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Here and There on the Turf Kentucky Stakes Closing. Derby Prospects. Two-Year-Old Events. The Handicap Division. The Bennett bill is dead and Kentucky is assured of another two years of racing under, the present laws. The defeat of the "reform" measure in the Kentucky senate Thursday was more decisive than had been expected. Today is the closing date of the spring stakes of the Kentucky Jockey Club. Six stake races to be run at the Churchill Downs meeting and nine to be run at Latonias first 1924 meeting are listed. In addition to these, entries for the Queen City Handicap, to be run at the fall meeting at Latonia, will close today. All indications are that these stakes will show healthy increases over last years figures. The Kentucky Derby, with 150,000 added, is the most valuable and most important of these events. It is a foregone conclusion that every three-year-old of any promise whatever will be found in the entry list for the big Kentucky fixture. The Derby this year appears to be an open race. Sarazen, Wise Counsellor and St. James stand out as the best of the probable starters on the strength of their performances as two-year-olds, but there arc a number of other horses in the division which may be expected to give these stars a strong argument. Two-year-old form is not always an accurate guide to the relative abilities of three-year-olds. Already Derby eligibles, apart from the three named, are attracting attention from turf followers. Mad Play, the Rancocas Stable colt which forced Wise Counsellor to run a mile, in 1:37 to win the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall, is one of the dangerous candidates. F. J. Farrells Time Exposure, which raced his way to fame in Maryland last fall, is ; another which will not go unnoticed. Mad Play is a brother to Mad Hatter. Thus far he has shown no inclination toward the temperamental vagaries of his older relative. It is to be hoped that he will not. This colt is a son of Fair Play and Mad Cap. He has the best : of blood lines and his racing ability was amply demonstrated during the fall racing last year. He was not one of the big money winners among the two-year-olds, becausa trainer Hil-dreth made no attempt to rush him, but there is sound basis for considering him as a serious candidate for the coming three-year-old stakes. One of the most important changes made by the Kentucky Jockey Club in the announcement of stakes for the coming racing season was the increase in value of the Latonia Derby from 5,000 to 5,000 added. The Latonia Derby, except for the fact that it is a penalty and allowance race, is the closest approach in this country to the Epsom Derby. It is run over the correct distance of a mile and a half, and with its smaller value in previous years it has always attracted a field of good three-year-olds. By the time the Latonia Derby is run all of ; : the more valuable three-year-old events are in the past. The natural result of this is that the horses which have failed to meet the earlier tests successfully are naturally eliminated from the Latonia race. The cream of the division, with few or no cheap rivals to clutter up the field, should meet in this race. The increased endowment makes the race valuable enough to attract even the topnotch-ers of the division, and if the earlier three-year-old stakes leave the question of supremacy undecided, the Latonia Derby should serve to clarify the championship situation comparatively early. Next to the Kentucky Derby itself, the Kcn- tucky Oaks will be a center of interest during the Churchill Downs meeting. There wctc a number of promising fillies in action as two-year-clds last year and, whih 1923 was by no means what could be called a filly year among the two-year-olds, there were enough horses of good class in the developments to make the three-year-old filly stakes this year decidedly interesting. The filly stakes are of considerable importance, apart from their racing interest, in that they serve to separate the wheat from the chaff and act as a guide for the breeder. The value of a filly for breeding purposes depends largely upon her performances on the race course. While actual racing superiority does not always indicate similar success as a brood mare, it is nevertheless the best guide which the breeder has. While so much attention is being paid to the male side of the pedigree, it would be well for breeders to consider the brood mare question with no less care. The best stallion in the : world would be a failure in the stud if he were ! not mated with mares of corresponding excellence. Both of the two-year-old events to be run at the Churchill Downs spring meeting have ,000 added and are at four and a half furlongs. The Debutante Stakes is for two-year-old fillies, while the colts and geldings are provided for in the Bashford Manor Stakes. At Latonia there will be three stake races for two-year-olds. Each of these has ,000 added. The Clipsetta Stakes is for two-year-old fillies, at five-eighths, and the Harold Stakes is for colts and geldings, at the same distance. Then the Cincinnati Trophy, at three-quarters, will bring both sexes to the post. There is one 0,000 handicap for three-year-olds and over in the Latonia list. This is the Independence Handicap, which is always run on the Fourth of July, at a distance of a mile and three-sixteenths. The Churchill Downs meeting will have two such events, each with 0,000 added. The first of these is the Clark Handicap, at a mile and an eighth, which will probably feature the opening day of the meeting and the other is the Grainger Memorial Handicap, at mile and a quarter, which replaces the Kentucky Handicap of former years on the stake list. These races for older horses will possess unusual interest this year, because the handicap division, after falling into a state of decay, seems likely to enjoy renewed strength during the coming racing season. The return of some of the veterans of the division and the acquisi-1 tion of last years three-year-olds should give the 1924 handicap racing plenty of interest. " : l ; . - u a , -
