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THURSDAY IS OPENING DAY New Orleans Racing Begins on Thanksgiving Day. : Prospects Never Brighter for a Most Successful Season at Both Tracks. BY J. L. DEMPSEY. NEW ORLEANS, La., November 22. This week marks the Inauguration of tin; annual winter racing season in this vicinity, and from the L-omiiig Thanksgiving Day until March 17 of next year the thoroughbreds will hold forth at the two local tracks Jefferson Park and the Fair Grounds. The scene of racing will switch on New Years Day from the former to the latter course and then the day following Mardi Gras it will revert back to the Shrewsbury plant. The stage is set for the best opening in Jefferson Parks brief history, with the ,500 Thanksgiving Handicap, for all ages, at one mile, as the scheduled feature for the inaugural program. All indications point to a most successful season at both tracks here and the patrons of the sport, many of them from miles afar, are impatiently marking time awaiting the beginning of the racing period. A new high level has been reached hero for good, thoroughbreds at a winter race meeting, and the overnight handicaps and stake events, there-being four of the latter scheduled to be run at the Fair Grounds, will remind one more of the east.oi Kentucky thnn :i southern course. The east is better fortified than ever here this winter, and the same being true of the Blue Grass State the racing will again resolve itself into an in-tersectional battle. The Kentuckians have a big score to even up with the easterners for the hitters invasion of their native heath during the past spring and fall and grabbing off a majority of the rich stakes offered by the Kentucky Jockey Club, and they have an excellent chance, to settle it here, as they will have capable representation in all kinds of races and under all conditions. The cast, however, has never been found wanting in this respect, and that section can always be depended upon to furnish worthy opposition when the occasion requires. CALIFORNIA AND TEXAS REPRESENTED. That section tf the west outside of Kentucky, namely, California and Texas, promises to be heard from frequently during the winter after the first of the year when the new two-year-olds make their bow, and on all sides one hears words of praise for the youngsters which came from those two states. A majority of the A. B. Spreckels yearlings make a more favorable impression on turf experts each time that they come on the track in the mornings, and the sumo is true of the G. L. Blackford and I. E. Clark "babios." " Of course, many of these will wend . their way into other stables through private nales as the meeting goes on, and even this early :i price lias iKcn asked on some of them. While It has Ix-cn impossible to check up all the coming two-year-olds stabled at the Fair Grounds because of the fact that they are not as yet being registered, a rough .count places the number on hand in the vicinity of 200, and by the time January 1, the day on which they will make their debut in races, rolls around this mark will easily be passed. Breeders are taking a more active interest in the racing here this year than ever before, and fully one-third of the two-year-olds that will ba seen in action at the old track will be raced by the men who bred them. The winter racing here in recent years lias proved an excellent market for , the disposal of-good two-year-olds, and the breeders were quick to realize this. RIDING MATERIAL GOOD AND PLENTIFUL. The jockey colony hen; will be the largest ever, and there will be close to one hundred riders registered. Of course, this includes jockeys of every description good, bad and indifferent but there will be an abundance of the first, and this will be a welcome relief to the race-goers. Among the most prominent pigskin artists who will sport silks here are Cliff Robinson, leading American rider this year; W. Kelsay, A. Johnson, II. Hamilton, J. Howard, I. Connelly, II. I.unsford, L. Lyke, S. Boyle, J. McCabe, J. Butwell, II. Myers, G. W. Carroll, T. Kite, II. J. Burke, J. II. Burke, G. Molesworth, N. Barrett, J. Crotli, W. AVright, E. Ambrose, .1. Rodriguez, F. Coltiletti, A. Richcreek, J. Mooney. J. Morys, O. Willis. L. Canfield, J. llunovcr, M. Garner. W. Crump, J. Metcalf, F. Murphy, O. Preece, Jr., Q- Preece, II. Thurber and J. Walls. The apprentice division will be especially strong and, witli the elimination of Robinson, whose apprenticeship expires the latter part of this month, it will be evenly balanced. Those speculatively inclined will find plenty of opportunities for action, as some of the best known ! luyers of the present day will be on. the "firing . line" at Iwth tracks. Included in the list will be Tom Shaw, "Whitey" Beck, Pete Blong, "Frisco" Gardner, Henry Hanf, Al Hanf and others too numerous to mention. At the Fair Grounds the colony of odds brokers will be considerably augmented, and it is expected that more than ever will be in action there. The sport here will be supervised by the highest class of officials at botli tracks. Judge Francis Nelson will be a newcomer in the stewards stand at Jefferson Park, while Sam C. Nuckols, Jr., will serve for the first time in the same capacity at the Fair, Grounds. There will be seven races each day at Jefferson Park and the first will be called to the post at 2 p. m. This will give the race patrons ample timi to get back to the city before darkness sets in and will also afford enough time between races.
