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BIGGEST CROWD OF SEASON i Sees Some Thrilling Racing at Oriental Park. Sunday. i Main Race to Senor A. H. Diaz-Double Victory for J. J. Holtmans Stable. ! BY T. K. LYNCH. HAVANA. Cuba, December 21. A. H. Diaz furnished the winner of the feature race at Oriental Park today when he accounted for the fourth race at a mile, and fifty yards. Don Thrush set all the pace and ran the first mile in 1:377.. beating Berlin a couple of lengths. Todays attendance was particularly large, the Pequeno stand, which is the cheaper enclosure and adjoining the grandstand, being packed to its capa- . city, while standing room In the main stand was at a premium. It was far the largest gathering of the season. J. J. Holtmnu scored a double when Fly Home and Rameau won.. Racing conditions were ideal and some excellent spcrt was witnessed. In a number of the races the finishes were so close that the result was in doubt until the official placing was announced. This was particularly true in the second race, as the proverbial blanket would have covered the first four horses at the end. Avion won by a head, witli Golden Chance second by a nose and Walter Mack third by a similar margin. There will be racing tomorrow and also next Monday at Oriental Park, duo to the fact that tin; present and also next week are holiday weeks. The arrangement calls for racing every day, including Sunday, January 4, after that the usual Monday off will, ho observed. -..,and - ""During tlte first twenty days of racing ntOrieiita 1 " Park this season the Cnba -American Jockey and Auto Club distributed among the horsemen the sum o 7,353, an average of ,767, a considerable increase over that, of any similar period in former years. The first stake of the meeting will lie the Christmas Handicap and then will follow at intervals twelve other fixtures, including among them the Cuban Derby and the Grand National, each of which will carry 0,000 added. It is the intention of the psople interested in this association to make the winte rmeetings in Cuba the great- -est ever given at any winter point and to attain tills they will spare no expense. Despite the fact that this is practically a new racing plant, the club every year makes additional improvements, adding to the beauty of the place and the convenience of both patrons and horsemen. When one writes about the beauties of Oriental Park the people in the States imagine that it is only one of those press agent yarns sent out to induce people to come down to Cuba. But It might be well to say right here that there have been practically no tourists the past two years on account of the war and that the sport has thrived and been established on a firm basis by local patronage lone. The attendance his year has been larger than ever and is still growing. On Sunday last the capacity of the big grandstand was taxed to accommodate the vast throng that turned out to witness the sport. Wlien the stand was built here were some who thought that it was twice as large as necessary, but It is not large enough now, especially the promenade in the rear of the boxes where society folk are woiit to parade between the running of the races. Before another meeting the promenade will be widened and continued around the extreme rear of the stand so as to form a circle. There are new. including the presidents and diplomatic corps, about 200 private boxes in tla grandstand and this number will be added to, so great has been the demand for this season. The race meetings here are fast becoming one great big social function and the scenes on special occasion remind one very much of the race meetings at Piping Rock and otlier places of that sort. GOOD HORSES IK ACTION. Among the better class of horses which bave taken part in the sport up to date are Orestes, Zululand, Grundy, Coral, Hank ODay, Hubbub. Texas Special. Cromwell, Different Eyes, Bally, Hamilton A., Skiles Knob, Diversion, Smart Money, Marse John, Buford,-Skeer Face, Money. Hocnir, Berlin. Col. Taylor, Ruby, Sedan, The Blue Duke, Walnut Hull, Kiku and Diversion. There are more good horses here which have not yet to appear with eolors up. At the present writing it looks as if the Senor A. II. Diaz stable will overshadow all others at Oriental Park in the coming two-year-old races. Last summer Senor Diaz purchased of John E. Madden a dozen yearlings by Hessian, and several of them have already shown speed enough to warrant the assertion that they will develop into more than useful racers. The entire string was left hi Kentucky until just previous to the cpening of the meeting here, when Cal Milam, who broke them for Senor Diaz, shipped them down to Will Mc-Daniel. Collectively they are a grand looking band, but they were still a bit green when they arrived here. McDaniel has tried some of. them out pretty well, and a majority of them have worked faster than any of the yearlings lie had here last winter. The best of the band, in McDaniels opinion, is the bay colt, dam Expressing. This fellow lias shown a quarter in 23-;. "He gets right down to business and runs just as fast as he likes," saitl McDaniel the other morning after trying him. "When he came here he was a bit sluggish anil awkward. One morning I told the boy who rod him to shake him up a bit after lie went an eighth, and he done so. They way that colt squatted down and ran the last eighth of a mile made me think that my watch had gone crazy. I wont say how fast he ran that eighth, but it was good enough to make me believe that he has the making of a race horse in him." H. W. Plant claimed Kilkenny after he wan beaten 3-esterday for 00. Assistant manager James Milton received notification that jockey Howard, who rode at the local track last year, received serious injuries in an automobile accident at New Orleans. It will bfl necessary to amputate one of his legs. L. A. Fay sold the horse Aerial for a private consideration to Lester Lauglilin. John E. Madden has written friends here that.h would arrive in Havana early in February. Mr. Madden last summer disposed of his entire crop of yearlings by Hessian to Senor A. II. Diaz. Jockey Carmody lost his eight pounds apprentice 1 allowance when he won astride Lucky Pearl Saturday. It was the sixtli winner, this good appren- 1 tice lias ridden at the meeting. 0. H. Rowe purchased from C. K. Moore the 1 five-year-old mare Zinnia.
