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Here and There on the Turf Two -Year-Olds at Latcmia. New York Racing Closed. Features of the 1922 Campaign. Young Corcoran Promising. Pimlicos Great Attractions. Maryland Racing Dates. A few mile races for two-year-olds can give the racing public a better line on the staying qualities of next years three-year-olds than all the three-quarter races of the year. The Kentucky Jockey Club realizes this and the present Latonia meeting has been marked by two or three races of this type each week. Fridays mile race for two-year-olds has given to H. H. Hewitts Aspiration an altogether new importance. This son of George Smith and Inspiration is a half brother to Mr. Hewitts good filly Startle. He ran the mile in the fast time of 1:38 and defeated a band which included Montfort Jones Oui Oui, winner of the Queen City Handicap; T. J. Pen-dcrgasts Bo McMillan, Gallagher Brothers Triumph and Marshall Brothers speedy, but inconsistent Prince K., as well as others. The two-year-olds of 1922 are either poor or more evenly matched than often happens. At any rate, there are none outstanding in this years racing. Possibly the best are August Belmonts Messenger in the East and Gallaher Brothers Cherokee in the West, but they are both out of training and one must await their three-year-old days before they can be properly rated. In the meantime, youngsters which can win races at a mile in fields of better than selling class must receive consideration. When they run the mile in such good time as Aspirations mark of Friday, they merit even stronger consideration. By this it is not meant that Aspiration is a champion. There is no champion and there may not be one this year, but Aspiration, by virtue of his showing, wins a place among the leading Western two-year-olds. With the running of the last race on the program of the Empire City racing Association at its Yonkers track yesterday, there came to an ed a tremendously successful season of racing in New York. It was a season that began May 3 with the meeting of the Metropolitan Jockey Club at the Jamaica track, and continued for 152 days. For that long period of time interest in the thoroughbred and his deeds has never lagged, and at the end there was general regret that the racing could not continue for a longer term. Seldom has a racing year been blessed with more favorable weather for the sport, and few indeed have been the unseasonable days. The tracks have been in better condition than ever before and there have been some notable performances, but a study of the charts will reveal that there have been better years in the matter of the average class of horses that have fur nished the entertainment. It has been shown so often that no champions have developed with the racing that this phase of the turf need not be pointed to again. Among the two-year-olds one is forced to the conclusion that it was a decidedly off year for the juveniles. They have been too close together in their races and it will take one more year to separate the wheat from the chaff. Many a time horses have developed wonderfully from their first racing year to their second. It is to be hoped such will be the case in 1923. There are several that have every blood line reason to go on to greater things. Some of them have shown flashes of racing brilliance, but none has shown the measurement of brilliance that would carry it to the top of the class. It has been a season of racing that has been singularly devoid of scandal and, for the most part, form has been well conserved in the running of the races. It was unfortunate that early in the year there was a widespread epidemic that kept many of the best horses away from the races, just when they had many rich ! opportunities. This was not oonfined to New York alone for the sickness was seriously felt in Kentucky and Maryland as well as New York. This worked havoc for a time, but it is possible that some horses were benefited by being kept away from races until they were brought back big and strong. It is just possible that the sickness that swept the country may have had something to do with the failure to locate either a two-year-old or a three-year-old champion. Both of these age divisions were the principal sufferers in the epidemic. As for the sport itself, there never has been greater interest shown in New York than in the racing season that has just come to a closs Each of the associations has enjoyed a fuller measure of prosperity than has come at any time since the passage of the laws that repealed the old Percy-Gray act, under which the turf thrived so generously. It has been a long fight to restore racing, but it has been restored, and each year it is becoming more firmly entrenched in the state. It has richly deserved its growing popularity and the gentlemen of the Jockey Club, as well as the stewards who have officiated at the various meetings, are to be congratulated on the manner in which they have governed. They have come in for the usual criticism that from time to time is to be expected, but all through the year they have kept the turf clean and by their acts have inspired the respect and confidence of the public, which is so essential to the welfare of the sport. The associations have done their part nobly by an increase in the value of many of the stakes that have been offered. The prosperity that has come assures there will be further advances for the 1923 racing season. Racing was voted the most popular sport in England not so long ago and the American turf is striving for the same popularity on this side of the Atlantic. As long as it is conducted in the same wise manner in which it was conducted in 1922, there is better than a fair chance that an American vote would show the same result. A number of prominent owners, East and West, are dickering with. A. L. Kirby for a contract on the promising young apprentice, J. Corcoran. Corcoran made his riding debut only this fall, but he has won his way rapidly into the good graces of the Kentucky racing public. This youngster has much to learn about the fine points of race riding, but he has that all important knack of making a horse run kindly. He also has the ability to think quickly, to take advantage of an opening and to judge pace. A case in point so far j as his ability to make a horse run kindly was jhis victory on Wickford at Latonia Friday. In two previous races with other boys in the saddle Wickford was left at the post. The stewards had determined if this happened again to bar the horse from starting. But with Corcoran in the saddle the erstwhile bad actor was docile and patient at the barrier. He ! began well and, taking the lead when called on, won without much opposition. Racing men who have followed the sport in Kentucky for a number of years pronounce Corcoran one of the best riding prospects in their experience. Certainly his work compares favorably with that of many riders whose experience covers many years. The Maryland Jockey Club has in the past done much for the turf, but never before was such a fall meeting announced there as the one that will be opened Tuesday. For the eleven days of racing the distribution in stake money alone amounts to 01,000 added. A stake race is down for decision each day and the high lights are the Pimlico Futurity, a mile dash for two-year-olds, with 0,000 added, and three 0,000 stakes. These are the Manly Memorial Steeplechase at two and a half miles; the Bowie Handicap for three-year-olds and over at a mile and a half; the "Walden Stakes, a two-year-old handicap at a mile, and the Pimlico Cup at two miles and a quarter for three-year-olds and over. Of these stake races, the Manly Memorial is jthe opening day feature, while the Pimlico Futurity will be run Saturday, November 4; the Bowie on Tuesday, November 7, the Walden on Friday, November 10, and the Pimlico Cup on the last day of the meeting, Saturday, November 11. It will be seen that these dates are chosen so that two-year-olds will have every opportunity to keep both the Futurity and the Walden Stakes engagements, while the older horses have sufficient time between tht running of the Bowie Handicap and the Pimlico Cup to start in both of them. Bowie has now grown to an altogether new importance on the turf map with its new policy of offering fall stakes. Three are to be run during the eleven days of sport and it is just possible that another will be added by James F. OHara. At present the stake list includes the Thanksgiving Handicap of a mile and a quarter, to be run on the closing day of the meeting. This has an added value of ,000. The other two are of ,500 added each and are the Southern Maryland Handicap of a mile and a sixteenth and the Endurance Handicap, a mile race for two-year-olds. Entries that have already been obtained for the stakes, which are to be closed! November 4, assure that better horses than! ever before raced at Bowie will be shown. The j fact that it is said Montfort Jones will send his Rockminister, winner of the Latonia Championship, there, with seven others of his best horses, gives a line on just what good class horses to expect. Harry Payne Whitney will be represented and the Lexington Stable will doubtless have a string on hand for the prizes that are offered. Truly, Bowie has grown until it is now of much more turf importance than when Mr. OHara and his associates became a part of the turf scheme of Maryland. And while on the subject of the end of the racing season, it must not be forgotten that those in New York who will have no opportunity to go to Maryland to round out the year, there is still one day left in New York. It is not on the regular racing circuit, but it is of vast importance. That is the election day racing at Bslmont Park, which is to be offered by the United Hunts Racing Association. This holiday meeting promises to be the most ambitious venture of the association and the staging of the sport at big Belmont Park makes ambitious plans possible. Already the various races that will be run that day have attracted a liberal lot of entries, and though it is amateur racing, it will be strictly professional in the excellence of the entertainment that is to be offered. With the closing of the New York campaign the Laurel meeting also comes to an end, but there remain two excellent meetings before the thoroughbreds will leave Maryland. These are the meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico and that of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Association at Bowie. The Maryland Jockey Club, the oldest racing organization in the state, will open the gates of Pimlico Tuesday and will continue until November 11, while the racing at Bowio will be from November 18 until November 30. Then as a stopgap between the closing of Pimlico and the opening at Bowie, there will be a meeting conducted at Upper Marlboro, 10 that some of the horses will be kept employed.
