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Twenty Years Ago Today Chief Turf Events of March 14 1903 Racing at New Orleans and Oakland Gannon placed three more victories on the right side of the ledger when he rode Mauser Witfull and Latson to victory at New Orleans In the twoyearold specials in which most of the other associations showed losses as com ¬ I pared with earlier years the Saratoga Asso Association ciation shows a natural gain This is due to two reasons the fact that the specials at atithe ithe springs have attracted entries from the West that the other meeting could not get and that the Saratoga season comes later laterBurns Burns Waterhouse added the Bell Stakes to their long list of stake victories when their good filly Rowcna displayed tremendous speed jin coming from sbth place to score a smash ing win over the crack colt Rapid Water from j the stable of Green B Morris The Bell Stakes Jwas carded as the main attraction at the Oak ¬ land course today It was a dash of five eights with special weights Morris had Pre ¬ cious Stone in this race also and they were overlooked in the betting the entry opening at six to one and closing at eleven to one at post time Rapid Water was the bettors choic W B Jennings had Celebrant in this race and he flattered his backers by taking the lead at once but tired badly and just managed to stay long enough to take third money from Dr Rowell by a nose At the rise of the barrier Rapid Water followed Celebrant to the halfmile post but jockey Daly pulled him up and took him back to fourth place undoubtedly damaging the colts chances He had a choking pull on Rapid Water and made too much use of him so that when Rowena challenged he still had enough to make her give her best to outstay him in a driving finish Before one of the largest crowds ever as ¬ sembled at the Fair Grounds at New Orleans the Hildreth stable colors were in front at the finish of the Crescent City Derby Witfull chestnut daughter of Mirthful and Response backed into favoritism by the form followers at post tune justified their confidence by making a runaway race of the Derby by win ¬ ning with twelve lengths of daylight between herself and her opponents the nearest of which was Rosanco The story of the race lacks interest because of her easily achieved victory Jockey Gannon who had another field day had the mount on Witfull and he rated her in fourth position until half of the mile and and an eighth journey had been traversed Gannon did not seem to think that the pace was fast enough and at the half post he shot Witfull to the front without an effort on the fillys part The crowd after witnessing the ease with which Witfull took the lead settled back in their seats satisfied that the race was already won They were right be ¬ cause Witfull increased her lead to twelve lengths and from the head of the stretch Gan ¬ non was looking back to sec that this lead was maintained Birch Broom had cut the pace out from the start with Embarrassment close up and the rest of the field strung out Rosanco was in fifth place at the half post right at WitfulPs heels her jockey evidently having orders to lay with Witfull When Wit full made her move Rosanco went with her but she did not have the necessary speed to get to the filly and had to be contented with second money Birch Broom lasted Ion enough to get the small end of the stake
