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Here and There on the Turf Mr. Whitneys New Departure. Continuity of Racing. Differing Opinions in Handicapping. S. C. Hildreths Luck. Laurels Pleasing Outlook. One of the big things that was done for the turf this year was the sales made from Brook-dale Farm by Harry Payne Whitney. It has not been the habit of Mr. Whitney to breed for the market and year after year the output of that wonderful breeding establishment has first appeared under the Whitney silks. A portion of .them were sold after they had been raced! and found not up to the Whitney standard. Time and again a good one was put on the bargain counter. Mose Goldblatt and Albert Simons trained many of those of the second string and, as a general proposition, anything turned over to either of those horsemen was for sale. But now there has been a sale of twenty yearlings, while, with the disposal of such horses as Goshawk and Whiskaway, there came a distribution of good ones that have never before been offered for sale from Brook-dale. The good that is accomplished is in- the distribution of such horses to different sections of the country. Whiskaway goes to the West, where, after he is through with racing, he may be a power for the betterment of the breed. Goshawk will join the Gifford A. Cochran stallions at Mount Kisco, a New York breeding establishment that has already done much to bring New York forward as a suitable breeding ground for the thoroughbred horse. Then the yearlings that have been sold to Mr. Sinclair, owner of the Rancocas Stable, will lend their aid in building up the Rancocas breeding farm. It is well to have such horses distributed throughout the country and it is to be hoped that Mr. Whitney will continue to make sales from Brookdale. One other New York breeder who promises before long to be heard from as a producer of thoroughbreds, is Walter J. Salmon. Mr. Salmon, whose Step Lightly was winner of the Futurity of 1920, although a comparatively newcomer to the turf, has made a close study of breeding and he has made various important purchases on both sides of the Atlantic. He has confined the purchases chiefly to mares and it is not his intention at the present time to buy a stock horse. He proposes to make use of the various stallions that are in service already and, by devoting all of his talents to the selection of mares, he hopes to produce thoroughbreds that will be the equal of any from the important and long-established breeding farms. Too often it is found that when a breeder has only one or two stock horses he feels that he has to confine his breeding to these alone. That naturally will restrict the opportunities of the mares. With the opening of the Havre de Grace meeting Wednesday there begins the fall racing season in Maryland that will keep the horses employed until the end of November. While the actual racing time has been somewhat curtailed by the Maryland Racing Commission, there never was a fall season held forth more promise for good sport. Following Havre de Grace there will come the twenty-thres days of racing at Laurel in October and the November dates will be taken up with the meetings of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico and the Southern Maryland Association at Bowie. At each of the tracks there has been a liberal increase in the purse distribution and the stake entries disclose that the best horses that have furnished entertainment through the summer months will be kept in training for most of the Maryland season. And up in Canada there will be racing until into October, while Chicago brings back its sport at Hawthorne September 30. Kentucky will have racing until November 4. The winter racing begins Thanksgiving Day, so that it is seen the horsemen do not lack for opportunities. The seasons overlap until the sport is continuous. Interest continues to grow in the Chicago meeting at Hawthorne and it is assured that many will come on from New York for the season. At Aqueduct Thomas Monahan of Hudson Falls and Chicago added many memberships to the Illinois Jockey Club and will add many more before the end of the week. Men of importance on the turf have joined the club and have signified their intention of being on hand for the meeting. This membership plan makes for success, for it induces individual effort. In the meantime, the work of making ready for the meeting is progressing rapidly With two such masters of the art of handi-.capping as Walter S. Vosburgh and Martin A. Nathanson, it is interesting to see their estimates of the same two-year-olds at this time of the year. Weights for the three-quarters of the Oakdale, to be run at Aqueduct Thursday, and the Eastern Shore Handicap over the same distance at Havre de Grace have been published simultaneously. While Mr. Nathanson rates Goshawk, Zev and Enchantment at the same weight of 126 pounds, Mr. Vosburgh has Goshawk on top at 128 pounds, with Messenger and Zev next at 127 pounds. Messenger is not in the Eastern Shore. But Mr. Vosburgh has Dunlin and Enchantment under equal weights at 125 pounds, while the Nathanson estimate has Dunlin back at 119 pounds and there is in front of him, besides the top weights already named, Bud Lerner, 122; Sallys Alley, 121; Martingale, 120, and Cherry Pie, 120. But there is a wide difference in the estimate of Picketer. Mr. Nathanson has him handicapped at 114 pounds, while in the Oakdale Handicap he is in at 107 along with Stockmar, Purity, Black Friday, Doughoregan and Aladdin. Then with Golden Rule there is a wide difference. He is in the Eastern Shore Handicap under 102 pounds, while the Vosburgh estimate is 114 pounds, along with Nassau. There are other differences to be found, and still these two men are at the very top of their profession. S. C. Hildreth has had his share of racing success with the Rancocas Stable this "year, but he has also had his share of hard luck with some of his best horses. It was unfortunate indeed that both Zev, the colt that finished second to Sallys Alley in the Futurity, and Mad Hatter, which won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, should both come out of their races injured. It is not likely that Zev will be seen under silks again this year as a result of the severe kick he received at the post, while Mad Hatter grabbed himself in the Cup and is, for the time being, on the shelf. And that is not all. Kai-Sang, the three-year-old star of the string and one of the bast three-year-olds of the year, has had a return of his foot trouble. He is galloping, but the foot injury is, to say the least, bothersome. These are a few of the troubles of the leading winning ownsr. The book for the first eleven days of the Laurel meeting has been distributed among the horsemen and it is one of the most complete that has come from the press in many a day. In each of the stake races, in addition to the namss of horses entered and their owners names, there is shown the color, sex, age and breeding. Incidentally, the stakes filled exceedingly well, as has already been shown by the entries ! that have been published. Evidence is had of this when the Chevy Chase and the Patuxent, both ,000 steeplechases, received respectively forty-eight and fifty-eight nominations. One ! would almost come to the conclusion after the steeplechasing at Saratoga there were not fifty-eight steeplechasers in training, but these horses were nominated and in each the subscription fee was 0.
