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NEW YORKERS GOING SOUTH IN FORCE. Exodus Now On for Winter Meeting at Now Orloans Two-Ycar-Old Rule Is Discussed. By Ed Cole. New York, December 19. All aboard for New Orleans, is the slogan one hears along Broadway these days. If all who are going wish to land there on or before January 1, the Southern railway will not only have to add extra coaches to their regular trains, but will be compelled to inject special service accommodation. "Almost every reservation has been taken," said Mr. Thweatt, the general passenger agent here. "Never before was there such an exodus of racing folk going, south not even in the Iieydey of winter racing in New Orleans. On Saturday last our office looked like a Caruso-night at the Metropolitan, and many who wished to leave before Christmas will have to wait until after that holiday, but I hope to get everybody away before the 2Sth. Hundreds have been booked for the first two weeks in January and I dont see how they will all get sleeping accommodations when they get there. Humorous Billy Chapman has decided to take a clothesline and a few pins with him so that he and his friend Joe Murphy will get a hang out in somebodys garden or back yard." This gives some idea of the vast number of racing folk who will spend the first six weeks of the New Year in the southern metropolis. They have had a mouth of idleness in the city and their skins are cracking for another glimpse of a horse race. That New Orleans has become the Mecca of winter racing is positive. Under the guidance of the Business Mens Bacing Association, the sport has been revived and is welcomed by the trades-people. There was quite a legal and political battle before the knots for this years session wera straightened out, but the task was accomplished and all that now remains is for the association to stick steadfast to its regulations and show a liberality of spirit to horsemen to again make New Orleans the much-looked to winter resort of the thoroughbred and its followers. What Manager Joseph A. Murphy will do in regard to the racing of two-year-olds remains to be seen. The edict of the Jockey Club, approved by other controlling turf bodies, that young horses racing in the early spring will not be eligible on the larger tracks, will prevent many horses of promise going to the post as heretofore. If there are any two-year-olds sent out at New Orleans they will not be of the caliber considered worthy of higher honors on the eastern, Kentucky or 1 Canadian tracks. It will not cause any shortage of horses, however, as the stables at the old track are filled to overflowing. If European statistics and experiences are an indication the new rule will prove beneficial for the improvement of the American thoroughbred. Quite a few horsemen are opposed to it, but the most influential breeders are almost unanimous that , , good results will be achieved by permitting young t horses to be further developed than has heretofore been the case. A good argument is given by some that what breeders and owners lose by not racing their young horses this year will be made up in later years. There will be six or seven races each day at all the winter tracks and purses that formerly were prescribed for two-year-olds, will be offered for horses of more mature years. In other words, the lack of two-year-olds racing in the first three months of the year will not cause any depreciation of the money offered by associations. Consequently the whole system will equalize itself in the end, so far as money offerings are concerned. It may be the fields in the races for older horses will not be as large as when two-year-old events were carded, but that will not materially change the situation. Among the many booked for New Orleans to leave within the next ten days are Alfred Hauf. J. 11c-Michael, Ben Levy, C. N. Cohen, Vnl Miley, Ed Garrison, L. Mayer, M. Hayman, John McPherson, W. Chapman, John and Edward Steiner, C. II. Cohen, John Reese, F. J. Ortell, J. Rheinheimer, E. McCall, S. Abranis, E. Collins and J. McPherson.
