view raw text
FIRST BABY RACE IN CUBA i - :; 1 Li . - Tuesday, January 21, Date Set for Two-Year-Old Performance. Star Youngster in Armonia Stable Fleeing1 Sheik Makes a Pine Impression. HAVANA. Cuba. January 13. Racing secretary Nathansou has announced that the first "baby" race of the season will be run at Oriental Park mi Tuesday. January 21. No races of this description have had a place on the Cuba-American Jockey Club s program for the past two years, for the good reason that the racing of two-year-olds before April 1 was prohibited by the rules of the principal turf governing lwdies of the United States, whose rulings the iiba-Ameriean Jockey Club respects and works in harmony with. The recent lifting of the two-year-old ban has made it possible to restore races of tins type to the Oriental Park program. Then-are forty-four two-year-olds here, and the greater part of them are ready for racing. The first race tor the youngsters will be a quarter mile dasli out of the chute and down the homestretch over a straightaway course. The two-year-olds have all been schooled to run from the starting barrier over this course. A bit later, when they have been schooled to run around the turn, the distance or these races will be stretched out to three-eighths over the main track. The distinction of having the champion two-year-old of the season is likely to fall to Messrs. Tolon and Fernandez, whose horses race under the nom de cours of the Armonia Stable. These Havana sportsmen.... commissioned lner -Walter A.- Carter to purchase a couple of yearlings in the United htates last fall, and it looks as if Carter picked out a real runner when lie selected Ford, a colt bv Aeronaut Bettie Bouncer, as one of the two which lie purchased from Samuel Ross of Washington. This colt has worked like a high-class race horse since his arival in Cuba, and those who have been watching the development of the young stock say that he is unquestionably the best of them all. Besides being of prepossessing appearance, he has the merit of being well bred, being a brother to such sterling performers in the colors of Capt. E. B. Cassatt, ids breeder, as Spring Board and Bnckboard. If it turns out tlurt lie is the star of the two-year-olds here, his Cuban owners may count themselves fortunate indeed, for their stable already shelters what appears to be one of the best of the older division of handicap horses so far as shown in Wise Man. GO TO THE POST IN SUPERB FORM. The running of the Cuba-American Handicap, the only stake of the Cuban season for three-year-olds, brought into action for the first time here the good colt Fleeing Sheik, which speedy son of Delhi and Runaway Girl carried top weight of 121 pounds and won the race in the colors of G. Holmes of Toronto, Ont., for whom Dee Hammond trains this colt and the consistent old campaigner Clark M. Hammond sent Fleeing Sheik to the post for his debut in superb form, as indeed lie has all of the horses in the small stable which lie is training for Mr. Holmes and other owners. It is improbable that any three-vear-old in training here can compare in quality witli Fleeing Sheik. He will lie raced sparingly here during the winter, with an extensive campaign on the American tracks during the coming summer in view. Fleeing Sheik was purchased during the fall season of racing in Maryland by his present owner from George W. Loft, for whom lie ran some highly creditable races in the early part of the year. He is a liorse of heroic mold, and lias begun to fill cut a bit since his arrival here. The general consensus of opinion is that he is the best three-year-old ever raced in Cuba. Doubt of the part of work watchers as to his fitness for his Cuba -American Handicap engagement led to the quotation of liberal odds against him for that race, and it is understood that his stable connections profited handsomely as a result of their confidence in his. ability to give a good account of himself, even under the- difficult track conditions that prevailed. His victory, while achieved by only a narrow margin, particularly impressed close observers, for lie came like a lion at the finish under his heavy impost after having met witli interference; wiille in the thick of the early pacemaking that gave him a setback. Considering the small number of horses comprising it, no stable lias made a better showing here than that over which Dee Hammond presides.
