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NEW YORK TRAINERS Eagerly Await the Change From Shed Work to the Open. Horses at Long Island Track in Fine Health In Memoriam -in Eastern Handicaps. NEW YORK, N. Y., March 2. With the opening of the racing season in this state less than two months aAvay, trainers of thoroughbreds are longing for the days when they can substitute exercise in the open for shed work. Those interested in the turf and who get their recreation with the thoroughbred, share the eagerness of individuals Avhose livelihood is gained through the care and preparation of horses for those contests that point the Avay to excellence. In no previous year that can be recalled haAe horses been as forward as they are at present, due to the open weather Avhich prevailed until recently. Many thoroughbreds at Belmont Park, Jamaica and Aqueduct were out of doors CAery day, either under saddle or loose in paddocks until the recent cold snap Avith its accompaniment of ice and snoAV. Of late exercise has largely been confined to the sheds. As a result horses are in fine health. There is no report of sickness anyAvhere in the East and trainers are hoping for an early spring. The manner in Avhich the stakes of the Aarious racing associations haAre filled has encouraged the belief that the season Avhich will be inaugurated at Jamaica on April 29 Avill be among the best ever held on the courses operating under the jurisdiction ofi the Jockey Club. Though seAeral events oC the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses Avill not close till March 10, the quality of the entries received for other fixtures to be run at the Spa and at the other courses, the last of AAhich have just come to hand for Aqueduct and Jamaica are a guarantee that the usual high quality of sport will be seen by the up-state fbl-loAvers of the thoroughbred during August. WELCOME TO HANDICAP DIVISIOX. The presence of the names of Exterminator and In Memoriam in the list of candidates for eastern races over a long distance of ground is Avelcomed Avhere racing enthusiasts in this part of the country foregather. The first named long ago endeared himself to lovers of the turf. He is the embodiment of all that is excellent in a race horse and it is a. thousand pities that he is a gelding. As for In Memoriam he will be a much needed addition to our handicap diAision, which has for the past two years been all too meagre. That Exterminator recently won a race at Tijuana must not be accepted as proof that he Avill ever be the Exterminator who gave nine pounds to Grey Lag or fifteen pounds to Boniface. Both of these Avere good race horses the first named a real top-notch performer, and the latter a campaigner of such enduring quality that he is Avorthy of being enrolled in the same company as the JCilmer AAarrior. Exterminator and Boniface knew each other, and it Avas a battle to the death Ahenever they met Both were game to the core and it Avas usually a matter of inches betAAeen them at the finish of a race. ZEV YERSUS IX MEMORIAM. While it is generally admitted that Zev Avas not at the top of his form Avhen he raced against In Memoriam last fall, there is ample ground for the belief that the Western colt is a race horse away beyond the ordinary. Mr. Weidemann thought In Memoriam was Zevs superior last fall, and he is showing the courage of his convictions in sending his horse East to beard the lion in his den. The first meeting between the rivals in the East Avill be of the greatest interest, as the general public by common consent has marked these four-year-olds as the chief reliance of the United States to stay the progress of Kpinard, should Mr. Werlheimer decide to send the French champion to this country next autumn. The public has always regarded In Memoriam as a stayer, but Colonel Matt Winn, during a recent Aisit in New York, said that Mr. Weidemann Avould have preferred a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter on the occasion of the Louisville race Avith Zev last fall. Horses by McGee as a rule are rated as stayers, though as a matter of fact McGee himself Avas at his best at a mile, while Exterminator, the best of his get, could sprint Avith the best of them when trained for races of that character. That ho can stay, too, is all the more to his credit. It proves once more, as in the case of Voter, Sundridgo and other successful sires, that long-distance horses of quality are frequently-sired by stallions Avhose forte Avas speed.
