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Here and There on the Turf Fair Grounds Program Settled. Few Star Two-Year-Olds from Winter Racing. A Loss to Racing and Breeding. Differs With Handicappers. Disciplinary Co-operation at New Orleans. There will be the customary seven races daily when the Fair Grounds meeting is opened by the Business Mens Association at New Orleans. This decision has been reached after a conference with members of the Thoroughbred Horsemens Association. As the program stands now there will be a daily distribution of ,200, as well as four feature races of 5,000 value each. The daily of- j fcrings will be six races of ,000 value each and one of 1,200. These are worth-while purses for winter or any other racing and this arrangement will please the general run of horsemen, better than would the same amount of money divided up in six instead of seven races. In the matter of two-year-old racing, it has been decided to offer four races a week for the two-year-olds at the beginning of the meeting and, should the response warrant the putting on of a greater number, they will be added to the program. This racing of two-year-olds in January and February is to be deplored, but the chances are it will continue. Some years back a rule was enacted by the stewards of the Jockey Club that disqualified a two-year-old from starting after April 1 in the event he was raced before that date. That was an excellent rule in itself, but the stewards in its enactment were fixing a rule of racing for a district over which it had no jurisdiction. Of course, the stewards were well within their powers when they fixed the legal time for the racing of juveniles in that section over which they do have jurisdiction, but it meant the Outlawing for the year of horses that did not follow the New York rule. This rule was never popular with breeders for the reason that it in a measure hurt the yearling sales. The buyer did not have as quick a chance to realize on his investment. For this, probably more than any other reason, the rule was repealed. Of course, the early racing of the two-year-olds meant readier sales, but principally readier sales for the cheap yearlings. The man who pays a big price for a yearling has too much regard for it to put it in training for winter racing. But at every yearling sale there have been many purchases made for use in winter racing. Two-year-olds that have not really grown to a size to warrant the rigors of training are rushed to be made ready for the January and February races. They may make- good and frequently develop form that is little short of sensational, but they generally cease to be sensations when they are matched against those that are permitted to grow and develop before they are put into hard training. There are some few isolated cases of two-year-olds raced in January that went on to big things afterward. Old Rosebud is one of the most notable instances, but it is the general rule that the juvenile that races in the winter is either out of training by September or he has slipped into the selling plater division. The turf and the thoroughbred breeding interests suffered another severe loss in the death of H. II. Hewitt of Buffalo. While Mr. Hew-j itt devoted most of his turf energy to Ken-. tucky racing, his colors were known and justly popular in both. New York and Maryland, where his white and red silks were frequently shown. From time to time he sent truly high-class horses to the races. His in-jterest in both racing and breeding has been of long standing and he was the type of I sportsman that always means much, to the turf. It is hard to take Lord Woolavington seriously when he threatens to confine his fu-iture racing to the flat in England. After : having finished at the top of the list of English winning owners for 1922 he is not the sort that will not go on both, through the field and on the flat. He has objected to the high compliment that has been paid his steeplechasers by the handicapper and he suggests that the horses are handicapped on the prices he paid for them rather than what they have actually accomplished. There may be reason in the complaint, but the handicap-!per is always lawful game and in every coun-jtry that individual has been hardened to just such complaints. Doubtless, if the estimate of Sir Huon is unfairly high, that handicapper will find it out when the horse is raced. It is not on record that a horse is reduced in the handicaps without having been raced and Lord Woolavington, just as anyone else, has every opportunity to show the handicapper that he made a mistake. The vigilance of the stewards at Jefferson Park has relieved that winter racing point of many undesirables and in this they have had no end of assistance from Colonel Guy Ma-Iony, I the New Orleans chief of police. It is well that the racing officials and the police should work in harmony and this method has I resulted in some of the undesirables not only being warned off the track, but banished from he city itself. Being barred at a race track, unfortunately, has not always stimped out fraudulent practices, but when the effenders are escorted ou"; of the city itseif, ihtir influence for evil is abated. Most of the offenders are known aa"i it has been shandiva ttiat they are not welcome in Nesv Orleans,
