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HAVANA RACING IMPROVING Better Horses Increasing Public Interest in the Sport. Climax to Be Reached in the Holiday Season with the Advent of Stake Racing. 1 i -i BY T. K. LYNCH. HAVANA, Cuba, December 14. The merchants, the hotels, the cafes and the restaurants are making preparations to look after what is expected to bo the largest influx of tourists that ever visited Cuba. They are expected here after the holidays. The improvements being made to tlie Sevilla will have been completed by then and all of tlie other large hostel-ries are prepared to take care of their share of the business. Several smaller hotels are being fitted up to accommodate tho overflow. Havana has mauv attractions to offer its visitors. The opera, the moving picture houses, tlie circus, tlie Jali Ali games and the big race meeting at Oriental Park being some of tlie principal attractions. The raws are by far the most popular of the amusements .with the Americans and the magnificent clubhouse at Oriental Park is a keen attraction with the wealthier class of tourists who come down here to have a good time. Visitors from tlie States throw off all restraint when they arrive in Cuba and one leads sort of a carefree life down here in the semi-tropics. Tlie race meeting at Oriental Park is being conducted in si high-class manner and the. attendance has been remarkably large for early in tlie ,season. Seventeen bookmakers and about twenty riiiituel machines have been kept busy attending to the wants of those speculatively inclined. Tlie clubhouse, which has been undergoing some repairs, will be opened on Christmas Day and the occasion will be made one of the biggest social events of the season in Havana. The race meeting, for that matter, is sort of a big social function down here and on Sundays and holidays especially some of .tlie handsomest gowned women seen anywhere fill the lioxes in the rear of the spaeious grandstand. On these occasions tlie scene reminds one much of those beautiful August days at tlie Saratoga track, when everyone who is- anyone in society is present to watch the sleek thoroughbreds battle for equine honors. The class or horses taking part in tlie meeting is of higher average than in previous vears and a notable feature of the meeting lias been" the number of extremely close finishes. Capt. W. J. Press, who brought rather n pretentious string down from Maryland, has been the most successful to date of tlie owners racing here. During the first ten days of the meeting he has gathered in four purses, two with Hank ODay and two with Coral. Both liorses are at the top of their form just now. Hank ODay. which had the reputation of being a. nervous horse at tlie barrier, is now as docile as a lamb at the post and he breaks awav like a quarter horse. The climate here is said to be wonderful for a nervous person and it probahlv applies as well to an animal. At all events, this nicer has changed completely since his arrival here. Coral, too. races fast and far and is also a much improved horse. EX-STARTER HOLTMAN FLOURISHING. Jake Holtman, the ex-starter, who is now quite a successful trainer, has a useful sort of string here, some .which race in his own colors and votliers-the property of various owners. He, too. has won if our purses, two with his own liorses, Fly Home and Baladin; one witlt W. L. Lewis Crvstal Dav and another with J. J. OMalleys Major Bradley! Kay Spenee, who has thirty-one liorses in his care, has saddled five winners. Spenee lias sonic useful liorses here, but he is giving them pleiitv of time to recover from their trip down from Kentucky. He lias three riders T. Murray, L. Woods and S. Mangan. Murray is a. good jockey and W oods appears tlie more promising of the other two. C. K. Moore scored u victory with his own horse Grundy and also won two races with Cromwell, which lie is training" Tor J. L. Donaliay. Pete Williams lias won two races with the fast sprinter Money and one each witii Star Baby and Bhymer. William McDaniel has Senor A. II. Diaz horses looking in grand condition. He lias been going a bit .slow witlt Orestes, while Zululand fell slightly lame while working recently. The two-year-olds Douglas Fairbanks and, Bavensea and the five-year-old Don Thrush, which were turned out oti Senor Diaz plantation all summer, have already won. Don Thrush, which is an English horse, by Mushroom Donna Christine, has been bred to several mares and all appear safelv in foal. The star of the Diaz two-year-olds, however, is Blue Wrack, which has won two races here. The Diaz yearlings, which were purchased from John E. Madden, and all of which are by Hessian, are a grand looking baud, and McDaniel has hope of developing trom their number at least a half .dozen good enough to bring to the States next spring. Other owners who have been successful witlt their racers are W. F. Poison of Buffalo, N. Y.. whose, colors have been in front twice on Joint Jr. and once on Horace Lerch. Poison, who developed the good racer Billy Kelly, named the latter for the sporting editor of the Buffalo Courier, while Horace Lerch has been named for the sorting editor of the Buffalo Express. The racer Horace Lerch is a two-year-old. He was sick pretty much all- summer and is just now rounding to. In his yearling trials lie is said to have shown high-class form and his eople have. hopes that lie will finally make good the great things expected of him last spring, told Stone won twice "forM . Imensetter, and Buck Nail scored two victories for F. OLeary. Skiles Knob was also a two-time winner, and A. C. Niehaus won witlt Assign and Driffield. OTHER OWNERS WHO HAVE WON. AI Ilantel. W. T. Woodward, J. Corujo, T. Hoff-ler. E. Baxter, C. E. Wright, Stuart Polk. Armenia Stable, C. E. Brant. 0. L. Foster, Earl Linnell. C. L. Fitzgerald, E. A. Whitney, J. Gass, J. Everest. E. Lcznma. W. Dondas and E. F. Pritch-arrt are other winning owners, j At the conclusion of the meeting here hist spring !W. C. Jones shipped to Porto Rica the racers , Kicking Kii, King Trovato, Laudator, Brown Baby, Brown Prince and Quickstart, and disposed of them to siwrtsmen of that island. Later on lie brought over Mencreif. Aunt Flora, Little Mistress and J. B. Harrel and sold them. The last four have since been shipped from Porto Rica over to Santa Domingo to take part in the races which are being given there on Sundays.
