view raw text
FEATURES OF NEW YORK .JWnNG. Relmont Park Closes Next Wednes. v — Interesting Problems in Thursdays Brooklyn Handicap. Tlie present Belmont Park meeting will come to an end Wednesday. June 2. with the running of the 0.001 Belmont Stakes as the star event of the day. The Brooklyn Jockey "lulls spring meeting will begin tlie day following. The program Imok of the meeting follows tlie Belmont Park pattern in providing for racing on Tuesdays. Thursdays and Saturdays only, except that the concluding day is a Wi ikn artaj This is following out an agreement among tin- New York clubs some time back, but results at Belmont Park have proved so satisfactory that It is believed nearly all of the intervening days will be tilled with overnight programs at Gravesend. The stake races for the opening day. Thursday. June ::. are the Criterion, for two-year-olds at five furlongs, and the Brooklyn Handicap. The Criterion has thirty-three nominations, of which Sou. Madeline I... Glcnnaileanc. Ocean Bound. Angerona. Eollie Levy. Mcxoana. Calypte and Greenvalo have already raced well in public. The Brooklyn Handicap, now a guaranteed cveiii of SS.M0 instead of its 5,000 of last year, has but nineteen entries, but they embrace the lK-st horses of the day and it is likely to be contested by a crack field. Last year Celt, with UK! pounds up. won it with great ease by a length and a half and ran its mile ami a ipiarter in 2:04l. The next three horses, half lengths apart, wire Pair Play. ! !• pounds. Master Robert. 96. and King James. OS. or the four. Fair Play is in Knglaml and the other three are in this years Brooklyn and all likely to start. Celt is top weight with 127 pounds. King James next with 120 and Master Robert has but 11.1. In this there is an assumption that King •Tames has improved much more than Celt and Master Robert since Brooklyn Handicap day of last year, for. on the basis of that race. Celt was at least ten pounds his sutierior and Master Robert fully lis equal. King James is uniiuestionably an admirable specimen of the thoroughbred, but when it comes to coni| eting with Celt and Master Robert he is meeting much better horses than those opposed to him in California. Aside from the interest attaching to their coining together again is the further point that if Celt wins he will be the first horse to capture the Brooklyn Handicap twice, the closest approach being Irish Lads first in 11HK5 and second ir. 1004. • Other horses of great merit in the race arc Jack Atkin. 110 pounds: Frank Gill. 110: Rcstigoiicbe. 112: Hilarious. 10.".: Brother Jonathan. 114: Fit* Herbert. 103; High Private. 102: Berkeley. 102: Joe Madden. 99: Fayette, 97. and Half Sovereign. 95. Of these Jack Atkin is unsurpassed in the matter of speed, but has never raced well at more than a mile and an eighth. Frank Gill was a gnat three-yi arold. but was In bad form last year and must have improved marvelously to have any chance. Restigouchc, on his best form, is the most favorably handieapiied horse in tlie race. Brother Jonathan is probably a better horse than the average racing man deems him and is under extremely shrewd management. Hilarious. Fitz Herbert and High Private are good three-year-olds, but harshly treated in comparison with the iminists assigned such cracks as Fair Play. Master Robert and King James hut year. But for his disappointing race in the Withers Stakes, it is quite safe to say that Fayette would have been asked to cany ten pounds more than have Ken given him. One of the real problems of the nice is Half Sovereign. Tills very speedy tillv has simply been turned loose with her slight impost of ! ." pounds, provided she can stay a mile and a quarter, something the handicapper evidently thinks she cannot do.
