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Here and There on the Turf General Thatchers Pull in Preakness Weights. Eastern Steeplechasing Prospects. Setting Sun Wins Respectful Attention. Trainer Preston Burch is shaping his course with George WingfieJds good Sweep colt General Thatcher so that he will have an allowance of twelve pounds in the Preakness Stakes. It is for that reason that the colt was not started in the ,000 Inaugural Handicap on the opening day of the Bowie meeting and for the same reason he was not named for the Capitol Handicap. If his trainer continues this policy General Thatcher will also be an absentee from the Chesapeake Stakes at Havre de Grace. There will be opportunities enough to complete the training of this handsome colt in some allowance races, without incurring penalties for the 0,000 race and an allowance of twelve pounds is not to be despised. General Thatcher is the only Preakness Stakes eligible that has raced at the Bowie meeting and his one race was a pleasing demonstration of advanced condition. It was not the fact that he won so much as the manner in which he won. The horses back of him were not of good class, but the big colt galloped in a manner to leave no doubt of his superiority. In this matter of an allowance General Thatcher enjoys a big advantags over such as Martingale, Dunlin, Sallys Alley and various others of the successful two-year-olds of last year, which gained the penalties he is still escaping. The present intention is to try for both the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby with General Thatcher. Of course, his performance in the Preakness Stakes will have all to do with whether or not he is sent to Churchill Downs for the big Kentucky race. But just now he is looked upon as a sure starter in each. Some students of blood lines have expressed a fear that General Thatcher might find a mile and an eighth and a mile and a quarter a bit far for the son of Sweep in the company he will meet. But last fall the big brown showed an ability to race a mile with the best of them. He was not raced much last year for the reason that he was growing at such a rate and this should be to his advantage this year. For a colt of his size General Thatcher has a remarkably smooth way of going and there is none of the clumsiness that is too often a penally for size. He is a colt of extreme speed and until some of the other topnotchers are uncovered he will attract the most attention in Mary-laud when the chances of candidates for the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby are under discussion. Joseph E. Davis, father of the new selling and claiming race rule in New York, as well as of the subscription plan for the purchase of jumpers in England, has high hopes for the new season of racing that has just begun. Since Mr. Davis became president of the Na tional Steeplechase and Hunt Association there has been decided improvement in the prospects for racing through the field. Speaking of the subscription plan, Mr. Davis said recently that he expected it to be of more real benefit to that branch of racing in 1924 than this year. By that time horses that are brought over will take their place in the sport and new ones will be developed in this country to keep up with the procession. Since the victory of Setting Sun in the Inaugural Handicap at Bowie last Monday the son of Olambala and Sunburst has been going along in a manner to open the eyes of the Maryland timers and they are convinced that he is a much better celt than he has generally been considered. Setting Sun has demonstrated that he is much at home through the peculiar going of the Southern Maryland track and that is a tremendous advantage. Setting Sun was bred by Richard T. Wilson and was developed by T. J. Healey. He is of the tough sort and now that he has raced his way to a certain degree of fame there are som? who say they can call to mind when he held Tail Timber safe in his morning gallops last year. Whether or not that is true, the fact remains at this time that he is one of the three year-olds that should earn his way handsomely this year.
