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HAVRE DE GRACE NOW • Opening Handicapped by Mud and Disagreeable Weather. ♦ Exterminator a Doubtful Starter Today — Much Interest in Two-Year-Old Race. ♦ ■ BALTIMORK. Md.. April 15.— On the eve of the opening of the Havre de Grace meeting of the Harford Agricultural and Breeders Association there has come a return of winter weather that has set the older inhabitants to comparing notes. Snow fell yesterday and last night and this morning there was a bitter chill in the air that made it feel more like January than April. But these untoward conditions have not prevented the gathering of horsemen for the meeting. The hotel at Havre de Grace is filled and the little town on the banks of the Susequehanna is overflowing with turfmen, who are attracted by the impending meeting. Some stables moved to Havre de Grace early in the spring and latecomers have been arriving daily. Most of the horses that were raced at Bowie moved over, while some few, not considered good enough for what is offered here, have gone to the smaller circuits. Not a few of the New York horses that were not ready to be shown at Bowie will be started during the coming meeting and others are on the way. With the coming of the horses the jockeys have moved in and if it was not for the bitterly cold weather it would be safe to predict that the opening will be as brilliant as any in the history of the beautiful course. For the opening day the card that will be presented is a truly good one and the class of horses that will compete leaves nothing wanting. HEAVY TRACK TODAY. Unfortunately there is little hope for other than a heavy traek for the decision of the Harford Handicap, the main feature of the opening day. but the track surface is better than ever before and muddy going does not mean as serious a handicap as it has in other ears. Much has been done tto improve the i I track since the meeting last fall and the i trainers who have been preparing their charges there are loud in their praise of the going. It is a bit disappointing to know that Willis Sharpe Kilmers Kxterminatcr. winner last year and one of the most popular and consistent horses that ever stood on iron, is a doubtful starter. His name was sent out in the overnight entries and an effo-t will be made to bring him to the post, but he came out of a recent work nodding and he may not be started. Kxlerminator went amiss last fall and for that reason he was rested during the winter, though it had been intended to give him some winter racing. He came out of his retirement looking better than he had in any spring in his long years of campaigning. He worked I brilliantly on occasions for the Harford Handicap, but leg trouble has returned and it may be that the honest old gelding will never came back to his old glory. Hard races under excessive weight seem to have finally taken their toll and the legs of iron have weakened. But lie will ever be a glorious memory, even should he fail this year. Walter J. Salmons Careful is the most talked of horse for the race. She will be ridden by Jimmy Butwell. who has been keeping himself tit by road work for a considerable time. Cwyn Tompkins has high hopes for Samuel D. Kiddles Dinna Care. This one was m;id» ! ready at Mr. Kiddles farm at Berlin, Mary-j bind. : 1 1 1 i the horse was but recently brought! to Havre de Grace. All of the horses in the ; • ■are of this astute trainer are well advanced and Oceanic, though he is hardly up to a. bard raea, gives promise of Icing a worthy ! handicap representative of the stable. MUCH IXnCTBl OF BROOMSTKR. Harry Pnvno "Whitneys Broomster. although he failed in both of his races at j Bowie, will probably show to better advantage on the Havre de Grace going. He is a! i gel, ling of high speed, but was unable to! | maintain ft through the Bowie sand, with a I lighter top surface at this other track it is expect -d he will go farther and faster. I Henry McDanbl has expressed himself j that Hildur, the J. K. I.. Ross Candidate, I would t e bard -o beat, but Hildur is seriously I handicapped in soft footing and it is not probable he will be sent to the post. This track condition will result in several other withdrawals before post tin.fi, but the list of candidates is such a heavy one that the race Is sure to bring t g t!ier botli a large and a representative field. It is probable that the two-year-olds will I furnish the race of next importance to the I Harford Handicap. Of the nineteen that are entered in the opening dash only one has j I .Continued on second page. HAVRE DE GRACE NOW i Continued from first page. been to the post, so that no public line is available. But all of them have been showing plenty of speed in their preparation and most of them have been well schooled. The inclement weather has been something of a setback to the trainers, but at this late I time in the spring it cannot be expected that it will last for any length of time and with the coming of seasonable conditions there will come patronage to the sport that was promised so bountifully by the tremendously successful meeting at Bowie. Joseph McLennan and his force were busily engaged issuing badges. The last few finishing touches were put on the big plant and all is ready for the flying of the flags and the opening of the gates. There was some disappointment in the published announcement that Donges, J. S. Wards Derby candidate, would not be raced at Havre de Grace. The fact that he has been entered in all of the stakes of the Harford Association suggested that a Maryland campaign was contemplated, but now it appears that he will begin his racing at Lexington. There has been a division of the Willis Sharpe Kilmer horses and J. I. Smith, the lecently-appoirted trainer, has taken a dozen to Kentucky to be raced there. The others in the big stable remain at Havre de Grace under the watchful care of William Shields. He will be in charge of the Maryland campaign. Unfortunately Mr. Shields is in rather poor health, but the horses have been doing exceedingly well, with the exception of the recent slight lameness that was developed by Exterminator. The stable is one that cannot fail to cut an important figure. Sallys Alley, the best money-winning two-year-old of last year, has been working bril-bantly and. if she continues to go along as she has been, it will take a superior racer to beat her in the Preakness Stakes. Sallys Alley may be shown before long at Havre de .race, when there will be established a public line on her three-year-old possibilities. Havre de Grace this year, more than ever before, opens the season for New York sta-j bles. The horses, as a general proposition. I are not as well advanced at this time as is usual, but that is accounted for by reason of the unfavorable weather. Reports are that all of the horses are robust. There has been no sickness such as handicapped so many of them last year and it will not take long to have them tightened up to racing.
