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Here and There on the Turf No Better Stayers Ever Than ThanToday Today Sotemia Gave Proof at Four FourMiles Miles Havre de Grace Stake Races An accomplished and sagacious old time trainer recently expressed the opinion that our thoroughbreds of today can stay as far and at a faster rate of progress than the celebri ¬ ties of our early turf history He further stated that the only necessity in demonstrating this is proper training There is ample proof of the correctness of his statements in occur ¬ rences in comparatively recent racing racingLexingtons Lexingtons fame became worldwide be ¬ cause on a certain memorable occasion he ran four miles in 719 over the Metairie race track at New Orleans A thing to be remem ¬ bered in his favor as in favor of Lecompte Boston Fashion and other renowned stayers of long ago is that the tracks of their time were so deep as to be fairly comparable to a plowed field The velvety surfaced and fairly elastic tracks of today were undreamed of On the other hand the weights carried were much lighter than those habitually carried by our better horses of today In his memorable race against tiros Lexington carried jockey Gilpat rick who weighed out at 103 pounds These arc elements to be considered consideredOne One only has to go back to 1912 to discover absolute proof that a fourmile race has no more terrors for our horses of today that it had for Lexington or his daddy Boston At Louisville Lexington or his daddy Boston At Louisville in that year a marc of no especial fame in racing ran four miles under weight and in time that laid Lexingtons race in the shade so far that there is simply no comparison This mare Sotemia carried 119 pounds and ran four miles in the unapproached time of 71056 In her veins she carried an infusion of the blood of Lexington and thus by inheritance had the right to slay over a long route The turfmen of Lexingtons time would have considered her feat an impossibility Yet if it was easy for her to do what she did who can doubt that some of the real cracks of 1912 could have done still better if given the necessary training trainingShe She had that training Matt Feakes who trained her had ridden as a good jockey in the days when horses raced at long distances and knew what was the correct way in which a horse should be prepared for a long race It was to that factor as well as to her own worth that her unrivaled feat was due That race will stand much consideration by those who imagine our horses incapable of great per ¬ formances in staying stayingFour Four of the stakes that arc to be decided at the Havre de Grace meeting of the Harford Association are to close Saturday April 7 Each has 5000 added They are the Har ¬ ford Hcndicap at threequarters for threeyear olds and over run the opening day Philadel ¬ phia Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth for thrccyearclds and over to be run April 21 Aberdeen Stakes for twoyearolds at four and a half furlongs to be run April 25 and the Chesapeake Stakes at a mile and a six ¬ teenth for threeyearolds to be run April 28 28It It will be remembered that last year Ex ¬ terminator made his first appearance of the season in the Harford Handicap and won from Billy Kelly and Dexterous DexterousAfterward Afterward in the Philadelphia he was nosed out by Boniface his old rival after a nerve straining battle in which Exterminator shoul ¬ dered 133 pounds to 122 carried by Boniface BonifaceThere There was nothing of peculiar moment in the running of the Aberdeen Stakes of last year when it was won by Woodland but there was plenty to remember in the Chesapeake Stakes It was in that race that H P Whit ¬ neys Bunting gave Lucky Hour eleven pounds and a beating But there was no end of ex ¬ cuse for Lucky Hour Schuttinger lost a stir ¬ rup on the first turn and was of little or no help to the colt all through the race raceThe The Chesapeake Stakes is considered an ex ¬ cellent test of the Kentucky Derby and Preak ness Stakes material and it is over a distance calculated to afford a firstclass line on these big races It has been changed from a mile and seventy yards to a mile and a sixteenth this year and it is already assured that the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby candi ¬ dates will have an outing in it The Chesa ¬ peake Stakes was first run in 1920 when Sandy Beal was the winner from Paul Jones On that showing a big price was offered for the win ¬ ner and he was looked upon as a potential eligible for the Kentucky Derby DerbyBut But it was Paul Jones that was the Derby winner while Sandy Beal never raced back to his Chesapeake Stakes promise
