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FLOCKING TO NEW ORLEANS NEARLY SEVEN HUNDRED HORSES ALREADY IN FAIR GROUNDS STALLS. Leochares, Chalmers and Pan Zareta Among the Sprinting; Stars Now There New Disposition of Selling Race Surplus Money. By J. L. Dempscy. New Orleans, La., December 10. Although the third annual winter race meeting of the Business Mens Racing Association of this city is not scheduled to open for three more weeks, there are at present 090 horses at the Fair Grounds, and with few exceptions, all of them are ready to race, stable room has be n reserved for 770 horses, and it is expected that the other eighty thoroughbreds -will have reached here before another week rolls around. Even this early the city is crowded with race track folks, but the number here now is nothing compared to what it will be from about December 20 on, especially during the week of the holidays. As was the case hist year, the Business Mens Racing Association will again feature long distance lacing, Wednesday of each week being set apart for the running of six races, at a mile or over. It has always been the aim of judge Murphy and racing secretary McLennan to provide as many long distance races as possible, and in order to encourage owners ar.d trainers to send their horses over a considerable route of ground, McLennan will recommend to the judge that lie pass a rule providing for certain additional weight allowance to those horses which have not won at a distance of a mile or further. This will be especially beneficial to the three-year-olds, and McLennan says that no doubt it will result in more horses being sent to the post in the long races. The owners are particularly pleased at the plan in vogue at the local track of closing the various stakes a week before they are to be run. This will result in the saving of hundreds of dollars in nomination fees to the horsemen, as they will not have to nominate their horses so far in advance of the date of the running of the stakes, and a horse which is not fit to run in a particular stake need not be named for it. The first stake to be decided is the New Years Handicap, which is set for the opening day. It is for three-year-olds and over, and lias an added value of ,500. Entries to this stake will close December 25, and the weights will be announced December 2S. The entrance fees to all of the stakes are light, as are the starting fees. In the New Years Handicap it will cost only to nominate, and 0 additional to start. There will also be changes in the selling race rule at the Fair Grounds track this winter, and a new plan of distribution of the surplus money from runups will be used. In the selling races horses may be entered to be sold or claimed, at the discretion of the owner. Horses entered to be claimed shall be subject to claim by anyone in good standing for the entered price plus the value of the purse to the winner. This includes the winner. The claimant of a horse does not necessarily have to be represented in the race, which was the same case here, last year. Any surplus arising in selling races as a result of a runup, will be divided 50 per cent, 30 per cent and 20 per cent to the second, third and fourth horses respectively. Last season the second horse was the only one in the race to get any of the runup money. Two crack sprinters, Leochares and Chalmers, both of which have run three-quarters in as good as 1:11, are here for the coming meeting, and it marks their first appearance at a winter race track. Leochares came here from the east after an unusually good fall season. The months rest which he is getting at the Fair Grounds will do him much good. The big local favorite. Pan Zareta, has been here for some time and, as she has not started since last spring at Hot Springs, she should be able to give an excellent account of herself next winter. There are any number of horses here which have covered the three-quarters route in 1:12, and they are galloping along like they might run that fast when called on at the Fair Grounds. One horse especially, which seems to be in great condition, although she had none tooo good a season in Kentucky during the fall races, is Fleetabcllc. She is owned by .Tames Greene, of Louisville, and has been working fast. The climate seems to have benefited her considerably and she is undoubtedly better now Uiuii she was in the Blue Grass State. Another sprinter of which much is expected is Uncle Hart, which W. C. Clancy recently purchased from Ross and Looney. He was a good horse last fall, winning several races, all of them in better time than 1:13 at three-quarters of a mile. Mnrs Cassidy is another which lias been helped by his long rest and turfmen here point to hi3 head and head finishes with Pan Zareta at Hot Springs last spring as evidence of his ability to run fast. There are others too numerous to mention which will fill the sprint races and make selecting the winner a difficult task. There will be no dearth of riding material here, although most of the jockeys have not arrived here yet. The majority of them are planning to come here the latter part of the month, as many want to spend Christmas at their homes if possible. During the previous two winters here the riding colony has been equal to that at any of the Eastern or Northern tracks, and this year will be no exception. Included in the list who will ride here is Jockey Frank Robinson, leader of the riders list in North America for the current year. He will do the stable riding for R. L. Baker, the Lexington, Ky., turfman, and he will have some good horses to ride in this barn. The Baker horses have been resting at Lexington since Latonia closed and they are reported as being at the top of their form. Pif Jr., which Robinson rode to victory by the margin of a nose in the Latonia Cup race at two miles and a quarter, defeating such a crack long-route horse as Star Hawk, is the star of the Baker string, and he will be nominated in the long-distance stakes. Trainer "Will Perkins has probably the largest stable here, as he has twenty-five horses under his care. Perkins was quite successful at the Fair Grounds last winter, as Marion Goosby, which he trains for M. C. Moore, of Dayton, 0., won two stakes. The horse did not show much form after he shipped him north, but he has been let up on for a long while and gives promise of being as good as ever next winter. Other owners represented by large strings are Jefferson Livingston, C. K. G. Billings, W. R. Coe, R. L. Baker and C. W. Clark. Among the early arrivals for the meeting are C. R. Ellison and wife, John F. Schorr and wife, Frank E. Brown and wife, and many others prominent in turf circles in the north and east.
