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Here and There on the Turf Trysters Present Good Form. Rancocas Handicap Horses. Bunga Buck and Oceanic. Breeding Success of J. K. L. Ross. Scott Harlan has brought Tryster back to the races in a condition that gives him a front place among the handicap horses that will furnish entertainment this fall. By his victory in the Scarsdale Handicap at the Yonkers track Monday he left no doubt of his fitness. He took up 120 pounds, made all the pace and hung out a new track mark of 1:38 for the distance. There never has been a question of the high class of the black son of Peter Pan and Tryst, but he had been away from the races for the best part of the year and it was only a question of whether he would be brought back. He began his season auspiciously on the opening day at Jamaica in the spring when he won the Paumonok Handicap under a burden of 125 pounds. He followed that by finishing third to his stable-mate Rocket and Sam Hildreths Dunboyne in the Toboggan Handicap. His only other start previous to his victory for the West-mont Stable Monday was when he won the Heetwing Handicap at the Yonkers track on July 12. All of these were sprints, while on Monday he gave evidence of being able to go on in the best company. It is probable this is just the beginning of a brilliant fall campaign for the good four-year-old. Tryster is coming to hand at a time when some of his otherwise strongest contenders are not at themselves. In his last brilliant race, the Continental Handicap at Jamaica on the closing day, Henry Watersons Brainstorm spread a foot badly and trainer Edwards fears he may not have him to the races again this year. Sam Hildreth added Cirrus to the Scarsdale and the son of Tracery and Morningside did not show even a glimmer of handicap greatness. He was badly beaten from barrier rise to finish. And this is the same Cirrus that took up 130 pounds and won the same race in 1920. He will have to improve marvelously over his last race if he is to be seriously considered in any of his engagements that are to come. Mad Hatter, in the same stable, is a horse of uncertain temper at times and not altogether reliable. But no horse in training has had more hard racing under big weights than this same Mad Hatter. Even taking into consideration the fact that his temper is uneven, he has been and still is a truly remarkable horse. Another of the stars of the stable that has not been brought to the races for some time, by reason of injury, is the three-year-old Kai-Sang. The good son of The Finn and Kiluna is, possibly, the best thrcs-year-old of the year, but it is doubtful if he will have an opportunity to prove it. Fit and ready, he would belong high up in all of the handicaps, but he is not fit and ready. Hildreth still has that honest good one Thunderclap still galloping along in a fashion to suggest fitness. He has had more than his share of hard luck with his good horses, but he has so many good ones that there is generally one to fall back on when another goes amiss. Samuel D. Riddles Oceanic is the latest of the topnotch three-year-olds to have a slight slump in his climb to the top. When Gwyn Tompkins brought him back after his long rest he had him ready to beat a fast band at three-quarters. Now he has failed in a mile and a sixteenth race. But it was a four-year-old that took his measure. It. is true that both Bunga Buck, the winner, and Oceanic, which only lost by a matter of inches, were each taking up weight for age and it is in no manner a disgrace to be beaten by Bunga Buck. He has a fashion of beating good ones when he is right himself and there are few tougher horses in training. Oceanic was kept busy all the way. First, he had to race Yankee Star into retirement and then he withstood the challenge of Bunga Buck to the last stride, where the older colt just nodded his nose down in front. And then there was another angle. J. Butwell, who had the mount on Bunga Buck, rode as he has seldom ridden before. A share of the victory belongs to him. This defeat should not in any manner put Oceanic into the discard. He is a really good colt and his present campaign suggests that l Tompkins will send him to the post in the j 5,000 Washington Handicap, the mile and a ! quarter feature of the last day of the Laurel meeting, October 28. While there is every hope that the New Rochelle Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth for three-year-olds will bring out a good field, some of the highly-weighted ones will be missing. This is the Saturday feature at the Yonkers track and some of the best that will not be on hand are Lucky Hour, Brainstorm, Missionary, Morvich and Southern Cross, while it is not expected that Kai-Sang, the top of the handicap under 126 pounds, will be ready. Lucky Hour is in Kentucky and on Saturday will be racing in the Latonia Championship Stakes. Southern Cross and Missionary were taken West with him. Brainstorm spread a foot in his last race and Morvich has been retired for the year. This race is not among the engagements of Bunting and, if it had been, he would be in Latonia anyway to race in the Latonia Championship Stakes. There are still several good ones left and it may that, as a spectacle, it will be more interesting with the top-notchers away, for it will make the field more evenly matched. After all that is the charm of racing. Ccmmanuer J. K. L. Ross, who a few years back topped the list of winning owners in this country, bids fair to become one of the most successful breeders. For one who came so recently into the ranks of breeders his success has been little short of phenomenal. During the present racing season up to October 7 the produce of his farms at Vercheres, Quebec, and Laurel, Md., have won no less than seventy-five races, besides finishing second sixty times and third fifty-five times. They have earned an aggregate of 08,074 in money. When Milkmaid, Constancy, Priscilla Mullins, Sir Barton and Cudgel were through racing,-it was only natural that with such st.ck animals Commander Ross snould direci his attention to breeding. He established huj Canadian and Maryland farms and at first attention was directed to the rearing of Canadian brtds. Last year he sent a half dozen mares tc Kentucky and this fall a dozen mnrj were font to Harry Morrisseys Kemplaml Farm near Lexington. There are now eighteen mares and three stallions at Morrisseys farm. The mares are Audrey Austin, Audience, Milkmaid, Constancy, Gibberish, Intrigante, Kate Bright, Maltha, Melody, Misty Morning, Pennsylvania, Pesky, Priscilla Mullins, Sou, Gladbrook, Speariana, Tiarco and Wheatear. The Ross stallions there are Cudgel, Damrosch and Boniface. Next year the first crop of Cudgels will be brought to the races and great things are : expected of them. In any event, with such carefully selected matrons and such high-bred stallions, the Ross bre:ding venture should not fail to be a success.
