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AMERICAS RICHEST RACE 4 Maryland Futurity EViay Surpass in Value All of the Old Fixtures. o Event Open to Breeders World Over Unsexed Horses to Be Barred. BALTIMORE, Md., October 18. Marylands Futurity, which will be run next fall for the first time at either Havre de Grace, Laurel or Pimlico it has not yet been decided which, may surpass in value any horse race ever run in the United States. It will be approximated as regards value only by the Grand Prix, the greatest of Frencli races, which, when William K. Vandrbilts Northeast won in 100S, paid a matter of 0,000 to the winner, and when Sardanapale won in 1914 paid nearly 2,000. The Maryland Jockey Club, Mary-lahd State Fair and Harford Agricultural and Breeders Association will make up a sum of 1919.sh0,000 for the Maryland Futurity, which might approximately be called the Walden Futurity, since the idea of it germinated in the brain of Robert L. Walden. proprietor of the Bowling Brook Stud, which is in Carroll County, Maryland, and is the oldest thoroughbred nursery in the Old Line State. And then there will be a starting fee of ,000. There will never be under a dozen starters in a race that will have a value of 1919.sh0,000 in added money. So it is certain that the value of this great two-year-old race will be greater than 0,000 annually. The richest of the old Sheepshead Bay Futurities was Potomacs, and it paid 1919.sh7,075. But there will be a vast difference between the Maryland Futurity and the old Coney Island Jockey Club Futurity as regains tiie source of its value. The Coney Island Jockey Club never added a greater sum than 5,000 In the Sheepshead Bay Futurity. The bulk of the .stakes, has been made up from year to year by the subscriptions and forfeits of nominating breeders. There will be no subscriptions and forfeits in the Maryland Futurity, only the ,000 starting fee, to which reference has been made already. The Maryland Futurity will be for entire colts and fillies, because it lias become a fixed policy in Maryland to discourage the wasteful practice of unsexing young thoroughbred stallions, which, when left entire, are capable of being put to use at the government remount studs, siring lialf-breds for the forces of national defense. A man will think more than twice before he disqualifies a well-bred young horse, that may be ti bit backward in development, from starting in a 0,000 to 5,000 race by altering him to promote quicker maturing. The distance of the Maryland Futurity will be one mile, because it is the purpose of the racing associations of Maryland to encourage the development of stamina. With this 0,000 prize in sight there will not be so much hurrying of fine young thoroughbreds to destruction by training them hard for ,000 to 0,000 races to be run in May, June- and early July. It is conceded that it is the rigorous early training and racing of two-year-olds that makes sprinters so numerous and long distance runners scarce. Hani training oil feet and ankles that are not sufficiently mature to stand rough usage promotes unsoundness. Not even a thoroughbred will maintain his speed far when his feet are bad and his tendons are wabbly. Care must be taken of a two-year-old that is to compete in autumn in a race of one mile for from 0,000 to 5,000. BIG INCENTIVE FOR BREEDERS. The Maryland Futurity will be open to the breeders of the world Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Argentine because it is the purpose of its promoters to bring to the United States through it two-year-olds of the highest quality. The best mares of the great studs the world over will bo named in years to come for this Futurity, and its 0,000 to 5,000 will create a market for their progeny in the United States. Breeders of the horses that figure most prominently in these Maryland Futurities will be remembered, of course, as breeders of the contending horses are remembered in the conditions of great produce races the world over. As a special inducement to Americans to breed thoroughbreds in Maryland an additional ,000 will be paid eacli season out of the stakes to the breeder of the winner, . provided the winner has been produced on a Maryland stock farm. The announcement of this condition some weeks back has already had the effect of bringing back to Maryland the thoroughbred stud of Thomas Clyde. The Clyde stud has been removed from Red Bank, N. J., to Bowling Brook Farm. Since the Futurity of Maryland is to be instituted next year at a track that will be decided by lot, it will be closed this fall for yearlings. The youngsters that will take part in its first renewal, or second running, are now weanlings. Ultimately, of course, it will be open only to mares that have been mated in the spring and appear to be in foal. In a general way these are the facts concerning what will for years to come be the most valuable of American horse races. The conditions of the Maryland Futurity down to the last detail will be announced later, after the directorates of the Maryland Jockey Club, the Harford Agricultural and Breeders Association and tlte Maryland State Fair have got together and decided just what they will do. It can be said with authority, however, that after the first running the Maryland Futurity will be decided in rotation at first on one of the three tracks that will collaborate in its production after the other.
