view raw text
BELMONT PARK FALL RACING . i All New York to Welcome Return of Thoroughbred on Sept. 2. ! Futurity, Lawrence Realization and Jockey Club Gold Cup Big Autumn Features. NEW YORK, N. Y., August 20. All New York will welcome the thoroughbreds when they return to beautiful Belmont Park on Friday, September 2, for the autumn meeting of the Westchester Racing Association. A month will have passed since the metropolis has had any racing and appetites will be all the keener for the sport, which promises to be of the highest order. Belmont Park in its spring dress is always a delight to the eye, but there are many who think the great racing plant is at its best in the autumn. Here and there among the splendid oaks in the fall gleam vividly the leaves which have felt the influences of the first frost. The rhododendrons of the spring give way to the hydrangea and other flowering shrubs whose plumage are bravest in September. The great paddock with its mirrored pool, and the old manor house of the Manices now the home of the Turf and Field Club, in the background form a picture of the greatest charm. It is an environment in which the. thoroughbred is seen at his best and New York is to be congratulated on having such an attraction at her gates. Somebody once estimated, that twenty per cent of the attendance on the tracks under the jurisdiction of the Jockey Club is transient in character. For all such Belmont Park is as alluring as Longchamps to the visitor in Paris. With the completion of the plans for its embellishment it will be a resort of which the metropolis may well be proud. There are two features of the autumn meeting at Belmcnt Park which, because of their association and influence on the turf, are outstanding. These are the Futurity for two-year-olds and the Lawrence Realization for three-year-olds. Both were originally run at Slieepshead Bay, and are a legacy from the Coney Island Jockey Club. Tho Futurity is possessed of a greater sentimental quality than the Realization, though tho latter surpasses it as a test of the attributes most desirable in the thoroughbred. The first named is a produce stake, the dam being nominated before her foal is born. Mother and foal are therefore objects of the most tender solicitude, and hopes run high in every household with a likely candidate for this greatest of all two-year-old races. The fact that the breeders of the first three horses at the finish receive awards of 1,000, 00 and 50 respectively from the stake carries the interest to the day of the race. At stated periods delinquents may be declared, and plans for another year are framed, the breeder of thoroughbreds being a born optimist. The first Futurity was run for in 1S88, and was worth hB10,900 to the winner. It WE3 won by Sam Bryant of Kentucky with the gelding Proctor Knott. The second running saw a gelding successful, when Congressman W, L. Scotts Chaos was first at the wire. It is a matter of congratulation that only one other unsexed horse has been successful for the prize, Chacornac winning in 1899. All the others have had a chance to play their part in the great work of perpetuating the American thoroughbred. The highest value the race has assumed was in 1890,. when it was worth 1921.sh7,075 to August Belmont, father of the present, chairman of the Jockey Club, who won it with Potomac and was second with Masher. Both were home-breds, the former by St. Blaise, and the latter by The III Used, imported sires which got these fine colts from dams which had a lot- of American -staying blood,. - It was a great day for the Nursery Stud and its owner. BRIGHT LIGHTS IN FUTURITY HISTORY. The first Futurity had its picturesque attributes. Proctor Knott was anything but beautiful. He was a dirty chestnut in color with a blaze face and four white legs. He wore blinkers, and was ridden by a diminutive negro, named "Pike" Barnes. Sam Bryant was a character. Tall and lank as a mountaineer and tanned like an Indian, he chewed tobacco voraciously, and told all within hearing as he tightened the girths that his gelding would win the race. And win he did, giving his owner more money than he had ever dreamed of possessing. A book could be written of other Futurities, but that which will he run on Snutrday, September 10, the same day as the Jockey Clubs Gold Cup Weight for Age race, at two miles, is more in the public eye, and of greater general interest to turf lovers of today. Racing secretary- Earloeker reports that this years race received a total of 9-15 entries. Of these all but 178 were declared. The starters will come from these, and on public form to date the best are Rancocas Stables Kai-Sang and Little Chief, Morton L. Schwartz. Column and, Toil, Harry Payne Whitneys Whiskaway, Bunting, Meadow Mist and Broomster, R. J. Browns My Reverie, J. N. Camdens Sir Hugh, J. il. Cosdens Roulette, Glenn Riddle Farms Oceanic, Greentree Stables Sedge, Max Hirschs Sidereal and Loiig Island. J. K. L. Ross Collinga, J. C. Milams Santa Clara, Edward B. McLeans Dream of Allah; J. H. Rosseters Mission Bells and Firm Friend, Lexigton Stables My Play, Draft and Missionary, L. S. Thompsons Nedna, Edward M. Welds Ultimate and R. T. Wilsons Pillory. There are, of course, a nnmber of dark horses receiving a special preparation for the race, and one of these may win it, but those named above have raced and shown some ability. The luck of the sport is illustrated in; the fact that Morvich, Miss Joy, Fair Phantonij Runstar and other cracks are not eligible to start for the prize. Fair Phantom was declared, as Were Sweep By, Dolores and others that have shown winning form. A crowd pf goodly proportions, is looked for on the opening day, when the Tomboy and Manhattan Handicaps will be the features, but the first Saturday, when the Lawrence Realization at a mile and five-eighths for three-year-olds and the Nursery Handicap for two-year-olds at three-quarters will be run, should test the capacity of the plant, now one of the most extensive to be found in any country. Newport, Bar Harbor and other eastern resorts will send their votaries of racing to Belmont Park and the allurements of the social world will be forgotten in the delights of the turf at its best.
