conclusion that the . two jockey clubs, while friendly enough, and work-■ ing together with a reasonable degree of harmony, will in the future desire to preserve their own I individuality and freedom of action to a much I greater extent that they have done this winter. Oue reason for this is the fact that general supervisory turf bodies in the west appear to have become prelty much a thing of the past. It Is now coniiug to be on the western turf largely a case , , of every tub standing on its own Itottom, with of . MM such mutual agreements as may be deemed expedient and necessary. There is no doubt but that it would be better . for local lacing were each organization to employ f - Continued on sixth page.,; CHARACTERISTICS OF FAST JACK ATKIN. Continued from first page. its own officials, at any rate, its own judges and WrMn and handicappcrs. This would bring alxuit in a different set of conditions in the conduct of the s|Mirt at the two tracks, so that an owner who had complaints to make and grievances to air at one. as to the handicapping, for example, might lind matters more to his liking at the other. Anyhow, the currying on of the sport with one set of ollieials at liotli tracks gives to it a sameness that Incomes somewhat monotonous in a long period of racing. The idea of employing one official corps ■4 the licginnin of the season was largely one of economy, hut with the very satisfactory profits the , tracks are now reaping this is a matter in which economy should cut no figure. At a41 events, it is a practical certainty that the experiences of the present season in this res] ect will not he repeated another winter. A flat denial from officials of both tracks has set at rest some silly rumors that a supplementary mceting. with small purse attractions, would be held at City Park for the purpose of racing against the half-mile track, which will reopen right after 1 1n* close of the regular season, and putting that merry-go-round out of commission entirely. The regular season will end April 11. and if "any attempt is made to close the half-mile track it will be through other channels than carrying on a meeting in op|K»sition to that generally considered public nuisance. S. B. Weems.
