view raw text
CLOSE AT JEFFERSON Meeting Ends With Some Fairly Good Contests. Sam Louis Wins the Features With Knight of the Heather and Crack o Dawn. NEW ORLEANS, La., December 30. When Winneconne galloped home with the purse in the sixth race it marked the close of racing in the United States for this year. It also terminated the Jefferson Park meeting, which was inaugurated on Thanksgiving Day and continued for twenty-six racing days. The windup was witnessed by a fairly large attendance, but comparatively small when measured by former large Saturday assemblages. The getaway card was nothing to enthuse over, ordinary racers contesting in all the dashes, but they furnished interesting diversion. With the close of the meeting terminated the usefulness in these parts of some of the slowest thoroughbreds that could be mustered. Their participation in the racing constantly throughout the twenty-six days that the Jefferson Park meeting covered was in the main due to the small purses offered, but they were princely prizes compared with the platers worth. Better purses would have brought out better horses, it is alleged, but about this there is doubt, for some of the ,000 handicaps failed to fill. Owners have become mighty discriminating these days as to where they enter their horses. It is probably good business on their part, but on the other hand it seems a waste to permit horses in winning form to eat their heads off in their stables rather than battle for the purses they could have, even if they were a bit smaller than those offered at the Fair Grounds. WEATDIER MAN AIDS. The present meeting has been fortunate in the matter of weather. On only four days has there been a tinge of real winter weather. Storms have visited the course, however, and on one occasion it was found necessary to postpone, as a result of the flooded condition of the surrounding territory adjacent to the track. This was the fault of defective drainage. The Jefferson Park management will show a small profit from the meeting, for the attendance has been less than in recent years. There was a surprisingly large number of layers-on, despite the curtailed betting, which has been a costly meeting for the backers. The poor class of starters, bad riders, changed track conditions, has tended to make the racing anything but stable. What form reversals there were has been attributed to honest causes. There is no prospect of an aftermath at this track. Corcoran, who started off like a whirlwind but slumped in his work considerably of late, held to his lead and finished in advance of Lang, who is now in danger of losing his place as the leading winning rider for the year to M. Fator. OWNERS FARING WELL. Sam Louis, Most Goldblatt and several other owners fared well during the meeting. Sam Louis figured extensively in the winnings of the last week. He scored a double this afternoon with his Knight of the Heather and Crack o Dawn, both in feature races. Knight of the Heather was at a long price and stoutly supported by his connections. Crack o Dawn was favorite. The former took a good band of sprinters into camp in the three-quarters claiming handicap. Crack o Dawn was making his first appearance in the Louis colors, that owner having claimed him in his last race from T. E. Crist for ,200. After todays race the horse reverted back to his former owner through the same claiming process, but it cost Crist 00 additional to get him. After thirteen favorites had failed in succession Bedazzle, carrying the colors of H. Neusteter, came home in front in the opening race after a hard drive to outstay Oi-mont and Rork. G. Drumheller claimed her for ,000. Pirate McGec, with Gourley up, cantered home before Tyranny and Brown Bill in the second. There was little improvement in the third race and here Maize succeeded in earning the first purse that "Bill" Fizer has taken at the meeting. Her victory was by the margin of a nose from Tricks. Despair and Mock Orange refused to leave the barrier in the fifth race. Bridesman, a well intended one, might just as well have been left for anything she did. Crack o Dawn won in a canter, with Servitor second and Belgian Queen third. The Fair Grounds will have to worry along . without the presence of jockey Weiner, who was suspended yesterday for a term of fifteen days by the stewards for rough riding. He has decided to go East and asked permission to withdraw his application for a license.
