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Here and There on the Turf Loss of My Dear. The Young Jumpers. The Walden Stakes. Bowies Good Prospects. The breaking down of Fred Musantes remarkable mare My Dear and her forced retirement has come at a most unfortunate time. This sterling daughter of King James and Bettie Landon has been at it a long time in her honorable career on the turf and after her performance in the Bowie Handicap Tuesday gave her a new importance for her engagement in the two miles and a quarter of the Pimlico Cup, which is the closing day feature of the Maryland Jockey Club meeting Monday. It was some time ago that Musante offered to run My Dear against any filly or mare for 0,000 a side, and there was one mare, Hal Price Headleys Chacolet, that seemed to have a better chance than any other to take up the challenge. The pair met in the Bowie Handicap and My Dear, with an advantage in the weights, administered a sound beating to the Kentucky mare. The Pimlico Cup was to have been in a measure a return meeting and that would have lent considerable additional interest to the big race. It is to be hoped that My Dear will be saved for the stud. She may possibly be a valuable addition to the ranks of the brood mares and mated with Man o War should give her a proper introduction as a matron. Too often the mare that is a brilliant performer on the track proves a failure in the stud, but it is hoped that My Dear will not go the way of some of the others that made glorious racing history. It is probable that Admiral Cary T. Gray-eons My Own, the brother to My Dear, will take her place to uphold the fame of the family in the Pimlico Cup. This good colt did not race within many pounds of his true form in the mile and six furlongs of the Latonia Championship when both be and Zev were thoroughly, beaten by Carl Wiedemanns In Memoriam, and the intention is to afford him a chance to redeem himself Monday. The retirement of Zev for the season gives no chance for My Own to have another try against the Rancocas Stable champion, but a victory in the two miles and a quarter would do much to restore My Own to his place and wipe out the one defeat he has suffered all through the racing season. Even with Zev an absentee My Own will find plenty of opposition in the running of the Cup, and it gives every promise of furnishing a worthy renewal of the rich stake. While the Elkridge Steeplechase, run Friday, at Pimlico, could hardly be called a truly run race, when both Top Notch and Ethereal Blue went around the inside wing of the fourth jump, it was a race to suggest that these young jumpers will develop into good-class horses. Autumn Bells still has something to learn. But he handled himself well. St. Lawrence gave a good account of himself and stood a long drive gamely, and both Tassel and Rock Bass went well. There will be something of a contest between the foreign-bred and the American-bred jumpers next year, and the performance of these young jumpers is of particular interest this fall. Ethereal Blue had schooled brilliantly for the Elkridge, and it is probable that she was best in the field that went to the post. She was hardly to blame for ducking around the inner wing, for she was forced out by Top Notch. She was going fast at the time and jumping fearlessly, but the race was too young when the fourth jump was reached to afford a real line on her two-mile quality. Her previous winning race at Laurel pretty thoroughly established her as a truly good jumping filly, and it was indeed unfortunate that she should have been a victim in the Elkridge. Altogether the young jumpers that are making ready for the 1924 season are a promising band, and they should do their share in the rehabilitation of cross-country racing. When the Maryland Jockey Club ran its Walden Stakes in two divisions, giving away 0,000 in each, it was just following out the liberal policy for which this famous old club has been noted. A division of the race was decided upon to afford the horsemen a fair chance to try for the prize. With twenty-eight named to start it would have been inevitabh that many of the eligibles would have drawn post pesitions that would have been a serious handicap. In fact, it would have been impossible to start all in one lina had they all accepted the post positions assigned. But when a second race was decided upon to take care of them all the public had an added attraction and the horsemen had a second chance for the big prize. Last year there was the same procedure in the running of the 0,000 Pimlico Futurity, and on one other occasion the Preakness Stakes in the spring was run in two divisions. The Maryland Jockey Club has ever been mindful of the best in the turf and has always been particularly liberal since the sport in Maryland has been put on a flourishing basis. This, double Walden, .is just one more evidence of what the sportsmen of the Maryland Jockey Club are doing for the American turf. Each day it becomes more certain that the racing at Bowie this fall will be better than ever before in the history of the Southern Maryland Association. Some of the best stables now racing at Pimlico have engaged stabling for their horse3 and, in fact, it has been impossible to take care of all tha applications and several strings will have to find quarters at the Bsnning track and send horses over to meet their engagements as they arrive. This has been done successfully in past yeaTs, and the horse specials from the old District of Columbia track will be larger for the coming meeting than ever before.
