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HEAVY GOING AT JEFFERSON Continued Rainfall Puts the Track in Bad Condition Except for the Mud Runners. NEW OULKANS. La.. DecemlK-r 19. Mud racing again will be in order at Jefferson Park tomorrow, as it rained here throughout last night and threatening weather prevails now. Despite tin? adverse track conditions, both the Shrewsbury course and the Fair Crouiuls were crowded with horses at exercise this morning. Put at the former those working had to go around the "dogs." Yearlings predominated at the Fair Grounds and they drew out a huge crowd of observers, anxious to get a line on the mud running ability of the youngsters. On only eight of the twenty-one days of racing this season to date has the track been fast, but the muddy going has not detracted from the racing in the least, as more close finishes than ever have resulted and the sport has been up to the standard of other years in every respect. Naturally the attendance has suffered to some extent because of the frequent rains, but it is unusually large every day, at that. Saturday it was almost on a par with Thanksgiving Day, when a new attendance record was made and. if anything like decent ! weather conies by Christmas it is expected that the . largest crowd in the history of the racing plant will J be on baud. I On that day the purse distribution will total j $.i.700. witli the Christmas Handicap, having a value of ,500 as the headline attraction. This affair will be at a mile for all ages. Entries in it will close on Thursday. Pacing secretary J. P. . Campbell will announce tin? weights to be carried on Friday morning and declarations must be. made the same day by 10 oclock in the morning. -No purse will have a less value than 00 on Christmas day. I Choices came into their own again during the past week, seventeen of them winning in forty-two : races, which brings the total of victorious favorites up to sixty-seven in one hundred and forty-seven races. It was almost an even break with the odds-on choices in the last six days, five winning, while four met defeat. The present liieeiiMg Juts been productive of more than the usual number of favorites at less than evens, thirty-three having started since the meeting opened. Nineteen of these were successful. OVER 00,000 ALREADY DISTRIBUTED. The purse distribution thus far total 07,400 and one hundred and fifty owners have shaied in it. S. A. Clapton is still at the top of the list of successful owners, his horses having earned 1920.sh,922.75 for him. During the week he has started more representatives than usual to the post and as a result he won only one race. Others whose horses are proving quite useful here are Snyder and Holmes with , 4:15.50 to their credit; Florisant Stable. ,Oi0.50; J. It. Skinker. ,930.55; Clyde Freeman, j .SiS; Lloyd Gentry. ,7:10.75: M. and J. I.owen-stein. .,049, and A. It. Gordon, ,445. There is a triple tie for riding honors to date. J. Koberts, J. J. Mooney and C. Ponce each having won thirteen races. Mooney and Ponce have the best of Huberts, however, as the latter has four days more of a six -day suspension to serve, thus giving them eleven more days to ride at the meeting, while he will only have seven. At the rate jockey II. King is going, however, the contest may le settled sooner than expected, as he has won eleven races here. Six of his victories have come in the last three days. Seventy-four jockys have accepted . mounts at Jefferson Park and forty-two have ridden one or more winners. John T. Pender, former head of the Pus!ness Mens Pacing Association, died suddenly at his home here yesterday. Mr. Pender served two years as president of the organization, surrendering his office only last year. War Mask is reported as having spread a hoof in his race Saturday, but the injury is said to be not of a serious nature. Joe McLennan, who will serve as racing secretary at the Fair Grounds, said this morning that the" program books for the first part of the . meeting there will be ready for the horsemen next Wednesday. Since the breaks have been going in favor of the layers recently, the number of odds brokers has passed the forty mark, and before the end of the meeting it is expectd that fifty will be in line. Most of the big fellows are still loser, as the unprecedented victories of so many choices the first ten days of the season started them off the wrong way and" it will take them some time to get even again. The Canadian directors of the Devonshire track have left New Orleans, to be home in time for the holidays. -4
