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Here and There on the Turf Jockey Clubs Annual Meet ¬ ing ingSuggestions Suggestions of Interest Down East EastJack Jack Joyner Favors Graded Handicaps There will be a meeting of the Jockey Club next Thursday This is the annual meeting and while It is not expected that any great amount of business will be taken up it is probable there will be some discussion of matters of interest to the welfare of the turf turfThere There is an amendment to the selling race rules that has been suggested by A J Joyner that would probably work well Mr Joyner would do away altogether with the high priced claiming race He would not have any race framed with a top price greater than 2500 This could be scaled down to 500 and should give the cheap ones every oppor ¬ tunity To take care of the vast army of horses that race between the 2500 value and ths best handicap class Mr Joyner would have handi ¬ caps for various classes Handicaps could be framed for nonwinners of 1500 nonwin ¬ ners of 1000 if necessary and the qualify ¬ ing amounts could be graded right up to the Exterminators Mad Hatters Lucky Hours and others that are in the first flight This would put little more labor on the racing secretaries and it would seem to offer these horses plenty of opportunities without having them resort to races with the legitimate selling platers The horse that is worth more than 2500 should be rated better than a selling plater An argument for such grade handicaps un ¬ der Jockey Club rules is that it would in a great measure do away with excessive weights on the best horses The winner of a Metro ¬ politan Suburban Brooklyn or Saratoga Han ¬ dicap would not have to take up a crushing burden to afford an equal chance to a horse that is eligible to a handicap much lower on the scale It would be meeting the same class of horses it had met in these important stakes and there would not be as wide a difference in weights as becomes necessary when the good and the ordinary ones are all brought together in one field The practical working of such graded handicaps has been satisfac ¬ torily shown at Pimlico The condition race has almost become a thing of the past There was a time when condition races took cars of the wants of horses that were better than sel ¬ ling platers but hardly up to the handicap division The trainer did not care to start his horse among the platers for fear of losing it but at the same time did not deem it good enough to win in the handicap division Its place to race was found in special condition races framed to meet its class In the ab ¬ sence of such condition races grading the han dicaps by having them limited to nonwinnera of this or that amount would establish a number of races that would not fail to be popular with the horsemen Many an owner does not care to face his horses among the selling platers It may be because he has the mistaken idea that all his geese are swans or it may be a pride in his silks that will not permit of his trying for such races It is no easy task to train for such an owner successfully The trainer has been instructed not to patronize claiming races and his horses are not good enough to show to advantage in the allaround handicap divi ¬ sion The handicaps to be graded on what has been won by the horses at once gives the trainer a field of endeavor that will keep him within the wishes of his employer and tend to make the stable profitable profitableThis This new type of racing would not add as much to the duties of Walter S Vosburgh the handicapper as might at first be thought It would mean that much of the dead wood would be eliminated from the big handicaps and generally that the handicap fields would not bs as unwieldy unwieldyMr Mr Vosburgh would take ample care of each handicap division and a change such as this suggested by Mr Joyner ought to do much in improving handicap racing It would bring about better contests and at once open a field of endeavor for the horses that are good but not qualified to race with the best of the han ¬ dicap division on the tracks under the juris diction of the Jockey Club
