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NEW ORLEAxNS SMALL TALK THIS WEEK TO BRING RUNNING OF TWO STAKE RACES AND INCREASED PURSES. W. P. Johnsons Winning Two -Year -Olds — Newcomer to Racing — Schorr Puts High Price on Cudgel — Robinson Riding Well — Track Drying. 15. J. L. Dempsoy. New Orleans. La.. January 21. — This week will mark the passing of the first half of the winter rare meeting at the Fair ironies and. if turf history upholds itself in the Crescent City, the second half of the season should tie much better than the first. Had weather, adverse track conditions and everything that could serve as a drawback to the attendance at a winter meeting have been prevailing here, but in the first fifteen days of the meeting the minimum attendance on any day has been a trifle over 2.400. and on a majority of days it has hovered around the ."i.000 mark. This week will witness the beginning of the semi-weekly stake races, as two fixtures will be run each week until the last five days of the meeting, when there will be a stake daily. It will also see the inauguration of the 1917.sh00 minimum purse values, something unheard of in the annals of winter racing heretofore. To date the meeting has been all that could be desired in the way of consistent racing and. while UK better class of harass have been kept in their barns most of the time because of the muddy track, the horses that have performed, even down to the cheapest selling platers, have preserved form fairly well. Double winners are frequent and there are a few cases of horses winning three races in the first fifteen days. In no races have the horses run truer to form than in the two-year-old dashes, and. with few exceptions, these affairs have fallen to the popular choices. Johnson Two-Year-Olds Doing Well. There is one stable at the Fair Grounds that will be well in the clear from a financial standpoint on its two-year-olds regardless of what action the Kentucky State Racing Commission and the Canadian Racing Associations may take regarding the racing of young horses before April 1. and that is the stable of W. I*. Johnson. The juveniles from this establishment won themselves out quickly the first part of the meeting, and they still have plenty of time to add further to their account. This stable is represented in almost every two-year- dd race, and in the first one-third of the meeting it won a majority of them. The horses from this barn which have raced in the two-year-old affairs are all well bred and seem capable of holding their own at any race track, but trainer W. 11. Fizer is linking the best use possible of them here and is getting the desired results. This is the case of many other owners and trainers who pledged the allegiance to Judge Murphy to ra i i their two-year olds at the Fair Grounds, and the bad track which has prevailed most of the time has ben the only drawback to more of the youngsters starting. The new rule, which in reality does awny with the bidding on horses and makes every race a claiming affair, in which even the winner may be taken by some one represented by a horse in the race, seems to have had a quieting effect. Before the present rule was in vogue all records for claims and runups on any race track in the United States were broken, but since the new rule was adopted the halter brigade has been unusually quiet. The rule, however, has its enemies as well as its friends, but it will be given a thorough test. When the horsemen first broached the subject of •hanging the sidling race rules to Judge Murphy, he toM them that lie was willing to do all in his power to assist, but that they must get together and agree on a rule that could stand a fair trial. Michigan Man Takes to Racing. Another wealthy newcomer to the turf whs i here is Henry S. Koppin. real estate dealer of Detroit. Mich., who is spending the winter in the Crescent City as the guest of John W. Schorr. Mr. Koppin has an option on a quartette of two-year-olds stabled here which have never raced, ard it is more than likely that he will exercise it. He also expects to get several older horses and they will be trained by George Horkel. who last year uncovered the goad selling plater Bertodano. the "bush horse" which won five races at the Fair Grounds. It i-. his intentions to race his horses in Kentucky in the early spring, and then ship them to Canada where he will have a chance to see them race. Mr. Schorr has been requested to name a price on his good throe-year-old Cudgel, which is at Douglas 1ark, I,ouisvillc, Ky., in charge of trainer George Land, and he puts a high figure on tinfoils worth. Cudgel is by Broomstick — Eugenia Burch. and last fall was a rather useful horse, Ho ran three-quarters in 1 :12:;.-, and a mile in 1:40.-,. and seemed to favor a long route. Tom Bird, acting for Captain J. K. L. Ross, the wealthy Montreal sportsman, is bargaining for the horse, and in a letter to Mr. Behorr lie told him that he will nominate him in all of the big stakes in Canada next summer, if he gets him. If he does not sell him it is the intention of own-r Schorr to enter him in the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Handicap at Louisville, and the Latonia Derby also. He will also put him in all of the stakes to which he is eligible to run at the Saratoga meeting next summer. Something About the Riders. Although jockey Frank Robinson, who led the riders list in 1910. has redeemed himself lately for the poor start lie made- at the local n ting. he is being closely pushed for honors here by joekey Lawrence I. kes. who sprang up here last winter. Kobinson is the only rider here without tie- apprentice allowance, who has lioen showing good form, and the young jockeys seem to hold the whip hand in the matter of class. This is true of jockeys I. kes, A. Carroll. W. Crump and W. Collins, and a majority of the races run to date have been won by these four and Kobinson. F.ntries to tin- stakes, to be decided at Churchill Downs during the- coming spring meeting, espe cially the 6,000 added Kentucky Derby, an- coming in fast to associate judge Campbell, who will serve as racing secretary at all of the tracks in the Blue Grass State except Iexington. He c x| ects the- stake blanks freun Douglas Iark and I.atouiu in a few days, and both of these will also have a §15,000 added stake, the former the Ken- tueky Handicap for three-year-olds and over, and the latter the Latonia Derby, for three-year-olds exclusively. Incler a stiff wind, with some sunshine thrown in. tin- Fair Gruuads track dried out considerably today, but it will be Tuesday at the- earliest before the going will even be good. The summer-like weather brought out the full quota of local "rail-birds" early today ami at eight oclock in the morning the re were 1.000 or more on hand watching the horses in their morning trials. The going was still extn m.ly heavy and the horses which worked were forced to go around the "dogs." Last week the going was either muddy or heavy every day and this naturally set a number of hore~ back in their training. The weather conditions here this w later are in direct coatrast to last wintir. when it reined only on two racing days. Thus far tne mud runners have had the call, but this has not helped the Palm Garden brigade any, as the betters seesa to pick the winners in the muddy going with less trouble than on a fast track. Statistics of the railroad, steamship and hotel companies show that a new record for visitors in New Orleans in the course of the past ten jaais baa been established, with thousands more to cease next month for the Mardi Gras celebration. The daily attendance- at the Fair Grounds, according to the official figures, has been in excess of each corresponding day last winter, but the patrons have-not had a chance to see the highest grade- of horses here, with the exception of Leochares, in action, because of the bad track conditions. With few exceptions the racing has been form-ful, especially in the two-year-old races. The selling platers, which usually beat one another with a different weight adjustment, have also set a new mark in this respect.
