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j 1 j | , i p t ! I NEW ORLEANS RACING ENDS Bunga Buck Runs to His True Form Yesterday. J ♦ S3 Reverses With United Verde and Takes the Richest Race of the Meeting in a Canter. ~id • i — i NEW ORLEANS. La.. February 28.— The racing curtain for this season here was running down thin afternoon, bringing to a close the fifty days meeting at the Fair Grounds, preceded by thirty-three days at Jefferson Park, where the sport was inaugurated on Thanksgiving Day. Both meetings were fully up to expectations, and while not as successful financially as several preceding ones, still a slump was expected, due to the country-wide business depression. In one lone respect the meeting just terminated excelled former ones in that there was an aggregation of horses here of the useful class that furnished entertaining contests and enhanced the standard of the sport. There was a general absence of the former large visiting element and the track was called on to draw heavily on local patronage for it support. This meeting caused a general loss to most of the regulars. The overhead was primarily the cause for this. Expenses here this winter was not far above the war-time standard. The racing has been of the usual winter type, good and bad. changed track conditions being encountered frequently and at times serving to upset calculations. Bad riding has been noticeable with regularity, the stars offending extensively in this respect. Getaway day was marked by a brilliant assem* blage despite the unfavorable weather, a misty rain falling intermittently throughout the afternoon, and it served the purpose of reducing the crowd considerably. At that, the attendance was easily of a record number. The heavy track today was instrumental in reducing the fields, particularly in the feature dashes, only eight of the original carded twenty going to the post in the Mardi Gras Handicap, despite its added ,000. It had a mishap at the post that reduced the field still further by two, only six finishing. The mishap was due to the actions of Bygone Days, which wheeled at the start and, bumping into Blarney Stone, unseated Weiner from the latter. Bygone Days was left. The winner of the race, which was worth ,455 net, was Bunga Buck, which racing in his best form, outstayed United Verde, which ran coupled with Tom Hare Jr. The winner held sway throughout and was easing up at the finish. BIFF BANG BY A NOSE. The Carnival purse of ,000 was productive of the best contest of the afternoon and found Biff Bang the winner by a nose, with Postoral Swain the same margin before Oain de Cause. The finish, between the three had the big crowd in a high pitch of excitement. Irish Dream was victorious in the other handicap, a three-quarters dash that brought to the post some fast ones, with Hadrian an outstanding favorite because of his mud-running proclivities. He ran a game race, but Irish Dream had it on him from the start. Prince K again demonstrated that he is a good colt and proved an easy victor over the youngsters that started in the initial dash. Lady Boss was his closest attendant at the finish. The Decision and Rolo put up a spirited duel in the second race with The Decision the winner in the last stride. The final race found Mormon Elder, the favorite, taking down the purse after having shown vast superiority. The Wit landed in second place and Ettahe third. To J. S. Hays fell the honor of having the most winners at the Fair Grounds meeting, he sending eleven to the post. George V. Barnes was next in order with ten to his credit. D. R. "Puddin" McDaniel met with his full share of success, nine of his charges winning. A. G. Blakelys horses accounted for eight races, while Darrell Cannon won seven with the G. Drumheller stable. Verity, a cheap sidling plater, was responsible for the showing of Hays, as she was one of the most frequent winners of the meeting for a month or more. Judge E. C. Smith plans a brief vacation in this section before going to New York. M. N. Macfarlnn. the only other out-of-town steward serving here, will depart at once for Mobile, where he will act as a placing judge and clerk of the scales. Starter A. B. Dade leaves tomorrow for his home in Henderson, Ky., to rest until the opening at Lexington. Irish Dream evidently did not harm himself any with his acrobatic stunt of crawling under the inner rail several mornings ago after he had fallen into a ditch. The mishap did not serve to even curb his mean disposition and. as usual, he had to he accompanied to the post by a pony at a cost of 0. Then he showed the way home to a fair band of sprinters. J. B. Campbell departs for Mobile at once to shape up affairs in the racing secretarys office. It did not take trainer Livingston long to make his presence felt with the L. T. Bauer string, which he took over several days ago. Biff Bang, the first horse that he sent to the post for his new employer gained the hardest kind of victory over Pastoral Swain in the fourth race today. •
