view raw text
INAUGURAL NEW YORK MEETING NEAR. i Metropolitan Campaign to Open at Jamaica Next Thursday with Two Stake Races on the Card. New York, May 13. — When the racing season of 1910, under the auspices of the Jockey Club is inaugurated at the Jamaica course of the Metropolitan Jockey Club on Thursday next, what many regard as a new era in the history of the turf in this country will be initiated. Horses of the highest English and French lineage will for the first time in any numbers try conclusions with those reared in the Inited States and Canada and while they are all of the same parental strain which has given a quickening influence to the light horse the world over, there is a tremendous interest on the part of all who love the horse, whether he be thoroughbred, trotter, saddler or hackney, to see how our pure blooded type compares Witt those of older lands, where the blooded horse its we know him was evolved. It is worthy of note that the bulk of the racing for tiie edification of sports lovers of the metropolis and the vicinity will be seen in the counties of Queens and Nassau. It was in the former that the Union Course, celebrated as the scene of the famous match races at four-mile heats between representative thoroughbreds of the north and south were decided almost a century ago. It is therefore hallowed and historic ground in the estimation of all true lovers of the sport of kings. The first and perhaps the most historic of these races was that between Eclipse and Henry in 1823. It is recorded that more than 10.000 persons were present when the gallant little Henry — history says he was les.s than fifteen hands high — had to lower his colors to Eclipse. The stakes were 0,000 a side, and it took three heats to decide this victory, Henry winning the first quite handily, but failing to show the stamina of his northern opponent in the subsequent trials. That there were game men as well as horses iii those days, however, was indicated a few days after the race, when William Johnson, tiie Talleyrand of the turf of that time, offered to run the race over again, wagering from 0,000 to 1. 000 a side on his little champion. In 1S25 the northern mare Ariel was beaten by the southern candidate Flirtilla over the same ground for 0,000 a side, and as in the case of Eclipse and Henry it took three heats to decide the match. It was also at 1nion Course that Rlack Maria. Trifle. Slim and Lady Relief ran twenty miles before victory came to the first named. That such struggles were -not benelicial to the mares taking part in them must be conclusive, though Trifle, which made a dead heat with Rlack Maria in the second trial, subsequently gave to the turf a filly known as Gloriana, which, when mated with American Eclipse, became the dam of Jack Malone. the sire of many mares that figure conspicuously iii the pedigrees of sura" of our best race horses and sires notably Irish Lad. whose granddam, Sparrow-grass, was a daughter of Jack Malone. Therefore, no matter how hearty a cheer may greet the winner of any of the prizes to be decided at Jamaica or Aqueduct, or even at Relmont Park, some miles beyond the border of Queens, it is a region which has echoed to the acclaim of sportsmen for over a hundred years. It is fitting that IMC, a year of especial promise for the turf, should have most of the racing in a region so rich with historical interest in all that pertains to the race hois--. The Jamaica meeting will come in two divisions, the first of which will open on Thursday next and the second on June 15. immediately following the meeting of the Westchester Racing Association at Relmont Park, where a racing season of unusual brilliancy is looked for. On the opening day of Jamaica two stake features are carded, the Pau-monok Handicap, ,500 added, at three-quarters, for three-year-olds and over, and the Suffolk Selling Stakes, ,500 added, at five-eighths, for two-year-olds while on Xatunlay some of tiie liest horses in training will measure strides in the Kings County HaadlcaPi for thcea-year-alda and over, at a mile and a sixteenth. Secretary Walter C. Edwards has announced himself as exceedingly gratified over the manner in which horsemen have catered in the various events, and is sanguine that the meeting will I b- among the best ever held by his organisation. Every stable at the track is occupied and the eours. is said to bo safe and fast. The clubhouse and i grounds were never more attractive, and all is in • readiness for Thursdays throng.
