view raw text
a SOME SARATOGA PROSPECTS Many Two-Ye.ar-Olds Unknown to Racing to Be Introduced. Great Speed and Stamina Display Expected from the Stars in the Saratoga Handicap. BY C. J. FITZ GERALD. SARATOGA SPRINGS. N. T., July 29. With the Empire City meeting over today all eys in the thoroughbred world are turned to this place, where the best of the horses are now comfortably housed for the splendid series of races which will be decided during the month of August. Conditions have broken so that there is ground for the belief that the racing at this point will be of unusual interest. Many of the best two and three-year-olds will bo seen out for the first time, and it will be interesting to note whether the enforced idleness, due to the epidemic of coughing which delayed their preparation for active racing, will have had any effect on their future careers. There has long been a sentiment against the too early racing of two-year-olds. Some experts go so far as to say that no prizes for thoroughbreds of that age should be offere prior to July 1, and that if they were delayed a month longer it would bo all the better. The advocates of this belief will have ample chance to give their theory a partial test at least at this meeting. Due allowance must of course be made for the extent of the ravages of the disease. Horses affected by it have been slow in recovering. Some of them will not be at their best until autumn. A sufficient number, it is believed, however, will find their way to the pest to furnish an intelligent basis for judgment. Those who maintain that the thoroughbred, because of his early maturity, is not seriously affected by a reasonable amount of two-year-old racing, will be as eager as their opponents to note the outcome of the battles between those that have been held in reserve and the colts and fillies that have been accomplishing things for the last three months. In the meantime the Saratoga Association, and those who come to their races, will get an extra thrill out of the unusual situation. INTEREST IN FLASII STAKES. Perhaps there will be a chance to see it put to the test on next Tuesday, the opening day of the meeting, when the Flash Stakes of ,000, at five and one-half furlongs, will be decided. This fine old race, which was inaugurated in 18C9 and won by Francis Morris Remorseless, by American Eclipse, has a wealth of good material for the current offering. Included in the field are some of the best bred juveniles in the United States, many of which have never started. They will have a baptism of fire, as the eligibles include Martingale, Cherry Pie, Sunference. Anna M. Humphrey, Great Man, Dunlin and Goshawk, all of which have won distinction and are of good class. The prowess of Anna M. Humphrey is known only to the West, where all her racing has been done. Her fame has been carried to this part of the country by shrewd observers from Kentucky, and her appearance in the Flash Stakes will be a feature of the opening of the season. She is one of the few members of the stable of James C. Milam that escaped the fire at Lexington last spring, which brought about the destruction of thoroughbreds valued at 00,000 in the Milam and Camden outfit. If she can duplicate the performance of Miss Joy, which Milam sent to the post last year, the West can plume itself on having accomplished something beyond the ordinary, for the newest sensation is also a daughter of Peter Quince. OLD RIVALS TO MEET. Surpassing the Flash Stakes in interest in the estimation of some i3 the Saratoga Handicap, at a mile and a quarter, which, together with the Shillelah Steeplechase, will be run on the opening day. The former. It is expected, will sec a renewal of hostilities between Exterminator and Grey Lag, both of which are ready for the fray. Other splendid horses are- among the seventy-eight entries and a good-sized field will probably go to the post. There is high class in abundance without the hcadlincrs, but the appearance of the superb chestnuts alone would guarantee the success of the event. Whether Exterminator can give weight to Grey Lag in his present condition is a question. Tuesdays race will tell the tale. All of the crack steeplechasers are looked for in the Shillelah. Among the eligibles are that prominent young fencer Faunus, Roi Craig, Dullseyc, Lytle. Belle of Bryn Mawr, Minata, Neap-tide and Houdini. The Saratoga steeplechase course is a natural one and is considered among the most beautifin to be found anywhere. It is at its loveliest this year and has had the constant attention of superintendent Clare, who is a past master at keeping a cross-country plant in condition. The streets have taken on the air of gay-ety which prevails during August. The coming of the Cavanagh Special on Monday will bring the last of the regulars to augment the throng from every part of the country which has taken possession of Saratoga and claimed it for its own for one month of the year, ever since racing was established here in the early sixties.
