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Here and There on the Turf An Incident at Jefferson. Confirmation of Placings. New Two -Year -Olds to Race- By reason of the premature flashing of the confirmation of the finish of the fourth race at Jefferson Park Tuesday, there has been n change made in the signaling to the board attendant who shows the "all right" red board. It was in the race that LEffare was winner i that the attendant is accused of showing the sign prematurely, and while Thomas, who rode the winner, was being questioned by the stewards. Thomas was punished for his foul riding, but before the punishment was inflicted his mount had been confirmed as the winner, and once the "red board" is displayed the result must stand. Now, instead of one of the judges waving a program to indicate that the result is official, a red board is flashed by the judges to the attendant on the other side of the track. This is the method that has been used in New York, and in fact eti most of the tracks for many seasons. It is always desirable that as little time as possible be lost in confirming the result of a race, just as it is desirable to have the order of the finish flashed with no delay, but there is not the same hurry with the confirmation. Of course, under the rules no one has the authority to declare the finish official but the stewards, and if there was a mistake made in j the LEffare case, as many who were there I i insist there was, it was because the signal had i not been received from the stewards. When j it is required that a red board be displayed by the judges before a corresponding red board is shown making the race official, tibcre is much less chance for mistakes. With the New Year there will be a first glimpse of the new crop of two-year-olds, and I from reports of how the juveniles have been behaving in their preparation for racing suggests that it will be a good year. Of course, it is never the pick of the crop that is raced in the winter. For the most part this is furnished by two-year-olds that come to hand quickly, and generally they are the ones least thought of in the stable. But the cheap ones may readily furnish a good idea of what may be expected from the others of better class. Thoroughbreds, like almost every other crop, have their good years and they have their off years. Two-year-clds from the Bame bloodlines are better in one year than another, and while one year may see several of championship caliber fighting for the juvenile crown there are other years when horses just as fashionably bred fail to show anything like championship quality. The same care has been taken in the mating of the mares. The foals have had the same attention on the farm, but they in no fashion measure up to the crop of the good year. It is one of the vagaries of breeding that will always exist. That fact was forcibly shown in Man" o WW,-one of the best horses ever raced in this or any other country. Beaten only once in his L Jtwo years of racing, and then through no fault of his own, he was a champion in a good year. He was racing against such horsas as John P. Gricr, Upset, Paul Jones, Wildair, On Watch, Dominique, Cleopatra, Constancy, Captain Alcock, Miss Jemima, Gladiator and others of high class. Then came his brother, Playfellow, the next year, and the year following My Play, another brother, while Mira- belle, a sister to the wonder horse, was raced I this year. Each had every advantage that came to Man o War, and each was out in a year when there was nothing lick the conten-I jtion overcome by their big brother, and each failed utterly. Of course, Man o War gave I these brothers and sisters a high mark at which to shoot, but each one was a failure. And j Man o War was not a chance horse. He was I bred along lines carefully thought out by August Belmont. He had every reason on both sides of his house for the greatness that j was his, but the same mating hais failed in I the other instances.
