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Mere and There on the Turf Main Winners at Bowie. Why Bowie Is a Slow Track. Canadian Racing Conditions. The Bowie meeting proved a pleasant one for the invaders from Kentucky, with Mont-fort Jones and G. L. Blackford each earning I more than twice as much as any other owner during the eleven days of racing. Mr. Jones headed the list with a total of 0,511, while Mr. Blackford was not far away when his total reached 0,425. Such results should induce other Kentucky invasions in the future and it should also induce retention of some of the best horses in training for what is offered by the Southern Maryland Agricultural Association. The Blackford figures were reached largely because of the victory of Maxim ac over the best horses at the track in the Thanksgiving Handicap, when he took down the big end of the 0,000 added. That, with one! other victory and a third, made him contribute ,575 to the Blackford total. The Montfort Jones amassment was largely by reason of the excellent form of Fair Phantom, winner of four purses and a second for a total of ,446. And Oui Oui by her victory in the Endurance Handicap contributed ,765. Third on the winning list was A. Swcnke, a Baltimore turfman, and his total of ,178 was gathered by rather ordinary, but thoroughly useful, platers. Right through the meeting it was demonstrated that the Bowie going is of a nature that is particularly difficult for many of the horses to run over. It is a surface that cupped out badly. Some of the good ones that were handicapped because of this peculiarity had little or no chance, while others of inferior class showed to their best advantage. Fair Phantom was one of the best and the most successful one that was raced all through the short meeting. Others were repeaters, and Mystic, a notably unsound plater, did well with three victories in as many starts. The going was not as fast as it has been ih other meetings, for, while the class of horses that raced was infinitely better than at any other meeting, the only new track record that was established was when Maximac ran a mile and a . quarter in 2:09, which clipped a full second off the best previous time at the distance. A comparison of the horses that have raced in other Bowie meetings with those that raced there this fall would make it appear that a new track record should have been established at every distance, and it is only because the track was not as fast as it has been that these records were not broken. In preparing the track for the fall meeting trackmaster Pending did much to improve the surface, but he sacrificed speed in his work to make the track a safer one over which to gallop the horses. Another reason for the track- being slower was the fair weather that prevailed. Bowie is a track that is benefited greatly by rain. That is to say, it is really made faster. It has a deep sandy surface and when it is beaten down by a hard rain it becomes faster. For the meeting that just closed there was no such rain and it was deep and more or less loose sand that the horse3 had to race over. The track is a perfectly safe one to gallop over and one that is grateful to a horse with weak underpinning. Work , will be done on the track next winter in mak-jing it ready for the spring meeting and, while Pending may improve its speed, he probably will never make it a fast track, although it could be done. It will always remain a safe track and one that should remain free from frost all through the year. How racing and thoroughbred breeding has prospered in Canada is well set forth in the reports at the annual meeting of the Ontario Jockey Club. Time was when any good American stable could cross the border and carry off most of the rich plums at the Canadian meetings. But such was not the case in 1922. As far as the Ontario Jockey Club was concerned, Canadian sportsmen headed the list of winning owners at both the spring and fall meetings at Woodbine Park. These successful racing establishments were the Seagram Stable, J. K. L. Ross and the Thorn- cliffe Stable. Just now the question of taxation is one that has become a serious handi- i cap and it would be a calamity if this taxa-tion, that amounts practically to confiscation of profits, would force a curtailment of offerings just when the Canadians themselves have found their way to the top of the heap.
