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Here and There on the Turf Bowies New Starter. Rumor Rife About a Vulcain Filly. More About Nomenclature. Good Ones in Winter Racing. It was fortunate for the Southern Maryland Association that Marshall Cassidy was on hand to take the place of George Miller at the starting gate when the regular official was taken sick and asked to be relieved of his duties. Young Cassidy has all the qualifications of a good starter and when he sent the horses away at Jaurcz, as a substitute, his work was excellent. He has learned in a good school, as one of the assistants to his father Mars Cased, who has for many years officiated over the New York tracks. Marshall Cassidy stepped right into the stand with the Miller crew and his first task was to send away five fillies. Fillies and mares are proverbially cantankerous at the post, and what made it more trying was the fact that it was a mile start, where the crowd hung over the outer rail looking on. The same crowd had made it decidedly uncomfortable for George Miller. Cassidy went about his duties ss though the crowd was not there at all. He had some trouble, but the field was sent away in excellent alignment and with little delay. There remains four more days of racing at Bowie and Cassidy will have ample opportunity j in that time to prove his worth at the starting j barrier. : There is no more difficult office to fill in I racing than that of starter. Also there is no official that comes in for the same amount of criticism from the average racing crowd. Vulcain, well-established Rock Sand stallion, will undoubtedly be a valuable addition to the thoroughbred breeding interests of New York State. He is the stock horse that was purchased at the sale of the stud of the late Henry T. Oxnard, and he is now at James Butlers I East View Farm near Tarrytown. Vulcain has already sent some good ones to the races , and glowing reports come about some of the present yearlings that will be seen under rac- j ing silks next year. One of these that has attracted a great deal of attention is a chestnut daughter of Queen, the dam of that good campaigner Sasin. This miss was purchased by Samuel Ross and has since- been sold to A. L. Aste. She is credited with a Benning trial of a quarter in 23 and is probably the best two-year-old prospect quartered at the old course of the Washington Jockey Club. This purchase means that the filly will be raced - over the New York tracks. Apropos to the naming of horses in order to suggest their breeding, examples are found on almost any racing program. Take the card of the Friday racing at Bowie and it is found that Air Tan is a son of Aeronaut and Tan, Majority is a son of Ballot and Cinderella; Turbulent, a daughter of Broomstick and ! - . 1 , J 1 Courage; Setting Sun, a son of Olambala and Sunburst; Good Time, a son of Negofol and Hour Glass II.; Bobbed Hair, a daughter of Helmet and Ringlets; Comixa, a daughter of Colin and The Minx II., making the name a combination of both sires and dams; Fly By Day, a daughter of Broomstick and Fly By Night H.; Minute Man, a son of Pataud and Miss Moments. These are just from one program and there is a reason for each name. They suggest their bearers breeding and, as is usual, the effort is made principally to suggest the dam, for it is usually easier to keep the sire in mind. Missionary, Bon Homme and Southern Cross with some others of the Xalapa Farm, Lexington Stable Confederacy, will be raced through the New Orleans winter meetings. Time was when all three of them would have gone into winter quarters to be freshened up for the racing of the following year. But times have changed. Of course, the three named are not exactly up to what was expected from them, but they are still horses of good class and will help make the Crescent City racing interesting. Really good race horses have been none too plentiful in winter racing of late years, but there are indications of genuine improvement in that respect from New Orleans and Tijuana. Havana will have an abundance of horses to furnish entertaining racing, but not as many near the star class as its two rival tracks. There was a time when winter racing drew horses of higher class than are now attracted similarly. For instance, when King James and Jack Atkin campaigned in California and the South, they were race horses of a class unknown to the winter racing of the present decade. Nor arc there any such three-year-olds in the present-day winter racing as were Claude Maelick, Montgomery, Chapultepec, High Private and others of the time referred to. It is well enough to hark back to the winter racing of 1908 and its nearby years before making rash comparisons in favor of today in the matter of the winter brand of racing.
