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Here and There on the Turf Date for Ancient Race Fishing for Derby Prices Enchantment Selected for Favorite One of the oldest sporting events in this country is the Maryland Hunt Cup Steeple ¬ chase which is run annually near Baltimore BaltimoreThis This year the date has been fixed for Sat ¬ urday April 28 and all winter the sportsmen have been making their horses ready for the event The race is over natural country and it always brings out a big field fieldFor For the race this year the course is laid through Worthington valley over the estates of Messrs Ileiser and Fenwick and the start will be made at 4 oclock in the afternoon afternoonThis This will be the thirtieth running of the old race and its roster of winners contains the names of many of the sturdiest of the cross ¬ country horses that ever raced in this country as well as the names of some of the most bril ¬ liant gentleman riders It is a fourmile race and one that calls for the best in both horse and rider Although entries for the Kentucky Derby will not close until February 24 an enterpris ¬ ing correspondent in Louisville has sent out a list of prices which he calls a future book on the historic race He has even gone so far as to say of the one hundred or more probable nominations it appears that a dozen have an excellent chance for victory It is entirely possible that all of the horses he has named in this future book will be found in the list of nominations when they are closed but it is to say the least premature to quote odds on a race before the entries have closed closedAccording According to the odds quoted Enchantment is made favorite at 12 to 1 Messenger and Dunlin are each quoted at 15 to 1 and then comes Edward R Bradleys Blue Nose and Gifford A Cochrans Goshawk each with 20 to 1 as the quotation Sallys Alley Willis Sharpe Kilmers queenly filly that was the winner of both the Futurity and the Pimlico Futurity in both of which she beat the best of the colts that could be mustered is put in the same notch with Donges General Thatcher Lathrop Zev Cartoonist McKee Little Celt Alice Blue Gown Oui Oui and Cherry Pie at 25 to 1 1This This should be enough to indicate that the book is being imagined by someone who has no idea whatever of the quality of the proba ¬ ble starters in the big 50000 race It is evidently the concoction of someone who knows but little of racing and less of future book It would be hard by any stretch of the imagination to make Blue Nose the equal of Goshawk taking a line through what has been accomplished by each of these colts Then what sort of figuring could put Sallys Alley in the book where she is rated to have an equal chance with ten others none of which even approached the high class of the daughter of Allumcur and Salvolatile in their twoyearold form It is a bpok that will cause many a good laugh when an attempt is made to bring Gen ¬ eral Thatcher Lathrop Cartoonist and the like alongside the Kilmer filly and it must be ad ¬ mitted that while the Louisville correspondent says the odds are being quoted he is careful not to name by whom the quotations are being made madeCyclops Cyclops appears in the list as a 30 to 1 shot and in that same division are In Memoriam Blossom Time Bo McMillan and Prince K Wilderness and Tall Timber the Richard T Wilson pair are not rated highly at 40 to 1 and in that same division it is found there are such as Dan E OSullivan Cherokee Martin ¬ gale William Tell Aladdin Bud Lerner Sun fercnce Blanc Seing and Prince Tii Tii There are just such ridiculous quotations all through this book and it is one of the best laughs that has come in the dull season of the turf turfHowever However in a way it is indicative of the widespread interest that now attaches to the annual decision of the Kentucky Derby For at least a month past impatient persons from near and far have been sending queries to Daily Racing Form demanding to know when the entries will be published and where and how they can get the quotations in the future books Ona query concerning prices came from as far away as Edmonton in the frosty Northwest Another was from far down on the Atlantic coast of Florida So there are real extremes from near the arctic circle to near the tropics that want to know about a race more than three months away and that will bs decided in a little more than two minutes when the day of fate arrives arrivesMaybe Maybe by next year there will be as much advance interest attaching to a greater and more valuable Derby over a Chicago race track
