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RACING NOW AT ITS HEIGHT. HIGH STANDARD OF SPORT AT SARATOGA WILL BE MAINTAINED UNTIL FINAL DAY. Interest Is Now Centered in Thirteenth Running of Hopeful Stakes of 5,000 for Two-Year-Olds ai Three-quarters Important Events This Week. By J. R. Jeffery. Saratoga, X. Y., August 22. Saratoga racing may now be described as being at its height. The high standard which has been reached in respect to patronage and quality of the sport will undoubtedly be maintained during the remaining days of the meeting, the climax of which will not be reached until the last day, when the Hopeful Stakes of 5,000, for two-year-olds at three-quarters and the Saratoga Cup ,000 added, one mile and three-quarters, for three-year-olds and over, will be run. The racing of the present week is chiefly notable for the running of such important two-year-old races as the Grab Bag Handicap and the Grand Union Hotel Stakes, which will bring into action most of the juvenile stars that will contest next week in the Hopeful, the richest race of the year in America. There are opportunities this week for the older horses as well, but the two-year-olds are really holding the center of the stage nowadays and will continue to do so until the end of the meeting. - . The title to the two-year-old championship is bv no means clear as yet, but the races for the stars of that age to be run during the next few days may serve to clarify the situation somewhat. Handicapper Vosburghs allotment of weights for the Grab Bag Handicap, for which he assigned Congressman Lofts Papp 130V pounds, Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sun Briar 129 pounds and August Belmonts Lucullite 128 pounds, indicates how close together this keen observer and competent authority regards the top-notchers among the juviinile stars to be. It is unfortunate that the last-named of the trio-is unlikely to figure in the juvenile racing here, he having been afflicted like others of the Belmont horses with the skin disease which has been sweeping through some of the stables. Papp and Sun Briar Show Improvement. Mr. Vosburghs high opinion of this colts ability Is based on the series of go6d rates lie ran in June. Both Papp and Sun Briar appear to have improved greatly of late. When Sun Briar beat Lucullite by the narrow margin of a neck in the Great American Stakes at Aqueduct June 30, he was in receipt of sixteen pounds from the Belmont crack. Papp, also in receipt of much weight, was a contestant in the same race and finished a badly beaten off last. So there is a general inclination among conservative observers to reserve judgment as to the two-year-olds championship until the juveniles that have leen in the limelight of late shall, have, shown an ability to beat Lucullite at something like even weights. The race in which Lucullite meets the other leading aspirants ! for the two-year-olds title will be vested with more than ordinary interest, it is certain, Omar Khayyams supremacy among the three-year-olds of tliis year is now generally conceded, save by a small minority who believe that August Belmonts French colt, Hourless, may be able to give him an argument in fast going. Omar Khayyam has defeated all the stars of his age in training in this country, including Hourless, but it was over a slow track that he took the measure of Mr. Belmonts crack colt. Everybody concedes that Hourless did not run his race upon the occasion when he met Omar Khayyam and a dislike for the mud is ascribed as the reason for his disappointing showing. In view of the regularity with which Omar Khayyam has leen beating all comers, it is the consensus of opinion that lie is the master of Hourless on a fast track, as well as in soft going and the probability is that he will rule favorite over the Belmont colt whenever the two meet at anything like even weights. Has Shown Great and Constant Improvement. Omar Khayyam appears to have improved with the advance of the season. In the Travers Stakes Saturday he led Harry Payne Whitneys good colt Rickety to the finish by three lengths, whereas upon the preceeding meeting of the two, he. was able to beat Rickety by only a neck, with the same difference in weights. All of Omar Khayyams victories have been scored in races for horses of his own age exclusively. The only all-aged race in which he has competed was the Brooklyn Handicap, in which, running against mature horses under mi impost of 110 pounds, he made his eastern debut for the year. It was his first appearance in the colors of his present owner, Wilfrid Viau, and he failed to cut any figure whatever in the running of the race. The chances are that when he next races in mature company he will make a much better showing and his participation in such a race will be awaited with much interest. Skillful horsemanship on the part of jockey II. Williams played no little part in the victory of Colonel Ralph Parrs Ballybay in Mondays steeplechase. Ballybay. fenced in a slovenly mauiier in the early part of the race and Williams was all but thrown over tin; horses head in taking one of the jumps. From then, on, Williams pursued different tactics, and whipped his mount over each jump with the result that he went over the obstacles clearly and won a race that would not have gone to his credit with less intelligent handling. One of the reasons why Top o tlie Wave came in for backing in yesterdays claiming race was that his owners had thought enough of the colt to send him to the post to contest, for the Kentucky Derby last spring. Meteorite, from the Sauford stable, continues to race like a colt of more than ordinary calibre. Jockey Loftus brought him froni a good bit back to make a show of his opposition in Mondays race in real race horse fashion. It is evident that ho is still capable of beating better opposition than any he has yet met. The welcome word is being passed around that Lucullite is working so well once more that he may be seen in action before the Saratoga meeting is over, in spite of fears to the contrary.
