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Here and There on the Turf Yinter Meetings to Open Today. Discipline at the Tracks. Routine of Stables in Retirement. More Whys for Names. Today the winter racing season begins at all cf the three great racing points. It is a season that will continue until the spring ooenug of the tracks that make up the c;r-cuits that begin in Maryland in the East and Kentucky in the West. Never before has theie been a better promise . for good racing ihrough the months cf December, Jauuary, February and March. Never recently have so many horses of good class been kept in training for winter racing and never in recent years have so many of the foremost stables been represented at these winter tracks. Time was when the racing of horses was merely the conducting of meetings to enable cheap ones to earn their keep. That day has gone and now god horses are especially groomed foi winter racing and, in fact, some of them go into summer retirement, rather than winter retirement. These winter programs have grown greatly in importance and now some of the stakes that are decided have a high value. Some important purchases have been made by sportsmen who will try for the prizes that are hung up at Tijuana, Havana and New Orleans. Each will attract its share of good horses and it will no longer be necessary to look exclusively to the cheap selling platers for winter entertainment. The government of a meeting of long duration is something of a problem, but the sportsmen in control of the three racing points have governed wisely and well. With such long meetings this government of the sport frequently reaches outside of the confines of the race track itself and it is well that it should. Those who take part must so conduct themselves, both on and off the race track, in a manner that will bring no reproach to the turf. Citizens who care nothing for racing must find nothing in the conduct of those attracted to their city by reason of the races , at which to take offense. The racing man is proverbially a clean-living gentleman, but it is inevitable that at all meetings there are followers who must be coerced. That is why it is good to have the governors of the sport extend their authority beyond the race tracks. Those who in any manner would bring reproach on the turf must be shown the error of their ways. It is not meant by this that the winter meetings are any more likely to attract some that are undesirable than any other meetings, but the length of the meeting is what makes strict government so essential. With meetings of one hundred days or more, those who attend become more closely associated with the citizens than in the average meeting during the spring, summer and fall. This association must reflect credit on the turf. No sport is better policed than racing and disorders on race courses are few indeed, but this policing at a long meeting must go further and cover the horsemen off as well as on the track when he is racing at New Orleans, in Cuba or at Tijuana. With the running of the last race at Bowie today there will be a general scattering of the horses and horsemen that have taken part. Many already have gone to Havana, New Orleans or Tijuana and others, who remained for taps at Bowie, will go to one or another, of those points. Others will go into winter quarters at the old Benning track of the Washington Jockey Club. Still others will ship their charges to farms for a long winter rest, while a great many of them will head back to New York and Belmont Park, Aqueduct or Jamaica, where the horses will spend the cold months. There is plenty of activity about a racing stable in the winter months at any one of the Kentucky and Long Island training grounds. Most of the strings have several yearlings that require education. They will have their racing lessons. The older horses are seldom thrown entirely out of training. Their galloping tapers off gradually just as in the spring the preparation for racing is gradual. Bad legs are doctored and feet receive attention that may not have been possible during, the campaign. In fact, the old ones are made over and the new ones are made proficient. Plenty of occupation is found in a racing stable even in the idle season. Larry Carey called to mind some horses when names were under discussion a few day3 back. One was Grand Opera, son of Wagner and Bonnie Bird. Another was Top o the Wave, a son of The Commoner and Spindrift. Cliffield was by Clifford Richfield. Another of the horses that raced for the Beverwyck Stable of the late Frank Nolan, whose name did not mean anything in the way of suggesting breeding, was Lena Misha. It was intended to name this one Lean Misha, which is Celtic for "follow me." Through a mistake the name was made Lena Misha. The late Captain S. S. Brown named one of his colts Retropaw. Many had no notion of just where such a name came from, but this colt was named after W. A. Porter, who at the time was agent for the genial sportsman. It will be seen that Retropaw is just a reversing of Porters name. Tickfull was given that peculiar name for the reason that when he came to the market as a yearling he was one of the scrubs of the consignment and had so little attention -that his coat was literally covered with wood ticks. Badge was so named because when purchased for a song his buyer said: "Well, he will do to get me a badge."
