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TOURIST SEASON ON Visitors in Havana and at Oriental Park Increasing Daily. Gymkhana Unlucky to Lose" Double for W. A. Shea Debadou Easily. HAVANA, Cuba, Jan. 22 The tourist season is on in earnest here now and each day finds the number of visitors from the United States increasing at a rapid rate. Practically all of them are on pleasure bent, with a desire to enjoy thoroughbred racing as their chief objective. As a result tho present race meeting at Oriental Park is proving more successful than for several years past and it bids fair to attain a new high mark in every respect before its conclusion on the last Sunday in March. More than the usual amount of support for the racing has been afforded by the local people this winter. The leaders in social and financial circles on the island are to be found in the clubhouse far more frequently than in previous years, while on Saturdays and Sundays every box in the spacious grandstand is occupied. For tho past- two weeks the racing at the Marianao course has been conducted over a muddy or heavy track, but the adverso condition of the course has not detracted from the sport in the least. The weather has been of the freakish variety, as ordinarily it seldom rains during the winter months in Cuba. It is the general opinion that the rain has about spent itself now, and with a long dry spell in order the better grade of horses again will be seen in action in the daily feature race. When Oriental Park gets a drenching it requires several days for it to recover, and while it is heavy it is a diffcult track to negotiate. This has been responsible for the failure of the handicap horses to race as frequently as expected, but it served a good purpose as it gave many of them a much needed rest. MORE MUD RACING. It was thought that when the sport was resumed here today that a fast track would greet patrons. Such was not the case, another downpour again rendering the course muddy and giving the mud runners the advantage. There was much interest in the opening dash for two-j-ear-olds. The E. F. AVhitney pair, Gymkhana and Parmachence Belle were tho pronounced choices and the first mentioned was indeed unlucky to lose, Wrack-anna scoring by a nose. Tlie Whitney color-bearer would have won in another stride. The colors of W. A. Shea figured prominently during the afternoon. Horses from his stable won the second and third races. In the second Miriam Cooper was odds-on choice and made good as expected by her confident backers. The other successful Shea racer was the Tea Caddy filly Bessie Gershel, which easily beat five horses of her own age in rather sensational style. She led from the start, but went extremely wide entering the stretch, apparently throwing away the race. However, she came again and won going away. The mile and seventy yards of the fourth race proved to be a duel between the two veterans, Debadou and Blazonry, and they finished in the order named, a length separating them at the end. Debadou was eased up after leading throughout. W. G. Kennedy, who was in partnership with his brother, H. J. Kennedy, in the ownership of some horses, arrived in Havana Saturday morning aboard the Laconia, He is on a trip around the world and visited the course with several of his fellow tourists.
