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Here and There on the Turf The Winter Champions. Delante and Harry D. Seth Has a Fame. Charities of the Turf. It is frequent that winter racing brings some thoroughbred development from a rather unexpected quarter, and this year it is B. F. McClains Delante that has come right out into the spotlight. The four-year-old son of Seth Keep Moving, by Yankee, and bred by B. F. Jones has five in a row to his credit since the opening of the meetings at New Orleans, and, when it is remembered that these victories include both the New Years and thz Christmas Handicaps, his achievements have real worth. Delante has wen through all sorts of going and has beaten the best that could be brought against him. He has been started seven times since the New Orleans racing season opened on Thanksgiving Day at Jefferson Park, and his last five races have seen him the winner. It was thought that he had reached a bit high in his handicap when he was asked to ; take up 116 pounds, for it was nine pounds I j more than he had been required to take up in any of his string of victories, but he carried! the weight like a good class horse to be the ! winner. And that is not all. Delante was sent to i New Orleans from Omaha and, for that reason, j was not considered as being of the class that i is expected from Maryland or New York, but i he beat horses from each of the big section;; and gave away weight to seven of the fifteen ; that tried for the prize. This same Seth that sent Delante to the races has been a wonderfully successful sire, : when his comparatively limited opportunities are taken into consideration. He is a son of I Adam and Purity and was brought to the races i in 1908 when he raced for the Newcastle i Stable, then a powerful New York racing con : federacy in which Thomas. Welsh was both a : partner and the trainer. 1 Before the end of his two-year-old season he I was sold to J. M. Shilling and in due course found his way to other sections until finally B. A. Jones obtained him and he has accom- plished more as a stock horse than he ac- : complished on the track. It is a peculiarity of the progeny of Seth that, probably without exception, they race well through muddy or I heavy going. They are also horses that wear exceedingly well and, while they have not been i great in any year, they have been winners of I many races. It would seem now that probably Delante j is the best Seth of the number in racing, i When he began his fourth year so auspiciously s it is natural to expect that he has the wearing i quality for which this stock is famed. i At Tijuana a year ago there was the most c remarkable -of -winter developments1 in C. B. t Irwins Harry D., a nine-year-old son of Barns- 1 dale Turnaway, by Nirurod, which was bred J by Mrs. S. Watkins. This old gelding, dur- i ing the Tijuana meeting of 1922-23, was the t ; I j ! i j i i ; : I i i : : 1 I : I i I j i s i i c t 1 J i t winner of fourteen race and on only two occasions was he out of ihz money. In that remarkable campaign he was eight consecutive times winner. Harry D. had been reserved for the Tijuana racing by Mr. Irwin, for he was not raced from March of 1922 until December 1 of the sani2 year. In that race he was unplaced. He followed that by racing second and then came a string of four victories. From that bc- ginning he went on to his score that possibly ihas not been equalled for a like number of racing days. But Harry D. was only a "Hindoo" at Tijuana and, wrhile he was well-nigh unbeatable over thz Mexican track, he was essentially a sprinter and he was skillfully campaigned. Barnsdde, the sire of Harry D., is a stock horse that is not well known, though he is bred along stout lines. He is a son of Allan A. Dale that raced so well for Maj. Thomas McDowell, and Countess Irma, another that also raced for the Kentucky sportsman. Harry D. made a great record for himself at Tijuana, but the accomplishments of Delante seem to count for more. Of course Harry D. had reached an age when most horses are through racing when he made his great winning record and that made it a bit remarkable, but he was not opposed by such horses as have been beaten by the son of Seth. There are many quiet charities of the turf of which the public know nothing and no sport does more in this direction than racing. There never was a "drive" for any worthy charity that did not reap a rich harvest from the horsemen, and these do not begin to compare with the charity that is dons along different lines, a bounty of which there is nothing known. One of the societies banded together three years ago that has been doing a great good is thz Queens County Aid Society. This is composed of sportsmen of the turf exclusively and James F. Johnson is its president, with John G. Cavanagh secretary and treasurer. One of the big accomplishments of the society last year was a campaign for funds for :.th6 Mary Immaculate Hospital at Jamaica. For this worthy cause a committee of which John Healcy was chairman collected 5,000 in subscriptions. This was used to endow a turf ward in the new addition which is to be constructed in the new hospital that is to cost ,500,000. The society comes into 1924 with a balance of 8,734.47 in the bank after all its various donations in 1923, and this amount insures the carrying on of the many charities for which it was formed. The manner in which the two-year-cld races have filled at the winter tracks affords a good line on the vast number of two-year-olds that are in training already. Before long it is probable that a Black Gold or a Buster Keaton will show himself. These racers are remarkable for consistency when they learn how to run, and it is safe to predict that it will not take many races to find a good one at each one of the three winter racing grounds.
