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PIPING ROCK PLANNING AMBITIOUSLY. Flourishing Eastern Association Will Add Valuable Four-Mile Race to Its 1914 Program. New York, October 14. Piping Rock, which set the ball rolling for racing In this vicinity last year and continued it this season, intends to conduct the sport on a more ambitions basis than ever next year. At a dinner held at the Piping Rock Club last Friday night, the success of the opening day of the fall meeting on Saturday was anticipated as well as the days sport scheduled for next Saturday, when more important events are to be decided. There were about lifty patrons of racing at the dinner. Including Thomas Hitchcock, Harry Payne Whitney, Samuel Willets, Frederick Johnson, Herbert L. Pratt, Jay F. Carlisle, F. Ambrose Clark and Henry Rogers Wintlirop. The success of the many novel features promoted by the club has beeu phenomenal and it was the personal interest of the club members, who spent their own money freely, that made them so. Now comes a proposition to revive loug-distance racing with a subscription race for four miles on the hat to be run during the spring and fall meetings next year. Frederick Johnson, a vigorous supporter of the turf and whose ancestors for generations have been leaders in the sport, is the instigator of the proposed innovation, and though there was some difference of opinion as to whether the modern thoroughbred is fitted for a contest over such a long distance there were enough supporters of the scheme to raise on the spot half of the ,000 purse for the race. .Mr. Johnson gave it as his opinion that nothing will stimulate the breeding of race horses witli stamina so much as such a race, which was the fashion, in this country lifty years ago. It was recalled that one of the greatest races in American history at four miles was before the war, width Sir Henry representing the south and Eclipse upholding the fortunes of the north. The race was run on Long Island and after the first two heats had resulted in a win for each, Eclipse won the final struggle. General Johnson, grandfather of Frederick Johnson, was the leader of the group of southern sportsmen who brought Sir Henry here for the race, while Eclipse was ridden by Mr. Purdy. grandfather of Rcdmont Purdy, a member of the Piping Rock Association. This will make the revival at Piping Rock of peculiar interest and it may he taken for granted that Frederick Johnson, who owns some good race horses, will have an entry to try and win the laurels which, Sir Henry failed to take. . ., , Another novel, event which met with even more enthusiasm was the Piping Rock Grab Bag Handicap, proposed by Thomas Hitchcock. This is a subscription event for two-year-olds, for which subscriptions will close on November 10. 1913. The original subscription is 0 and a further subscription of 0 eacli will be required before May 10, 1114, when the horses must hi; nominated. Starters will pay ?10O additional. The Piping Rock Association will add ,000 and all the subscriptions and added money will go to the winner. The distance will be four and a half furlongs, and the weights will be announced five days b?fore the race. Sub-, scriptions to the race will he open to the members of the racing association, but the conditions are arranged so that a subscriber may lease a horse for the race to run under ids colors. Indications are that there will be forty or fifty subscribers, insur ing a purse of at least ,000. This is with a view of attracting the best two-year-olds in the country to the Piping Rock spring meeting next year. John J. Graham, who presided at the dinner, announced an event for the spring or fall meeting, which may turn out to be the best steeplechase of the year. This is the W. Burling Cocks Memorial Steeplechase for a purse of ,000 and a cup, both purse and cup being offered by a prominent Long Islander related to Mr. Cocks. All the subscriptions for purses for this years meeting were continued for next, excepting those for the Piping Rock two-year-olds, which are exhausted with the present fall meeting. For the second and last day of the fall meeting next Saturday, the races are more important than those run last Saturday. There is ,500 left of the amount subscribed for the two-year-olds and this will be raced for at one mile. There will be the Harbor Hill Cup for three-year-old steeplechasers, given by Clarence II. Mackay. with ,000 added. Twenty-four entries have been received and the race is expected to draw the largest number of starters of any steeplechase run this year. The other events are: Piping Rock Oaks, for three-year-old fillies for n cup and purse of ,000, offered by Frederick Johnson; Hunters Race over the hunting course of three and a half miles, and the Brook Champion Steeplechase for a cup offered by the Brook Club, with ,000 added by the association. This cup must be won twice to become the property of the winner. It was won last year by F. Ambrose Clark with Meadow Sweet.
