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Here and There on the Turf Macomber Buying Campaign. The Juvenile Champion. Three-Year-Old Supremacy. Match Racing .Important. Close of New York Season. The intensive buying campaign which A. K. Macomber is conducting abroad is certainly .having its effect on the success of the California owners European turf fortunes. The successes which were expected but never materialized after the purchase of the vast thoroughbred holdings of the late W. K. Vander-bilt by Mr. Macomber are now coming the way of the American stable. The purchase of Parth from M. Goculdas resulted in a Macomber victory in the Prix de lArc de Triomphe, one of the most coveted of the French autumn races. Then Rose Prince, purchased from the Baron Baeyens, won the Cesarewitch in England in the colors of the American owner. This Cesarewitch victory was probably the most important victory for the Macomber colors since the purchase of the Vanderbilt thoroughbreds. The news of Friday that Macomber has purchased two yearlings of good breeding and three mares, in- i eluding the Oaks winner, Snow Marten, in England indicates that he is planning still further expansion of his racing and breeding activities in England and France. Tte victory of Sarazen over Happy Thoughts at Laurel Friday comes close to settling the championship question in the juvenib division. St. James, the only really serious rival of Mrs. Vanderbilts sensational gelding, is out of training for the season, and so far as he is concerned the title should go to Sarazen by default. Sarazen led all the way in the match race with Happy Thoughts. The hitherto unbeaten filly was outclassed and, like the other two-year-olds of lesser note that have fallen before the rush of Sarazen to the top, was unabb to make the gelding extend himself. Mrs. Vanderbilts purchase of the unbeaten youngster during the Saratoga meeting was one of the master strokes of the waning season. The colors of this sportswomans Fair Stable have been carried by this youngster only, and he has consistently saved them from knowing defeat. The championship of the three-year-old division should be settled next Saturday when Zev and My Own are scheduled to start in the Latonia Championship Stakes, at a mile and three-quarters. If these two are actually brought together the winner will have earned the right to head the division. Thus 1923 will close with the championships of the two-year-old and three-year-old divisions fairly well defined, a situation which has become rather unusual in recent years. Last year there was no champion in either division. As soon as a two-year-old or a three-year-old. would win his way into a position of eminence along would come some new challenger for honors to defeat it. The season closed with a chaotic shouting of conflicting claims, and there was no champion in either division.. There is much to recommend the match race as a means of settling such questions as that of supremacy between Sarazen and Happy Thoughts. An unbeaten gelding and an unbeaten filly in the division probably would have had no chance to meet if the Laurel management had not arranged the race that was run Friday. Whatever might have happened to the two as three-year-olds the question of their relative abilities as juveniles would have remained a mooted question. Any raca that will settle a question of this kind once and for all is a valuable feature of a racing season. It is not always, however, that the season will develop two youngsters whose records are so closely matched whose positions at the top of their division are so well established. If such had not been the case the race would have been pointless. The New York racing season will come to a close with the closing of the Empire City track next Wednesday. There will be two days of racing under the auspices of the United Hunts Racing Association after that. The season of 1923 on New York tracks has been a successful one in spite of the fact that the stakes of the autumn period have been poorly patronized by the owners because of richer opportunities in Maryland. The shortage of good handicap horses has been another drawback, not peculiar, of course, to the New York courses. There were only three overnight entries for the 15,000 Yorktown Handicap at Yonkers Saturday, and these horses could hardly be considered of near the first rank. Of. course, the 5,000 Washington Handicap at Laurel was a strong counter attraction, but the horses that faced the barrier in that race, with one or two- exceptions, were only of comparatively poor grade. It is possible that ths three-year-olds of thi3 season will strengthen the handicap division of next year, but it hardly, seems likely that there will be enough good horses to replace the ones that will close their racing careers this season. The handicap division has been a growing problem, and unless some remedy is found for the present shortage of good horses three years old and over it may be necessary to reduce the stake events offered under handicap conditions in the future. Indications are that horses of better qualities than have recently been engaged in winter racing in this country will take part in the coming meeting at New Orleans. Mose Gold-blatt will take a large division of the Harry Payne Whitney stable to the Crescent City for the winter campaign. Jefferson Livingston will send twenty horses South in charge of trainer Al Kirby. The Audley Farm Stable of the Jones Brothers will be on the ground, and Benjamin Block will send his horses South for the first time. In the consignments which these owners will campaign at Jefferson Park and the Fair Grounds are a number of horses which have been competing in the stake races of the regular season. There are a few horses of really high class in the number. There is no question that the advent of these more important stables will lend new color and new importance to the coming winter racing season, and the racing public of the South will have an opportunity to see racing of real interest. The rich purses and stakes offered by the Fair Grounds and Jefferson Park managements make it worth while to keep these horses of the better grade in training through the winter, and there is no real reason why the owner of these thoroughbreds should not take this opportunity to increase the profits of the season.
