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FORECASTS SPLENDID YEAR ♦ ■ Attendance and Interest Displayed Auspicious Augury for 1923. — — ♦ ■ This Works rrogram at Jamaica Promises Some Excellent Sport — Excelsior Handicap Probabilities. ♦ NEW YORK, N. Y., May 7.— If the crowds at Jamaica since the opening of the current season mean anything, the attendance at the various Jockey Club courses this year will be of record breaking proportions. Year by year interest in the turf seems to grow, keeping pace with the quality of the racing. In the period immediately following the war the belief was advanced that a desire for excitement and recreation after a time of stress was responsible for the situation which made new figures in the way of patronage at every track in the Metropolitan district. Baseball and other sports, besides racing, benefited by the unusual conditions surrounding American life at that time. With the war, little more than a nightmare for many, the demands for all forms of sport has abated but little ; while in the case of racing new friends are being made constantly. Some have attribueted the continued popularity of racing to a more intimate knowledge of the horse derived during the war. while others maintain that amateur race meetings, the growth of hunting and participation in horse shows, which are becoming more general everywhere, have played a part in the promotion of those tests of speed, which are imperative in securing any progress in horse breeding. HANDICAP DIVISION PROMISING. Though the local season is only a few days old, there is a promise of splendid competition from the outset of the campaign for the various stakes which have been offered at Jamaica. Belmont Park, Aqueduct, Empire City and Saratoga Springs. The three-year-old division contains many fine colts and fillies, while there has been in no previous year a more numerous or prepossessing band of two-year-olds. As for the handicap division, the outlook is better than at the close of 1922. This is due to the coming along of so many three-year-olds of quality, whose participation in the spring handicaps is going to mean so much to our racing. In a former period of the turf in the United States three-year-olds cut a strong figure in the early handicaps, but the number and value of the offerings for horses of this age exclusively in recent years has had the tendency to restrict the field of operations of some of the best colts, and fillies of that age until mid-season. Hanover, Henry of Navarre, Celt, Broomstick, Eternal, Grey Lag and other fine three-year-olds have beaten the older horses for the spring stakes and, in doing so. they displayed those qualities so admirable in all good horses. There will be a chance to get a line on some of our three-year-olds during the coming week when the Spring Handicap of ,000 at three-quarters, the feature of next Thursdays card, and the Excelsior Handicap of ,500, for three-year-olds and over, will be decided. For the former, which is exclusively for three-year-olds, the nominations include Messenger. How Fair.. Zev, Bud Lerner, Tall Timber, Wilderness, Martingale, Dunlin. Cyclops, William Tell, Cherry Pie, Moonraker, Runelise, Bluemont, Miss Star, Chickvale, Battersea, Shuffle Along. Little Celt, McKee and a lot of other good ones. In the Excelsior, Zev. Bud Lerner, Enchantment, Chickvale, Cherry Pie, Flagstaff, Purity, Battersea and Rialto are the eligible three-year-olds. TEST FOR CHICKVALE. The Excelsior Handicap will be a good place to find out whether Chickvales recent victory over Exterminator was a fluke or not. It would afford an excellent oppor» tunity to give Enchanting, another Whitney candidate, a race in preparation for late engagements, for which he would be eligible. On account of being a gelding he and Cherry Pie are not eligible for the Belmont Stakes, Preakness Stakes and other prizes of note to be decided in the But Any three-year-old that is capable of winning the Excelsior Handicap will be entitled to the respect of a race-going public, as the eligibles among the older horses include ley Lag, Mad Hatter, Kai-Sang, Lucky Hour, Tryster, Bunting, Prince James, Devastation, Captain Alcock, Pillory, Olympus. Knobhie, Thunderclap. Brainstorm. Exodus. Emotion. Hephaistos, June Grass, Firebrand, and Lighter, all with good records to their credit. Tin; feature of Mondays card was the Garden City Selling Stakes, ,000 added, at five and a half furlongs, for two-year-olds, while on Tuesday the older horses will run for the Olympic Stakes, at three-quarters, ,000 added. The Montauk Stakes will be the feature on Wednesday. It is for two-year-olds, and has an added value of ,000. On Thursday the Spring Handicap, already referred to, will be the chief attraction. A fine program of overnight events will be offered by Mr. Edwards on Friday. Many of the best two-year-olds will parade in the ,000 Colorado Stakes, at five-eighths, on Saturday. Half a dozen owners are confident that the winner of this prize is now domiciled in their particular stable. There are 111 eligibles and a big field will no doubt go to the post. Brothers to Mad Hatter, Ijrchase and other stars and half-brothers to such cracks as Lucky Hour, Whiskaway, Chicle and Rickety are probable starters. «
