An Unprofitable Meeting: Remarkably Small Attendance but Good Racing at Empire Citys Last Day, Daily Racing Form, 1908-10-25

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AN UNPROFITABLE MEETING. REMARKABLY SMALL ATTENDANCE BUT GOOD RACING AT EMPIRE CITYS LAST DAY. Spooner Takes the- Arrow Stakes with Ease Question Mark Defeats Tiloing in tho Real Feature Race. New York. October "J. The final days racing card of the Empire City Associations brief fall meeting at Yonkers was witnessed by about 500 spectators. Two hundred would be a conservative estimate of the paid admissions to the enclosure. Yet the sport for this time of the year was high-class. The layers iioled absurdly short odds against the favorites and reaped a harvest, as only a solitary horse of that variety in Spooncr won. The regular metropolitan plunging contingent was well represented and transactions ran away up in the thousands on evorv race. Rain fell during the night, but not in sufficient volume to render the track heavy. Nevertheless the going proved such a handicap to some horses that, with the one exception referred to. form was upset completely. The slaughter of public choices began with the defeat of Jeanctte M.. which barely saved third money with no odds quoted about her for that position. Earl G., which was even more strongly fancied to win the second race, wound up absolutely last, his retirement being so precipitate that lie dropped from the first to last place in the final hundred yards. Spooners victory in the Arrow Stakes gave the plungers a bit of encouragement but it did not last. The very next race developed a totally unexpected winner in Question Murk, which has been regulars beaten of late, but at sprinting distances, and was a neglected outsider at S to 1. but won in a must impressive manner. This was the race of the day. Withdrawals had reduced the original overnight lield of fifteen to eight starters, but it was one of the most open races of the meeting, every contestant having willing supporters. Tileing was the real tip and came near delivering the goods, but Qucstlou Mark dropped from the clouds and upset ,T. II. McCormicks long-deferred good thing. It was a cracking good race, the horses running closely bunched from first to last. The start and interference on tho first turn played havoc with Arondack and Gowan. and. with inexperienced riders on Iwtli. these two tine racers had but scant chance to show their lest form. It was reserved for iBurgher in the last race to ean the climax of an .afternoons series of defeats of STifufolic Choices. The Whitney cast-off. at odds of 2 to 5. ran as if waterlogged for the entire .iournev. Biskra, which lias been knocking at the door for several months, succeeded in winning a nurse finally. Saracinesca. also well meant, finished second, with Esoteric, an old broken-winded cripple third, a length in front of the mighty Burgher. The reappearance of the recently injured colored jockey. II. Smith, on Araseo. was the signal for applause on the part of the spectators. That Smith would be. able to resume riding in so short a time after having been so badly injured at Graveseud that it was thought he would die. seemed so impossible that the crowd remained silent during the first -part of the parade of the horses in the race lu which he rode. Two of the thirty-three men arrested for alleged violation of the anti-betting law at the Yonkers August meeting, have been indicted by the grand jury of Westchester County. Their names were not divulged. The coming new grand jury will take up the cases of the remaining thirty-one defendants next week. It. T. AVilson. Jr., and J. II. Alexandre were unexpected visitors at Yonkers. They were engaged In a lengthy conference with Philip J. Dwyer during the afternoon. .T. E. Madden has arranged that Fayette, the lesser one of his famous pair of two-year-olds, is to be sent to California to race this winter. He is still trying to sell Sir Martin, but whether be does or not. it is. said the champion juvenile will be sent over to run in the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris. More than 50,000 worth of American thoroughbreds left tliis country this morning never to return. They belong to August Belmont, and his brother Perry, and include the great stallions. Ethelbert and Octagon, and the three-year-old eup champion, Fair Play. They left on the Minneapolis, their ultimate destination being France. The horses are heavily insured. Fair Play is insured for 0,000 nnd Octagon and Six oclock for 0,000. The great son of Hastings is accompanied by a polo pony named Jack. Besides Ethelbert. Octagon. Fair Play and Six oclock, fifteen broodmares made up the consignment. It. T. Wilson, Jr. declared emphatically at Yonkers today that lie would not race abroad. Burlew and ONeill have sent to this country for jockey Francis to ride for them next season. The firm has already purchased a half-dozen horses to represent them on the French turf. Lyman Davis had eighty-eight horses with which to make up the last days program. Sixteen of these were shipped to Baltimore this morning, leaving only seventy-two for todays racing. Mr. Davis said that James Butler had instructed him to order the track ploughed up at once and to sprinkle a lot of manure on it. This is preliminary to converting it into the safest and fastest mile track in the country for next seasons racing.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1908102501/drf1908102501_1_2
Local Identifier: drf1908102501_1_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800