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Here and There on the Turf Tasks of Little Chief. Cross-Country Racing. Little Chief, handsome son of Wrack and Medora, that races for the Rancocas Stable, has been made to carry something of a load. He has been the penalty saver for bstter horses in the stable and, while he has done his part nobly, has enabled the preferred ones to escape burdens they would otherwise have incurred. At Saratoga it was Little Chief which won both the Saranac Handicap and the j Travers Stakes, and on each occasion Kai-Sang, the star three-year-old of the stable, finished J second. Then at Belmont Park, on the open- j ing day of the meeting, Sande had to restrain Thunderclap in the Manhattan Handicap to prevent his beating the younger horse. In the Travers Stakes Little Chief earned 1,325 and in the Saranac Handicap he added ,900 to his winnings, while the Manhattan Handicap was worth just ,100 to the winner. All of these amounts count for something in races with penalties, and while it was well worth while to save Kai-Sang, there really was no good reason for having Thunderclap give way to the son of Wrack and Medora. He is in the handicap division and in each of the races mentioned the second horse was so plainly better than the wniner that it could in no manner fool Mr. Vosburgh when it came to the assignment of weights. This is one of the advantages of having such a string of horses as Sam Hildreth is training for the Rancocas Stable. He has Bhown how his best horse may be saved at no stable expense, and at the same time Kai-Sang has had useful racing that will stand him in good stead when it comes to the running of the Lawrence Realization. But Little Chief has stamped himself as a good-class colt, for he has had to be good enough on each occasion to beat all the others besides his stable companions, and there were some good ones back of him in each race. No better line is to be had on a horse than to try him thoroughly with another horse. That is the advantage that the trainers of big racing establishments always have over the modest stable that is not possessed of any trial horses. Both Sam Hildreth and James Rowe are past masters in having a horse fit the first time he is sent to the races, but in justice to other trainers it must be admitted that each has the big advantage of many trial horses. That is what counts, more than exercise running against the watch. It is a line that is dependable, and when it is possible to have private racing, rather than mere speed or endurance tests against a watch, it is a tremendous advantage. Sometimes a good horse is broken down, or loses form, before he is ever brought to the races, by the rigors of his training, but that is an incidental understood in advance. It has been shown both in France and England that a fiat runner is frequently benefited by a course of jumping and many a good-class flat runner is put to it in the fall and winter jumping meetings. It brings into play muscles that are not exercised in flat running and it is frequently a cure for a sour-tempered horse. Some of the rogues have been made sweet-tempered by racing through the field. The horse has too many things to think about when going over the fences to get away with an mischief, and after it forgets for a time it forgets forever, and comes back to the fiat better than ever before. Of late there have been several cases of horses winning important races abroad after having had a spell of cross-country racing. In the recent French racing season Oricon, Mirabeau II., Saltarello, Vicence, Monrad, Saint Helier, Duranville, Fauche Le Pre and Zagerus are striking- examples. The most notable case was that of a horse which won the Prix du Dollar at Maisons-Laffitte and the Prix La Force at Longchamps from several of. the best horses in training. Fauch Le Pre after winning four important hurdle races carried off the Grand Prix de Marseilles, a flat race worth 40,000 francs. But all of this is unavailable in this country. There are not eourses enough, nor no winter jumping meetings, and it is only set forth to show, in a measure, just what cross-country racing could be made. We have the horses and there would be many more if the opportunity came to race. But in New York the only steeplechase courses are at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga, and at the last-named course, it will be remembered, the purses through the field, for the latter part of the meeting, were declared off for the reason that those decided before were unsatisfactory. Maryland and Canada have shown what can be accomplished in the way of more steeple-chasing, and the sport has been kept up to an excellent standard in each of those racing sections, but what is wanted is more of such racing, if the sport is to flourish. It would be pleasing to 6ome if Kentucky could be induced to return to cross-country racing. But Kentucky has tried and abandoned the jumpers and is satisfied to stick by its present high-class fiat racing.
