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Here and There on the Turf Three-Year-Olds of 1922. Suggestion of Another Special Race. Turfman of Versatile Tastes. Enchantments Prowess. When Kai-Sang was first home in the Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont Park Saturday the three-year-old championship was not settled, nor was Bunting, which gave him such a noble battle, eliminated. All along it has been apparent that Kai-Sang would have to be seriously considered in figuring the head of the three-year-old division, and he has still further made good his claim to a place at the top of the heap. As a matter of fact, the crown is still in the air and it is likely to remain there to the end of the racing season. Each one of the candidates will have his followers, and each that has aspired to the throne has, by brilliant racing, earned the right to serious consideration. About the only one that has been entirely eliminated is Morvich. And it was Morvich which began the racing season, after an unbroken string of victories as a two-year-old, with a victory in the Kentucky Derby. Since that race Morvich has been so decisively beaten that it is said he will be raced no more this year, in the hope that a long rest will restore his brilliant form of last year. Whiskaway is in temporary eclipse by reason of his bad showing in the Huron Handicap at Saratoga, when Montfort Jones Rock-minister was the winner. But of course Whiskaway was far away from his best condition when he was started in that race. Whether or not he will have an opportunity to wipe out that defeat with a race among the good ones is among the things to be awaited. Bunting, after having won the Futurity of 1921, has only been started three times this year. He was a winner at Havre de Grace on the occasion of his first start, and in that; race, the Chesapeake Stakes, he took the measure of Lucky Hour, at the time one of the most talked of thre2-year-olds in training, by giving him eleven pounds and a beating. Then both Bunting and Lucky Hour fell victims of the epidemics that played such havoc in the spring. Lucky Hour was knocked out for the best part of the racing season, and Bunting was not brought to the races until recently at Belmont Park, when he was an easy winner in a mile and a sixteenth race that was his final preparation for the Lawrence Realization. His race in the Realization was a thoroughly good one and many who watched it were of the opinion that under different riding he might have turned the tables on Kai-Sang. And there is just the chance that Bunting was just a trifle short.. James Rowe is a pastmaster in fitting a horse for such a race, but so is Sam Hildreth, and in addition to his training Kai-Sang had the further ad- 1 vantage of a certain amount of seasoning by actual racing. With so few three-year-old valuable opportunities left it would seem now is the time for a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half special, and such a race would prove tremendously popular at Aqueduct or some other track. It could be framed at scale weights and it would probably attract besides Bunting and Kai-Sang, Richard T. Wilsons Pillory and Lucky Hour from the Lexington Stable. The son of Ferole or Hourless and Lucky Catch has been training exceedingly well for Roy Waldron and, in fact, it was hoped that he would have been ready for a race in the Realization. He was not started Saturday for the reason that Waldron knew his colt would have to be in his best form to have a chance against Kai-Sang and Bunting, and he feared he was not tightened up as he should be for such a race. In the Chesapeake Stakes, Schuttinger, who rode Lucky Hour, lost a stirrup and was never able to regain it. This gave him little chance to offer the colt any help. Then there is another that might come on for such a special and he is Oceanic, from Samuel D. Riddles Glen Riddle Farm. He is another colt that has been away from the races a long time by reason of having been taken sick just when he appeared to have a chance to take down the rieh Preakness Satkes, for which he was being trained. Feustel started Oceanic early in the year, and his two victories in two starts entitled him to consideration among the best of his age. He has entirely recovered ! from his spell of sickness and was galloping j exceedingly well for Glyn Tompkins at Saratoga. He has been shipped to Havre de Grace with the others of the Glen Riddle Stable, but Havre de Grace is not far away and Tompkins is not the sort to dodge any mans horse when he has his own fit to run. Whiskaway and Surf Rider are a pair that might be induced to go East for such a race. It may be that Whiskaway cannot be made ready, but Surf Rider has shown that he is about at the top of his form. Montfort Jones might give Rockminister another chance. Then there is Thibodaux, which ran Whiskaway to a half length in the Kentucky Special and afterward won the Latonia Derby. Altogether this is the season of the year when an effort should be made to frame a big three-year-old j special at weight for age. There are too many good ones with a right to shoot at the crown to pats up such an opportunity lightly. Most of them are ready to race and it could be the greatest drawing card of the year. Moveover, it could take place at Latonia as well as on some eastern track. Joseph E. Widener of Philadelphia is an esteemed member of the Jockey Club of New York and one of the foremost sportsmen in j this country, and is a prominent breeder of thoroughbred horses, with racing establishments both in this country and France. Mr. Widener is a frequent buyer and pays big prices for desirable breeding and racing material. However, Mr. Wideners fancies do not always run to horses. He is a great patron of art and has one of the finest collections of paintings in this country. Read here of his recent purchase: "The Descent from the Cross," considered by critics to be Rembrandts greatest religious painting, has been added to the Joseph E. Widener collection at Lynnewcod Hall, the Widener residence in North Philadelphia. Mr. Widener purchased the work in Europe last Jul, according to the New York World. This makes the thirteenth Rembrandt which Mr. Widener has acquired. The purchase price was not made public, but values placed on it by critics range from 00,000 to ,000,000." Surely it is indeed fortunate that the American turf can claim such a man as Joseph E. Widener as one of its own. It augurs well for the future of both American breeding and J racing. Better still, Mr. Widener is not the only patron of art, not the only captain of industry, not the only man of affluence and high standing in this country that is prominently identified with the breeding of thor-oughbreeds and the sport of racing. But he is a shining example of the class of men who compose the New York Jockey Club, which, together with the Kentucky and Maryland racing commisisons and the Canadian Racing Associations, practically control racing on this continent. It is an unrefutable answer to the reformer who would have the general public believe that horse racing attracts omy the riffraff and scum of civilization. If there remains uncertainty in the three-year-old division there is found the same condition among the two-year-olds. Many have already named Enchantment the best and he probably is the best of the year, but by reason of his being a gelding he Is barred from the Futurity as well as other rich races that are calculated to decide the champinoship. Enchantment should have been winner of the Hopeful and he probably would have been had it not been for his inability to leave the post with his field. He had the inside post position and when he refused to break with his company it made that place the least desirable of all of them. He went away from the barrier walking and the horses had raced a furlong before he decided to run at all. Those who watched the running remember the immense gap he closed after his belated start. It was a race that would have undoubtedly seen him the winner if he had left promptly. But Enchantment has few regular engagements left where he will meet the best of the colts and fillies and he will have to wait for the handicap this fall and the handicaps of next year to prove his worth. The son of Chicle may finally learn his post lessons, but his behavior at the barrier has already been tremendously expensive to the Whitney stable.
