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Here and There on the Turf Saturdays Latoxiia Feature. Sande as a Model Rider. Manor Handicap Eligibles. A Welcome Compromise. The Recent Dead Heat. i The Covington Handicap, with ,000 added, Latonias Saturday feature, at a mile and three-sixteenths, will be an all-western race. There are a number of eastern horses among the nominations, but none of them will be on the ground to contest the prize. Another of the eligibles qualified handsomely for the race Wednesday when Mose Gold-blatts Cherry Tree ran a game race to beat a big band at a mile and a sixteenth. He covered the distance in the good time of 1 :44 and overcame some interference to win. Cherry Tree has been assigned the feather of 99 pounds for the Covington Handi- cap and, even with the three-pound penalty which his Wednesdays victory entails, appears to be in well. Firebrand, Jefferson Livingstons candidate5 for the Covington Handicap, will be the top weight of the field. The three pounds penalty which he earned by his victory Monday brings his impost to 121. The only ones with as high weight arc Tryster and Bunting. Both will be among the absentees. Major T. C. McDowells fine mare Distinction is assigned 118 pounds and Rockminis-ter, which made a new American record in the Latonia Championship Stakes last Saturday, is rated at the same notch. There is good material among the lightweight contingent in the Covington Handicap. The consistent Guy is to carry 105 pounds, while Bit of White and Best Pal, from the Idle Hour Stock Farm Stable, are in at the same weight. Parisian Diamond, owned by the Seagram Stable, will carry 104 and Margaret Winsor, winner of the Latonia Oaks, 102. Pimlico and Richelieu share the advantage of the lightest impost. Both have been assigned 92 pounds. Altogether the Covington Handicap holds out promise of developing into a high-class contest. Some of the top-notchers will be missing, of course, but those that remain appear to be well matched at the weights. It would be well if aspiring jockeys would hang on the rails and watch Earl Sande at the Empire City track. If they will intelligently pay attention they will learn many tricks of the trade, for he is a master in the saddle. From the time he is lifted to the saddle until the race is all over Sande is master of his mount and it is a long day since there was another such rider that so closely studies his horse. At the barrier Sande gives less trouble than any other rider. No matter how fractious his mount may be he is usually straight j and he is invariably off in the first flight. He j is always ready to leave with his horse and no rider is under way quicker. He is a past-master in judging pace and he knows how and when to use the whip. There is no hesitation when Sande chooses a course and then when it comes to the finish no rider in many a day has used the same skill and energy. The little fellows who are learning to ride would all aspire to have the skill of Sande. That may not be, but they can learn plenty by merely watching his management of his mounts. "Good horses make good riders" is an adage that is about as old as racing. An Exterminator or a Man o War would make the reputation of almost any rider, but the real test is when the rider brings a bad horse home in front of better ones. That is what Sande has done so often that it is small wonder that I12 stands out as the jockey of his time. It was only the skill of Sande that enabled Ten-Lec to last long enough to nose Mary Patricia out Tuesday and only his skill lifted Good Night to victory over Purity and Fullon the same day. Both of these horses appeared well beaten an eighth from the finish and each required different handling to win. Ten-Lec had to be held together and supported, as she was tired in that last eighth, while the two-year-old had to be ridden with particular vigor. Sande knew his mount on each occasion and had he used his Ten-Lec method with Good Night the Whitney gelding- would probably have been fourth, while the Good Night method on Ten-Lec would surely have brought about her defeat by Mary Patricia. This young man studies the temper of his mount. He has an uncanny way of keeping out of trouble in a big field and he thinks and acts simultaneously. Sande has during the present meeting landed many a cheap one home in front, when it was only his riding skill that made it possible. This young man is a finished rider and it is a liberal education for the other boys who wish to excel in the saddle to pay close attention to his methods. Weights are announced for the Manor Handicap, the ,000 mile race for two-year-olds that is one of the closing day features at Laurel. The entry list is a particularly heavy one and the Rancocas Stables Zev and Harry Payne Whitneys Enchantment are at the top of the list with 126 pounds each. J. S. Cos-dens Dunlin and Gifford A. Cochrans Goshawk are just a pound under this impost, and then comes Willis Sharpe Kilmers Futurity winner, Sallys Alley, with 123 as her burden. At this notch she is under equal weights with Richard Tv Wilsons Wilderness and she concedes a pound to Robert L. Gerrys Cyclops, a colt that has been racing his way steadily to the top. In the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, over the same distance, Enchantment was the winner under a burden of 122 pounds, but that was not a handicap. It was a wcight-for-age. He was an easy winner, but to give away weight is an altogether different proposition. He has shown better than any of the eligibles an ability to "go on" and he will have a strong following here, even at the weights. His sluggishness in leaving the barrier has always been a tremendous handicap and the Manor Handicap will be by long odds his most ambitious effort. If the good ones are brought to the post against him and he should be the winner, it will leave no doubt of his supremacy in the two-year-old class. It is well that the Friar Rock suit has been settled without any further long drawn-out litigation, such as was for a time feared. What was most to be desired was that there should be no hampering of this brilliant young stallions opportunities. Without attempting to go into the merits of the case from any angle, it would have been greatly regretted if the action should for a time have lost his services to the breeding industry. Under the agreement that has been reached John E. Madden will have Friar Rock until June of 1924, when he will go to J. H. Rosseter, the partner in the son of Rock Sand. It will be remembered that much of the racing usefulness of Playfellow was lost by reason of the suit brought to set aside his sale to Mr. Sinclair, owner of the Rancocas Stable This colt has not made good yet for Mr. Johnson, who had to take him back, but he was out cf training at a time when he should have been racing and the suit worked ! a real hardship in the manner in which he J was forced into retirement. 1 It is seldom, indeed, in these days of the turf that there is a dead heat and more seldom that the dead heat is run off. Time was when the run-off was more frequent than the dividing of the purse and it is refreshing to go back to the old sporting spirit. Fantoche and Sway are both now rather ordinary sell-1 ing platers, but the horse that repeats is the solid horse and it is fitting that the purse should go to Fantoche.
