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NEAR HALFWAY MARK First Part of Present Havana Meeting Proves Successful Visitors Include Many Unfamiliar Unfamiliarwith with Sport All Surprised at atBeauty Beauty of Oriental Park HAVANA Cuba January IS The present successful race meeting at Oriental Park is rapidly approaching the halfway mark and if the second portion proves as successful as the first there will be no cause for com ¬ plaint on the part of general manager F J Bruen and his associates in the CubaAmeri ¬ can Jockey and Auto Club As a matter of fact the latter half of the meeting invariably outstrips the first both in the matter of attendance and in the quality of sport fur ¬ nished The heavy tourist traffic from the North has already set in and this is strong ¬ ly indicated by the filling up of the Havana hotels and a consequent increased attendance at the races for a visit to Havana is not complete unless one spends at least one afternoon at the beautiful race course courseMany Many of these visitors have never visited a race track in their own country and have but vague ideas regarding the sport and the manner in which it is conducted Therefore it is little wonder that they are pleasantly surprised on the occasion of their first visit ito Oriental Park to discover a place that is altogether at variance with their precon ¬ ceived ideas Instead of a commercialized and sordid institution where the horses en ¬ circle the course merely to afford oppor ¬ tunity to gamble they discover a beautiful rparklike flowerbedecked inclosure with J walks shaded with magnificent palms and bordered by the rarest of tropical plants a magnificent clubhouse where the elite of Havana foregather and grandstand and i lawns that cannot be rivaled anywhere in Europe or South America They also wit jness highclass sport and if they so desire they can while away the time between races dancing on the grandstand promenade to the music of a superb orchestra Or if so cially prominent they may enjoy the hos ¬ pitality of the clubhouse and there dine and wine to their hearts content while watching the races from the buildings spacious verandas They may also chance a few dol jlars on their favorite horses if they feel so disposed But they are impressed strongly with the fact that the gambling is not para ¬ mount and that luxurient ease rest and re ¬ laxation among delightful surroundings are the main attractions of the place placeCUBAN CUBAN SOCIETY APPROVES APPROVESRacing Racing at Oriental Park has received the stamp of approval from the highest classes of Cuban society and the attendance prin ¬ cipally on Sundays includes most of the high government officials leaders in the commer ¬ cial world and people prominent in the social life of the capital General Mario Garcia Menocal former president of the republic who recently returned from an extended vis ¬ it to Europe is a regular patron and is usu ¬ ally accompanied by his family and a retinue of friends He is one of the stanchest friends that racing has in Cuba and he gave abundant testimony to this during his oc ¬ cupancy of the presidential chair Dr Zayas who succeeded General Menocal as chief executive does not take to the sport like his predecessor due mainly to ill health but he displays his interest by permitting his family to attend which they do quite fre ¬ quently and each time they occupy the spe ¬ cial private box reserved for the president and emblazoned with the Cuban coat of NO OUTSTANDING RIDING STAR STARAlthough Although the meeting has been running for fortyfive days it has as yet failed to fur ¬ nish any outstanding jockey development and at the present it is a difficult matter to determine which of the riders will lead his competitors at the clcse of the meeting Tommy Brothers the Newport Ky lad ladj j started out as though he was going to be the riding star of the meeting but a session on the ground caused him to lose his leader ¬ ship which was taken by Harry Stutts the apprentice under contract to Montfort Jones Stutts is now leading the riders but his mar ¬ gin is not great and any one of his five closest competitors is likely to overtake and pass him in the near future Eddie Am ¬ brose shows good saddle form when he rides but for some unaccountable reason he gets few mounts A recent suspension also served servedi i to injure his chances for the leadership R McDermott under contract to J E Madden and who is riding here for W F Knebelkamp is doing well as is also the veteran Johnny Calluhan attached to the stable of Frank Bray Among the apprentices who give promise of developing into good riders are areW W Milner the Toronto youngster under con tract to exjockey D Louder P Gross H HClick Click C Grace and A Sandstrom
