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CLOSING DATE DECIDED fflj CHARLESTON MEETING WILL COME TO AN 1 END ON SATURDAY, JANUARY 2. Curtailment of Meeting to Twenty-Eight Days Will Permit Horsemen to Go On to Havana in Goad Season for Opening of Oriental Park. Charleston, S. C, December 20. The Palmetto Park meeting will come to a close on Saturday, January 2, instead of continuing for the full thirty days for which it was originally scheduled. This will make the duration of the meeting twenty-eight days. By closing on January 2, horsemen will In: given abundant opportunity to reach Havana for tile opening of the sixty-eight days meeting there on January 7. Many of those who are planning to engage in the racing at New Orleans, beginning January 1, will have moved on to the Crescent City before the local meeting comes to an end. Since the meeting is to elose o soon after the beginning of the " new year, it has been decided not to attempt to card any races for the two-year-olds of 1915. There arc about iifty yearlings at the track that are being shaped up for early racing, but they will all make their debut elsewhere. U is doubtful if a meeting has been recently held at which the lields have been so uniformly large as has been the ease here. The horsemen all appear anxious to keep their charges busy and as a result the competition has been keen throughout. Tile future of Palmetto Park is problematical. There are some who incline to the belief that this meeting will mark the passing of Charleston as a lacing point. There are no grounds for this view, however. Local interest in the racing has been growing steadily and but for the financial depression from which the south is suffering as a result of the uufortunate conditions in the cotton market, the local patronage undoubtedly would be much greater. The exodus of turfmen from here will begin the latter part of this week, when the advance guard will depart for New Orleans. There will be special trains both to New Orleans and Havana. W. Lilley, an apprentice, who has been showing promising form in the saddle here, is a stepson oi J. L. Paul, who is racing a string of horses leased from F. J. Pons. Tlie Christmas week of racing at Palmetto Park will lie ushered in tomorrow with the running of a wi-ll balanced card. The conditions of the races provided for the week will give every owner a.hjus2i? to start hisJiOCSfis at almost any distance. The third stake of the meeting will be run on Friday next. It will be the Christmas Handicap. Despite the cold wave that has prevailed during the past week, largo crowds journeyed to the course daily, undismayed by threatening clouds that promised rain at almost any minute. Speculation in the ring has shown a tendency to be of greater volume than heretofore, despite the fact that the ring is syndicated. The public has leen getting the better of the argument with the layers, the majority of the winners being heavily supported by the talent. The mud runners will again have the call tomorrow, due to the heavy track conditions resulting from the rains of Saturday and yesterday, "Which have left the course fetlock deep in mud. Teams and men were at work on the track with boats this afternoon, and with a warm sun the going will no doubt show improvement.
