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JAMAICAS SPRING PROGRAM 4 Eighteen Well-Endowed Stake Events Aggregate 0,000 : Excelsior Handicap and Some of Its Interesting History Taumonok First of Big Sprinting Fcatnres of Tear. NEW YORK", N. Y., Feb. 10. The Metropolitan Jockey Club, whose course at Jamaica is one of the most commodious and attractive on the Jockey Club circuit, has a strong array of fixtures to be run off during its spring meeting, which are due to close on February 25 at its offices, 50 Court street, Brooklyn. The features are eighteen in number and aggregate 0,000. At the top of the list is the Excelsior Handicap, carrying a value of ,500. This is a test of a mile and a sixteenth and was inaugurated in 1903, when it was won by William C. Wliitneys brown four-year-old horse Blackstock, by Hanover Mannie Gray, by Enquirer. Blackstock was a half-brother to Domino, and was ridden by the then sensational jockey Grover Cleveland Fuller, and was the medium of a betting coup that is still being talked about. Blackstock had been forgotten until recently when it developed that he was the sire of Mentor, which in turn got the sensational two-year-old, Wise Counsellor, sold last year for 6,000. Perhaps the most sensational race for the Excelsior was in 1905 when Santa Catalina was placed first after the disqualification of Preen which had swerved near the finish and thrown three or four competitors, including the crack mare Witful, into the fence. Wit-ful ran in the colors of S. C. Hildreth and was ridden by Fuller. Neither mare nor jockey ever recovered from the effects of tho accident. Many good horses including Roamer, George Smith, Naturalist and Boniface have won the Excelsior, the victor last year being the brown horse Blazes, owned by J. S. Cosden of Baltimore. FIXE ARRAY OF STAKES. Other events for three-year-olds and over that close at the same time as the Excelsior are the Kings County Handicap, ,500. added, at a mile and a sixteenth ; the Long Beach Handicap, ,500 added, over a similar distance ; the Paumonok Handicap, of a value of ,000, at three-quarters mile ; Rainbow Handicap, ,500 added, at three-quarter mile ; Garden City Claiming Stakes, ,000 added, at one mile and a sixteenth ; Newtown Stakes claiming, ,000 added, at three-quarter mile, and the Olympic Stakes claiming, ,000 added, at three-quarter mile. The Paumonok is the first of the big sprinting races of the year and has never failed to bring about a good race. It has tho same relationship to the Metropolitan program as the Toboggan Handicap bears at Belmont Park. Among the winners in previous years are many speedy horses. Zev was first home last year, Avhile the list includes Dunboyne, Flags, Old Koenig, On Watch, Coquette and Tryster, the latter finishing in front of a good field in 1922 with 125 pounds up, covering the distance in 1 :ll75, which is the record for the race. Continued on eighth page. JAMAICAS SPRING PROGRAM Continued from first page. "When Coquette won in 1915 in the colors of the late Matthew Corbett, who subsequently became president of the Metropolitan Jockey Club, she defeated . Harmonicon, which had come from England with a tremendous reputation as a sprinter. 1 Four features are offered for three-year-olds exclusively, with the Stuyvesant Handicap, ,000 added, at a mile, holding prida of place in the matter of value. The Southampton, ,500 added, at a mile and a sixteenth, the Spring Handicap of a value of ,000, at three-quarters, and the Highland Stakes claiming, ,000 added, at three-quarters, complete the list. VALUABLE JUVENILE FEATURES. There are half a dozen fine offerings for two-year-olds. The most important, from paint of value, is the Youthful of ,000, at five and a" half furlongs, though the Colorado at five-eighths mile with a value oCj ,000 presses it closely. The Rosedale, ,000 value, at five-eighths mile, offers a fine chanco for owners of promising fillies to start tho campaign with a balance on the right sido of the ledger. Tho other stakes for two-year-olds are the Greenfield claiming, ,- 000 added, at five and one-half furlongs . , Montauk claiming, ,000 added, at five and one-half furlongs, and Suffolk claiming, ,000 added, at five eighths mile. As Jamaica opens the racing season hereabouts there is always a lot of enthusiasm, at the meeting which begins, as a rule, in tho early days of May. It is a period when the. weather, as a rule, is good and a bumper program may be confidently looked for by-President Street and his associates.
