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MUD RUNNERS IN GLORY 1 , I Horses Favored by Soft Going Have Their Day at Aqueduct. ! Banksia All the Way in Gazelle ! Stakes Steeplechase a ; Peculiar Contest. NEW- YORK. N. Y.. June 30. A number of thoroughbred race horses, which, by reason of in- : flrmity or conformation, which controls the stride, run best on moist and muddy courses, have been waiting for days and ways to suit them. They had ther moist way and day at Aqueduct Thursday. It was the first chance such horses had had in thirty working days. There were twenty-five mud runners of more or less prowess in the Aqueduct races of Thursday and only four of them rejected their chaiice. Of those which were publicly known as inud runners twenty-one started, three won and five more were placed. Mud marks did not, of course, tell moist tales about the youngsters, which didnt know much Inore about soft stuff for feet than school boys and school girls do before their sartorial periods and fancy as they find. Some mud marks came out of the one, two-year-old group to race. It is a wide world to youngsters of all degrees and its corners are sudden. The moist footprints of record are really valuable on such courses as Thursdays. A good blacksmith helps because good mud runners are horses gaited like Cirrus, Exterminator and the late though again expected Purchase. All three are great modern mud horses. There "Were some smart mud runners among the Aqueduct performers. Some of them had had plenty , of condition poundageto- carry. Pounds have more tliair sixteen ounces of effect when the mud is thick. This may have caused the retirement of that notable soft going pair. Valor and Lord Brighton. The twenty-nine-year-old Gazelle Stakes, worth 3,000, for three-year-old mares, at a mile and a sixteenth, was the stake event and fell to the favorite in betting and popular favor. Major Cochrans beautiful filly Itanksia. She won without display or fuss all the way and convincingly. Kennedy rated her well in front for a length and a half victory over Last Straw, which just lasted to beat Chateau Thierry by a head in a hard drive. Try as she would Last Straw could never catch ISanksia." Polly Ann isnt much nowadays. What speed she lias she doesnt carry in any kind of going. The racing was normally as bad as the weather. CHALLENGES AT LONG ODDS. Challenger, which has been lurking in the shade for a rainy sensou, won the opener, an eight and a half furlong claimer. He was at long odds. So were Prink and Horeb. which followed him home. Gloomy Gus, which used to have a fancy for muddy avenues, was the favorite. It is so long since Jloomy Gus has won that he lias forgotten how to win on any kind of going. La Kross, also favored, couldnt keep up. The short course steeplechase was most peculiar as a contest. Peccant seemed to have received an unauthorized nomination from somewhere and was made favorite. He would have won after making all the pace had it not been for an extremely wide turn, which cost him many lengths at. the entrance of the straight run home. Sea Bryn which ran hk. an independent was in front at the time and got away so far that Peccant could not catch him. Overmatch was third. All three jumped roughly, as if needing much more education. Pen Hampson was fourth. He is a warrior of much muddy prowess, but the jumping game is not his yet. It was the game not the going which kept Ben back. He is learning it thoroughly. The Chuctanunda Handicap at six and a half furlongs gathered six horses of some class. It furnished a surprise, for Sea Cove, well attended to on the damp lawn, but without much reputation, won all the way, though hurried to stay in his favored place in front by Weiner at the finish. Old Cum Sah could uever catch Sea Cove, though he drove him homo. Messines was third. Parts only of lengths separated the first five. Regal Lodge, the heavily backed choice, was fifth. He had little speed and no luck in the race. The five best original entries in the race didnt stay in it. It was an astonishing contest in many of its corners and thus the i-econd mariner came home Sea Bryn and Sea Cove both winning. SISTER FLO IN SOFT SPOT. The Quincy Stables Sister Flo in a soft racing spot to match the purse was at an astonishing quotation for the fifth race, at a mile, for assorted mares. Herd Girl was supported to beat the Ogden filly. The notable, but low-class, mud runner Queen Blonde was the third of the field from which old Dorcas was withdrawn. Sister Flo went on about her business and won all the way, with a five-length margin at the end. Queen Blonde was considering the top batter of the course ten lengths further back. There were twenty two-year-old maidens in the entries for the finisher, for two-year-olds, at five-eighths from the chute. There were eleven too diy or shy to go. Sun Briars big brother Sunreigh was among tile nine left and the favorite, though only a mild one. He wouldnt go. neither would the intermittent Knot Grass. The baseballic coterie had a good thing of its own in the far-fetched but damply named Monday Morning, by King James Washerwoman, owned by C. A. Stoneham. Monday Morning was by far the fastest of his lot, though inexperienced. Off like a flash the King James colt showed the way to win easily by three lengths with a muddy lot, among them Sunreigh third, trying to keep up with rather than to beat him. There were not more than 3,500 damp devotees at the course. Nothing good could be said about atmosphere or the three favorites which lost. The three to win were all right, of course. To summarize the going, deceptive is the correct term for it. There was a hard early footing beneath its batter. Later racing feet hitd worked the course into real mud, H. Rites will ship the stables of J. E. Griffith and S. L. Jenkins to Saratoga on July 8. Major C. L. Scott of the Federal Remount Department spent the day at tbe course negotiating for the purchase of more stallions for the army service. It is expected that deals will be concluded tomorrow for the purchase of two oc three animals. Fred Staton, who arrived recently from Kentucky, came to Aqueduct for the first time yesterday to enter Trooper in the third race. Besides this campaigner he brought Title, Marie Maxim and Apple JackH. East with him. The Wander, a half-brother to Roamer,- was shipped today by J. W. McClelland to Paris, Ky., .in company with Leonardo II. James Fitzsimmons, trainer for the Quiucy Stable, sent a man to II. T. Oxnards breeding farm in company with Tom Griffin when the latter went there- to bring the thirty yearlings, recently bought by James B. Smith, to Belmont Park. Mr. Fitzsimmons man will bring three Vulcain yearlings here for the Quincy Stable. Nine more yeni lings will be brought from Kentucky in the course of the next week by the Quincy Stable. They are said to be an especially fine looking band of young horses. Mat Brady is schooling Dough Girl and Phoenix through the field for J. E. Davis and Sobrigade for the Dosoris Stable. In this trio of three-year-olds he believes1 be has the makings of three jumpers of more than ordinary ability. He pronounces them all natural fencers. Norman Kennedy arrived from Canada and will ride free lance through the field here,
