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GLORIES OF THE PAST Call of Entries for Brooklyn Handicap Brings Memories of Old. . Some Interesting Reminiscenses of Earlier New York Racing Aqueducts Stake Array, t NEW YORK, N. Y., Feb. 11. The announcement of the list of stakes to be offered for the spring season of 1921 by the Queens County Jockey Club, entries for which will close with secretary Rehberger on February 25, recalls memories of the Brooklyn Handicap, which as usual will be the chief of the events for three-year-olds and over at Aqueduct, just as it was at the Gravesend Course when it was the home of. the Brooklyn Jockey Club. It was in 1887 that the first Brooklyn. Handicap was decided, and the throng that came from far and near filled the Grave-send Course on the Ocean Parkway to tho limit of its accommodations. In those days steam cars carried the bulk of the crowd to the races, but the horse was the medium cC transportation for other thousands, and the. trips to and from the Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach courses were something to be recalled with pleasure by the old guard of turf followers of the present day. Much of the ground between Prospect Parle and the sea, now built upon, was a market garden when the Messrs. Jerome, Bradford, Kip, Lawrence, Fellowes and other movins? spirits in the world of racing formed tha Coney Island Jockey Club, bought a tract oC land near Sheepshead Bay and converted .t into one of the beauty spots of the country. They opened a great series of stakes, notably the Suburban Handicap, which was first run for in 1SS4. BROOKLYN JOCKEY CLUB PRIZES. Shortly afterward the Dwyer brothers, Philip and Michael F., James Shevlin, Louis Behman, Richard Hyde, Charles Cooper and other residents of Brooklyn bought the old Prospect Park trotting course, made it a proving ground for thoroughbreds and launched the Brooklyn Jockey Club. On days when the Brooklyn, Suburban, Futurity, Realization and other great features were being offered, the roads from New York Xo these courses were alive with horse-drawn vehicles. Gay coaching parties shared the road with every other type of carriage and wagon, the smart four-in-hands and tha nimble-footed roadsters hitched to Brewster wagons giving the scene a jaunty smartness and individuality of character regrettable by its absence to many in this period when motor cars of various types come from tho factory in exact duplicates. The drive through Prospect Park and down the long boulevard with its double row of elms on a spring day or in the early part i of September was refreshing to the senses I and sharpened the appetite for the good I things that came later from hampers or tho I kitchens of the clubhouses, where a membership carried the privilege of a luncheon. It was a day made for racing that the first Brooklyn Handicap was run. Though the next offering will be the thirty-sixth decision of the event, the finish of that raca i has never been surpassed. Dry Monopole, Blue Wing and Hidalgo passing the judges I stand heads apart in the order named. Tha former was owned by Samuel Emery, n, I well-known soldier of fortune of that" period. He was ridden by Andy McCarty, who was afterward killed at Morris Park when the gray filly Little Nell bolted into the fenco with him. Blue Wing was the property oC 1 the coal baron, S. S- Brown, of Pittsburgh. Blue Wing was ridden by "Snapper" Garrison, who will race a string of horses in his own colors this coming season. Hidalgo was owned by J. B. Haggin, the copper king of California. Andrew Hamilton, a colored jockey of that day, piloted Hidalgo, which was a son of Joe Daniels and foaled in California. - NOTABLE BROOKLYN HANDICAPS. ! There have been many notable contests for the Brooklyn, which was transferred to Aqueduct when the Brooklyn Jockey Club was merged with the Queens County Jockey Club. AVinners of the race include such stars as The Bard, Tenny, Sir Walter. Ornament, Kin-ley Mack, Irish Lad, King James, Fitz Herbert, Whisk Broom II., Friar Rock, Cudgel, Grey Lag and Exterminator. The latter beat Grey Lag in 1922 with 135 pounds in the saddle and scored with the greatest impost any horse has ever carried to victory in the race. It is expected that the Brooklyn of 1921 will get the best of the thoroughbreds in training in the three-year-old and over division. The race has a value of 0,000 and is over a mile and an eighth, the distance having been reduced an eighth from its original route because of the peculiar shape of tho Aqueduct course, which makes it the best iu the United States for a race at that distance. The other fixtures for the spring meeting are eighteen in number for flat races and three for steeplechasers. Those for three- Continued on second page. GLORIES OF THE PAST Continued from first pace. year-olds and over, aside from the Brooklyn, are the Carter Handicap, ,000 added, at seven-eighths; the Brookdale Handicap, ,000 added, at one mile and an eighth; the Queens County Handicap, ,000 added, at a mile; the Speculation Handicap, ,000 added, at one mile; the Myrtle Claiming Stakes, ,000 added, one mile, and the Rockaway Claiming Stakes, ,000 added, at three-quarters. The stakes for three-year-olds exclusively are the Dwyer, ,000 added, at one mile and an eighth; the Carlton, ,000 added, at one mile; the Broadway, ,500 added, one mile arid a sixteenth; the Gazelle, for fillies exclusively, ,500 added, at one mile and a sixteenth, and the Union Claiming Stakes, 52,000 added, at seven-eighths. The Dwyer and Carlton are .among the big three-year-old stakes of spring racing. The two-year-old events are seven in number. The Great American and Tremont each have a value of. 0,000. The former is at five-eighths and the latter at three-quarters cf a mile. The Hudson, ,500 added, is at five-eighths, the Clover and Astoria, both for fillies exclusively, have an added value of ,500. They are at five-eighths. The othei events for juveniles are the Canarsie Claiming Stakes, ,000 added, at five-eighths and the Woodhaven Claiming Stakes, ,000 added, at five-eighths. The steeplechases are the Glendale Handicap. ,500 added, at about two and one-half miles, the "Winfield Handicap, ,500 added, at about two miles and the Bayside Selling. ,000 added, at about two miles. While the Queens County Jockey Club was well to the fore during the life of Philip J. Dwyer, who was the president of the Brooklyn Jockey Club from the time of its foundation and of the Queens County Jockey Out to his death, his successor, James Shevlin, has kept the organization abreast of the times. During his management the improvements at Aqueduct have been extensive and the stake program has been made most attractive, appealing alike to horsemen and public.
