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Here and There on the Turf The 1923 New York Handi ¬ caps capsCracks Cracks in the Metropolitan MetropolitanHandicap Handicap HandicapLouisiana Louisiana Derby Prospects An Estimate of Shamrock Entries that have already closed for New York handicaps of 1923 give promise of an interesting year of racing from each age The old favorites of other years have been named to come back The turf is now particularly strong in the fouryearold division and it is natural to look for many a sterling threeyear old to come from the twoyearolds of last year The fact that no undisputed champion was crowned in either the twoyearold or the threeyearold divisions really gives a greater zest to racing this year There are those who considered Sallys Alley best of both the colts and fillies among the twoyearolds Others swung to Rialto Enchantment Messenger Dunlin or some one of the other good ones Then of the threeyearolds Lucky Hour was rated by many good judges as best but others were just as sure that KaiSang was a better colt They did not meet during the racing season and accordingly that question was not settled There were still others who stuck to Bunting to the end and it was agreed by many that had not Snob II gone wrong he would have reached the top of the class And then Oceanic and Rockminister late in the autumn racing made impressing claims claimsAll All of these have been named for the Metro ¬ politan Handicap the openingday mile feature at Belmont Park and their presence in the nominations gives the race high interest interestThe The Metropolitan Handicap has been run twentynine times and the fouryearolds have a good lead over the other ages On seventeen occasions horses of that age have won This includes the 1905 race in which Race King then a fouryearold ran a dead heat with Sy sonby at that time a threeyearold Mad Hatter is the only horse that has won the race twice He was winner as a fiveyearold in 1921 and again last year Hildreth hopes to make it three straight with the sterling old son of Fair Play and Madcap MadcapThreeyearolds Threeyearolds are second in point of num ¬ ber of winners Including Sysonbys dead heat there were six winners of that age It has been won three times by fiveyearolds and four times by sixyearolds All of this would tend to show as has been shown so often before that the fouryearold is the most successful of the handicap division divisionNever Never has the Metropolitan attracted i more representative list of entries than those for the 1923 race The weights wiU not be announced by Walter S Vosburgh until ten days before the race but it would be interest ¬ ing now to have some of the amateur handi cappers try their hand at naming the weights weightsThe The Rancocas Stable is particularly well represented and in addition to the threeyear olds Zcv and Bud Lerner all the old cam ¬ paigner of the stable are named These in ¬ clude Mad Hatter Thunderclap Grey Lag Knobbie and Flying Cloud CloudOthers Others of the old horses that have been named are Prince James Tryster Dinna Care Captain Alcock winner of the Suburban of last year Firebrand and Careful CarefulThen Then the fouryearolds appear well able to maintain the reputation of that age in the history of the race with such entries as Kai Sang Lucky Hour Oceanic Snob II Bunting Rockminister Little Chief Brainstorm Thi 1 bodaux and other good ones And of the threayearolds there are such as Sallys Alley Rialto Cherry Pie Enchantment Messenger Cyclops Dunlin Martingale Osprey and others that made good adequately last year Indications are that a worthy field will go to the post for the Louisiana Derby at the Jefferson Park meeting Recent performances of some of the threeyearolds now racing at the Fair Grounds suggest plenty of entries and both a big and a thoroughly good field ought to contest the race raceEdward Edward R Bradleys Blue Nose the bay son of Black Toney and Benanet has been steadily i racing to the top of the age and his excellent performance Tuesday gives him new impor ¬ tance With 120 pounds in the saddle and giving away weight to such proved ones as i Calcutta Setting Sun Amole and Kent L he was an easy winner at a mil This was in the Preliminary Handicap and the nature of his victory was decidedly impressive impressiveOthers Others that will be pointed for the big Jef ¬ ferson Park race are Shamrock Prince Tii Tii Boy From Home Olynthus Contour Roseate II Setting Sun Calcutta Amole Better Times Vennie Lady Inez Raffles Slanderer Edward Gray John Q Kelly Permarco Poor Sport and a number of others that have shown enough to warrant their trying for the 0f these threeyearolds it is probable that taking a line through twoyearold perform ¬ ance T W OBriens Shamrock is of as good class as any of the others He was racing with the best of them during the summer and fall and just seems to be coming to good form now at New Orleans But there are others that whila they did not shine during the last racing season have improved greatly at New Orleans and the question of Shamrocks being of better class is open to question Many of the two yearclds of last year did not have a proper chance to show just where they belonged by reason of the epidemic of sickness that swept the country in the early part of the racing season Many of the stricken ones did not recover in time to show their real worth and it is just possible that many of the 1922 im ¬ pressions of the twoyearolds will have to be materially revised when all that were kept from the racing regain their full vigor
