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Here and There on the Turf Kentuckys Closing. Tremendous Sums Distributed. Changing the Belmont." Prosperity of the Sport. Subscription Jumpers. Racing in Kentucky for the 1923 season -will go out in the wel-known justly famous blase of glory at Churchill Downs when Zev and In Memoriam have another quarrel over the mile and a quarter distance and the juveniles will battle over the mile distance for the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Either one of these big events will be a season end offering of tremendous importance, and it is remarkable that such glorious turf events may be had in the latter end of November. It has been a wonderful year for the turf wherever horses have been raced, and 1923 will ever stand but for many of the biggest things that have ever been accomplished in th2 sport. It is a year of racing that brought a new high record for turf winnings by one stable when Harry F. Sinclairs powerful establishment topped the figures of 97,342 earned by Jamss R. Keenes horses in 1907. When Zev won his latest race for the Rancocas Stable and Stanwix took the Walden Stakes it brought the winnings to 5407,174. This same Zev by piling up 76,663 in his brilliant turf career became the greatest American money winner, wresting that high place from Man o "War. And it will be impossible to tell cf the 1923 season without the name of the son of The Finn and Miss Kearney appearing in almost every paragraph. It was this same Zev that t.k the measure of Papyrus in the first International race ever staged here. When the Churchill Downs meeting is over and Zev and In Memoriam have met there may be another substantial amount to be added to the winnings of both Zev and the Rancocas Stable, but no matter what the result this great cdt and his stable will stand at the top for 1923. It has been a racing season when princely winnings were made, for the money distribu-tion has been the greatest in racing history, and when the returns are all in for 1923 it will be found that there will ba another new; record established. In 1922 the total distribution reached the high mark of ,096,215. It is not known just what the increase will amount to, for there are still some important races to be decided, but that abundant mark will be exceeded by many thousands of dollars. All of this tells eloqusntly of the progress of the greatest of all sports. It shows why the thoroughbred market is such a strong and active one. It means everything to the breeding interests in this, for a thoroughbred is worth what he is capable of winning on the race course first and then he still has his value as a stock horse. In these days of liberal purses and stakes the good horse has b2tter chances than ever were enjoyed before. The race course is the only testing ground for the thoroughbred horse and his success in racing fixes his value for stock purposes. That is the reason for the big prizes. The big prizes only become pos- sible by reason of the patronage, and thus it all returns to the beginning that the turf has a stronger hold on the public than it has ever enjoyed before. Racing is verily back to where it belongs, and just as long as the sport holds this public patronage and public confidence it will continue to grow until it becomes a national institution of vast importance, not only as a sport but as an incentive for the production of the best horses in the world. There has been an important change made in the historic old Belmont Stakes for 1926. The nominations to this old main feature of the Westchester Racing Association are to close for now-weanlings on November 28, and the changes are that instead of being a 0,000 guaranteed race it becomes one of 5,000 added value. Another change is that instead cf being over the mile and thrce-eigthhs route it becomes a full mile and a half. This change makes the old stake race more closely resemble the Epsom Derby than ever before. The distance is the same and the value is approximately the same. While the Belmont Stakes was a guaranteed stake race the generous response of the horsemen has made it indeed a cheap offering for the association, for the nominators were practically racing for their own money. This changing of the stake to an added money feature should make its 1926 value run from 5,000 to 5,000. The change will be a welcome one to breeders and owners, and it is one on which the Westchester Racing Association is to be congratulated. It would be well if then; were no guaranteed stakes, as is the rule in both Kentucky and Maryland. The added money need Dot even approach the sums hung up in either of these sections, but addsd money is always the ideal offering and any change in that direction is to be commended. The various other stakes that make up the Westchester Association list, to be closed November 28, are all of the added money variety, and there is no better evidence of the prosperity of the sport at the big Nassau County course. The only excuse for a guaranteed stake is the poverty of the association that offers the race or penuriousness and they will never be welcome offerings to breeders and horsemen. Guarantees of 0,000 or 0,000 sound well, but they do not mean much. Seldom indeed has a guaranteed stake in the past half dozen years cost an association as much as an overnight purse. The horsemen have been carrying the load, and 0,000 added is an infinitely more liberal prize than 0,000 guaranteed. Guaranteed stakes are becoming fewer each season in New York, and it is possible that all of the 1924 stake races that are yet to be closed will be added money rather than guaranteed money prizes. Racing has come back to a prosperity that should forever banish guaranteed money in New York, just as it is barred in both Kentucky and Maryland. The imported jumpers that were brought; over by the subscription plan have been distributed among the subscribers. All that remains is to make these same horses ready for the steeplechases that may be offered next year. The foreign-bred horses that have raced this year have been of a quality to thoroughly satisfy, and it is expected that many more good ones will be found in the subscription shipment. The entire fund was not used in the purchase of these horses and the surplus, which amounts to a considerable sum, will be used to offer races exclusively for the subscription horses. There are enough of them to furnish no end of sport, and it is probable that the cross-country racing will be better in 1924 than it ever has been before in this country.
