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BELMONT PARK NEWS Trainers Take Advantage of Fine Exercising Course. St. James a Regal Colt of Grand Appearance Sarazen Small, but Every Inch a Race Horse. NEW YORK, N. Y., March S. The local race courses are alive with horses these days. Early in the week the ground was good enough to race over. This condition applied with particular force to the exercising coursa at Belmont Park, upon which superintendent Pels has devoted the same care that earned high praise for him on the occasion of tho Zev-Papyrus race last fall. The trainers at "headquarters," as Belmont Park is known, were a unit in praising tho conditions of the track over which the International candidates were trained, and tho hope was expressed that the exercising trade would get the same sort of treatment preparatory to the opening of this years campaign. Mr. Pels installed a perfect drainage system last fall, and ten days ago broke up the icy crust that covered the ground with disc harrows. The sun dried the ground quickly and on Monday last Thomas Welsh, Thomas Healey, Louis Feus.cl, Scott Harlan, Simon Healy, Max Hirsch, John Loftus, William Hogan, Carroll Shilling and other trainers had their charges out for walking and trotting exercises on the track. Tho main course, which had a liberal coating of manure last fall, will not be touched for some days when the disc harrows will incorporate what is left of the fertilizer with the soil, after which the top dressing will undergo the usual process of screening. The training track will also be top-dressed with loam. During the winter the work of beautifica-tion at Belmont Park has not lagged, more than five hundred trees having been planted on the backstretch and around the turn approaching the clubhouse. Norway maples and white pines, many of them of good size, and the small-leafed linen have been grouped in a background that will embellish that portion of the course greatly and add to the general atractiveness of the plant. Tho entire planting scheme has been so well carried out that it blends naturally with the woods lot on the backstretch, which has been cleared of underbrush. POPULAR WITH TRAINERS. That Belmont Tark is popular with trainers is shown in the fact that applications havo already been received for 150 more stalls than the plant affords. Stabling accommodations will be increased by 200 additional stalls, but even that will scarcely suffice. Easy access to the steeplechase schooling ground at the Terminal makes Belmont Parle a most suitable place to prepare horses for races of every character. While there are many fine horses quartered at Belmont Park at present, two that stand out because of their performaces last year and their promise of excellence the coming racing season, are the Futurity winner, St. James, in the string of A. J. Joyner, and the unebaten Sarazen, in charge of Max Hirsch. They are a line pair of three-year-olds, but utterly dissimilar in conformation and color. St. James is a grand big colt of great power and substance, while Sarazen is rather small, but so superbly balanced that even those unfamiliar with his record would know that he was a race horse beyond tho ordinary. St. James was always a regal colt. A solid bay with black points, he was the cynosure of all eyes in the sales ring at Saratoga Springs when he fell to the bid of George D. Widener at ,000 as a yearling. He was greatly admired as a two-year-old and raced to his looks, winning the Futurity, with the extreme penalty of 1.10 pounds. Tho manner in which the colt was campaigned by A. J. Joyner was more in accord with English methods than those that prevail in this country, as he took part in only six races and did not appear after the Futurity. Standing. in his cozy box at Belmont Park on Monday List, he was the picture of a race horse. He is fully 1G hands high and it will be difficult to find fault with him. He has great length and is muscled like a four-year-old. No horse in training stands on better feet and legs. Racegoers will havo a rare treat the first time he comes to the paddock. Sarazen seemed small after looking at St. James. He does not look to be over 15.2 hands high, but has great length and tho muscular quarters that belong to his paternal ancestors. His knees and hocks are very closo to the ground and his white markings two hind stockings and a blaze make him a most attractive chestnut gelding. That he was a race horse of the highest quality in 1923 his Continued on twelfth page. BELMONT PARK NEWS Continued from first patre. string of ten straight victories attest. Like St. James, he is nominated in some of the stake features at Jamaica, both are eligible for the Paumonok Handicap, the sprinting dash at three quarters of a mile that is usually run on the opening day of the season. St. James will not be hurried. He has many valuable engagements spread through the year. In some of them, like the Belmont, Prcakness and Lawrence Realization Stakes, he will not meet Mrs. Vanderbilfs champion, as they are barred to geldings, but at some period during the year the crack three-year-olds will meet in a race. Both arc in the Kentucky Derby. Other threc-ycar-olds now at Belmont Park that will be heard from this year are Ladkin, Ordinance and Lucky Play in the stable of Major August Belmont. Louis Feustel has them all in fine condition. Lad-kin is a big colt with an unusually fine shoulder. He carries less barrel than most of his stable companions, but his coat betokens perfect health. This colt never ran to his private form, but may do so this year. He is well engaged. Ordinance, by Ormondale, from Dona Roca, by Rock Sand, has grown into a beautiful colt, more than 16 hands high and truly made. He is more smoothly turned than Ladkin and should win his share of the races for his age. He has a good shoulder, short back, well-muscled loin and a straight hind leg, resembling his half-brother, Dunlin, in the latter respect. Major Belmont refused 0,000 for Ordinance last fall. Lucky Play, the third of the trio that Feustel expects to race well for the chairman of the Jockey Club, is a big colt of 16.1 or thereabouts. Though a trifle high on the leg, he is an attractive colt and one that possesses great speed as his races early in 1923 showed. He became somewhat nervous during the Saratoga meeting and, whilo he showed speed, failed to race to his early promise. He is out of a sister to Lucullite and like that horse is a rich brown in color. He should come to hand early. AAhile Ladkin, Ordinance and Lucky Play are the best of their age by the records in the Belmont establishment, the stable houses other three-year-olds that should win good races. These are Blind Play and Marbler, by Fair Play and Pricemaker, by Hourless. The first named has grown into a nice colt, witli great power back of the saddle. Marbler is out of Malachite and resembles her, though he is an unusually robust type with a splendid jumping shoulder. Pricemaker is a trifle low in the back, but ran well last fall and will more than pay his way. Bevy is the only three-year-old filly in the Belmont Stable. She is a lovely young mare well engaged in the races for her age and is a typical Fair Play in color and looks. Her dam, Belvale, is by AVatervale, out of the great race mare Beldame. The best looking horse in the outfit, and one of the handsomest in the United States, is Messenger, now a four-year-old. Always a fine horse, he is now a supeb specimen of the thoroughbred, so evenly made that ho does not look anything like the 16.1 hands of muscularity he is today after a winter of activities that embraced gallops in the open and a period of jumping in the paddock. There is no sign of the tendon trouble which has kept Messenger away from the races for such a long period and Major Belmont, who planned the winter campaign, which seems to have been productive of results, is confident that the big horse will train. Other nice three-year-olds at Belmont Park which are training well are the fillie3 Tree Top, in the Greentree Stable, and Salacia and Parasol in the stable of George D. AAyidencr. Tree Top is a very handsome filly and her form last year would warrant the belief that she will race well this year. Parasol is a different type than Salacia, possessing greater length than the daughter of Ultimus. She is a credit to Trompe le Mort.
