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Here and There on the Turf New York Season. Stars Lost to Racing. Three -Year-Old Survivors. The Latonia Championship. With the victory of George Choos Feysun in the last race at the Yonkers track of the Enpire City Racing Association Wednesday there came to an end a New York season that has extended for 154 days. That is not counting the two days of the United Hunts Racing Association that preceded the regular racing season and the two days that are to come at Belmont Park when the same association will entertain Saturday and on election day. It has bean a tremendously successful season from the beginning, and much has been done to advance the turf in New York. The international race between Zev and Papyrus will always make the 1923 racing season one remarkable in the history of the American turf, and, even though as a spectacle the race amounted to little when Zev galloped home such an easy winner, it is a race that opens the way for other such international races. Just whether or not any other British sportsmen will follow the fine example of Ben Irish and send a colt over to try again for the cup is problematical, but it is altogether likely that should Mr. Irish be fortunate enough to develop another Derby winner he will have another try to wipe out the defeat of this year. As a matter of fact there were many excuses for the beating of Papyrus in such hollow style, and it is likely that any other invader will profit by the fate of the son of Tracery. But that is only one reason that the season of 1923 has been a remarkable one in New York. The attendance has never been better, and there has been a steadily growing interest in the sport that speaks volumes for its continued prosperity. The year has seen the first of two-year-old stakes in the New York section over a mile distance. The success of these has been such that it is safe to predict that in coming years there will be a greater number and more valuable races of a like nature for the two-year-olds in the fall. It is unfortunate that during the course of the year so many of the good horses have gone amiss and been forced into retirement, but good ones go by the board every year, though possibly not as many as have been laid away this year. The handicap division is always the one that is hardest hit by the breaking down of horses, but among the three-year-olds there have been some that went wrong when they seemed to have every chance for a full measure of greatness. In this particular the champion Zev has been wonderfully fortunate. Blessed with remarkably sturdy underpinning, the only time that he was laid away was after he met with a slight injury while being fitted for the Latonia Derby. At that time Hildreth said that this injury was so slight that in a colt of lesser value with few big engagements he would not even stop his training, but Zev had too much at stake to be trained when not entirely sound. This resulted in the son of The Finn and -Uis3 Kearney not appearing at the post all through the Saratoga meeting. That is why Zev and My Own were never brought together, for Admiral Graysons colt was not abb to fill his engagements earlier in the year,, when Zev was piling up money and reputation. Now both Zev and My Own are fit and ready, and the prospect of their meeting in the Latonia Championship Stakes Saturday gives that rich race tremendous importance. It comes at a season when the championship should be decided, and with favorable weather and track conditions it is a race that will settle all doubts as to the best three-year-old of the year. While on the question of the three-year-olds there were two other great prospects that were unable to finish out the season. These are Walter J. Salmons Vigil and Richard T. Wilsons Wilderness, both incidentally in the care of Thomas J. Healey. Vigil gave evidence of : his good class when he was the winner of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico from such good ones as General Thatcher, Rialto, Chickvale, Tall Timber, Hobgoblin, Better Luck, Bar-bary Bush, Blanc Seing, Martingale, Sallys Alley, Zev and Goshawk. These names are given in the order of the finish of the Preakness Stakes, and it gives an idea of just how far Zev was beaten on that occasion. It was the tme defeat of the champion all the year, but the field tells eloquently of the three-year-old promise on May 12, when the Preakness Stakes was run. Wilderness was not of the field, but he had proved himself even before that race and later he raced in a fashion to warrant the belief that he might be the eventual champion. Right through that field Rialto and Zev are about the only ones that are still hard at it and racing to the promise that was held out at that time. Then take the twenty-one that raced in the Kentucky Derby and again it is found that a small percentage of them are still going along. These are Zev, In Memoriam and Rialto, all three of which will be seen under colors at Latonia Saturday. It is natural that there should be a considerable weeding out of horses in every age division between May and No- Ivember, but this year there seems to be a greater number that have gone by the. board than has been usual. But it has been a great racing season in New York, and there are plenty of big things yet to come in both Kentucky and Maryland. With the running of the Latonia Championship almost at hand interest grows in the big event. It really is the biggest thing in a three-year-old way that has been staged all through the long racing season, and more real interest is attached to the meeting of Zev and My Own than there was in the meeting of Zev and Papyrus. Both celts promise to come to the post fit and ready, and the fact that the Championship Stakes 13 at weight-for-age makes it an ideal .championship race. And while the wide interest is centered in these two colts both Rialto and In Memoriam have many stanch admirers and each may have plenty to say in the decision. James Rowe has all along contended that Rialto has all that a champion should have, and his recent victory in the 5,000 Washington Handicap at Laurel tells of his present condition. In Memcriam has been coming up to the race in great fashion, and altogether, should the weather be favorable and the track in good condition, Latonia is sure to present a race that will never be forgotten.
