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Here and There on the Turf Jockey Club Ready for Busi ¬ ness nessBedwell Bedwell Given a License to Train TrainKentucky Kentucky Dates to Be An ¬ nounced Soon The annual meeting of the Jockey Club and the meeting of the stewards that followed were purely meetings for the transaction of routine business But now with the reelec ¬ tion of the various officers the work for 1923 can proceed The committee on licenses which is composed of Francis R Hitchcock HI K Knapp and Joseph E Widener will hardly have as much work as has come before this committee on other occasions but thsre will be a considerable amount of labor in re ¬ viewing the cases of some suspended trainers and Jockeys who will seek reinstatement reinstatementLast Last year there was occasion for fewer se ¬ vere punishments than has been the general rule but there are still some who have been down for a considerable time who will seak reinstatement Some of these have so con ¬ ducted themselves while in banishment as to have high hopes of a return to favor It is for the license committee to determine whether or not they have atoned sufficiently for their misdeeds Before the opening of the racing season this committee will have several meet ¬ ings for the consideration of applications applicationsWord Word comes from Maryland of the restora ¬ tion of H Guy Bedwell to good standing by the issuance to him of a license to train It may be that Bedwell fortified by this license will make application for a like license from the Jockey Club and the Kentucky State Rac ¬ ing Commission If he does that will be one of the unwelcome problems for the license com ¬ mittees Bedwell has not had a license to train since 1920 and his efforts to have Shill ¬ ing reinstated as a jockey caused what threat ¬ ened to be a serious breach between the Jockey Club and the Maryland State Racing Com ¬ mission Incidents connected with the run ¬ ning of the famous Kenilworth Park Gold Cup which was virtually a match between Man o War and Sir Barton at Kenilworth Canada October 12 1920 brought about the refusal of the stewards of the Jockey Club to recog ¬ nize Bedwell as agent for J K L Ross his employer He made no application for a li ¬ cense to train in New York YorkFortunately Fortunately there was no open rupture be ¬ tween Maryland and the Jockey Club and since the closing of that case the relations between the two governing bodies have been cordial It is to be hoped that the recent unwise action of the Maryland Commission will not reopen the controversy Harmony is essential between all the governing bodies It always has been an unwritten law of the sport that the rulings of one are recognized by all But it has also been a law that nobody would review the ruling of another In other words offenders under one jurisdiction would first have to clear their record there before they would be restored by another There wlU be a meeting of the Kentucky State Racing Commission held in the office of its president J N Camden Tuesday when it is expected the racing dates for 1923 will be announced The dates mean more this year than ever before because of the coming of two new tracks into the Kentucky circuit For some years Kentucky racing has been confined to Lexington Churchill Downs and Latonia With these three tracks to be sup ¬ plied with racing time the allotment last year made the Kentucky campaign begin at Lexington April 29 and it was continued for ten days or until May 10 Then the Churchill Downs meeting ran from May 13 until June 3 a period of nineteen days with Latonia following from June 6 until July 8 a meet ¬ ing of twentynine days Under this distribu ¬ tion there were some days not used The Green River Jockey Club and the TriState Fair Association will both be looking for dates this spring and if the older associations are to have their usual allotment it may ba thought necessary to avoid conflict to have an earlier beginning of the spring meetings and a later closing However part of July all of August and part of September natural time for racing are open in Kentucky and the new tracks may be given their dates then thenWhile While this is problem enough the main in ¬ terest is in the dates allotted Churchill Downs Last year Churchill Downs opened May 13 the same date on which the Pirnlico meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club closed Thus it was that the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby were decided on the same day This was an unfortunate conflict and one that in the best interests of owners in racing both in Kentucky and Maryland should be avoided if possible The Maryland Jockey Club although the dates for racing in that state have not yet been announced has selected May 12 as the date for the run ¬ ning of its Preakness Stakes May 12 falls on Saturday and it is expected that it will be the last day of the Maryland Jockey Club spring meeting The Preakness Stakes has been a closing day fixture there just as the Kentucky Derby has been an opening day fixture at Churchill Downs DownsWhile While no announcement has been made at this time of a second meeting at Jefferson Park following the present meeting at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans it is expected in some quarters that there will be such a meeting although local sentiment is decidedly hostile to it In the meantime Mobile is going ahead with its preparations for a meeting and altogether the thoroughbreds promise to be pretty well occupied until April rolls around and both Maryland and Kentucky will begin their racing
