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Here and There on the Turf South as Training Ground. St. James and the Derby. Dangers in Preparation. Some Saratoga Prospects. It has been usual at the end of a winter racing season for the horsemen to be in a tremendous hurry to return to one of the northern training grounds as the long term comes to an end. This year that has all been changed, so far as New Orleans is concerned, and a great many of the stables will be kept at the Fair Grounds and Jefferson Park for a considerable time after the running of the Louisiana Derby, which brings the racing to a conclusion next Monday. These trainers have come to the conclusion that much more can be accomplished in the fitting of their horses in the southern clime, and with the Kentucky season not opening until April 26 the New Orleans tracks are attractive. Every year ths horses that have trained in a mild climate have a natural advantage over those that have wintered in the North. It is natural they should, for it has be;n possible to make them hard and fit, while in the North it is much more of a problem to have horses ready for April racing. It is impossible to make a horse ready for the races with only shed work, and it is often fatal to attempt to rush it when it becomes possible to come out from under the sheds. In the South the horses are prepared in the open all through the-winter and it is natural that much more can be accomplished. The stables that have left, or have made shipping arrangements, are for the most part those that will race at Bowie, in Maryland, which meeting op;ns April 1, or at th Huntington meeting, which begins April 5. The horses intended for those meetings have nearly all been fitted by actual racing at the Fair Grounds and Jefferson Park, and they will be fit and ready .to go to the post when they reach the new scene of their endeavors. That is a tremendous advantage and for the first week of racing at any of the spring tracks it is usual that th3 winter horses can beat some of better class that have not had the ad-1 vantage of such seasoning. It was expected that A. J. Joyner would name George D. Widencrs St. James for the Kentucky Derby, even though he had announced some time ago that it was his intention to point the son of Ambassador IV. for the 0,000 Preakness Stakes of th2 Maryland Jockey Club, at Pimlico. It would not have been fair to St. James not to make him eligible and that will make no difference in the preparation of the colt. Ths Preakness Stakes will be run before the Kentucky Derby, and at a date when it will be easily possible for eligiblss to keep both engagements, as has been the case on S3veral occasions. St. James might readily be brought up to the mile and an eighth of the Preakness Stakes and have that race highly beneficial in fitting him for the mile and a quarter of the Derby. There is no more thorough trainer than Joyner and no trainer that has more regard for his horses. He will race them when they arc fit, but he will not take any chance of ruining a good horse just to keep an engagement. If St. James is not ready for the Preakness Stakes, he will .not be sent to the post, and he would even miss the Kentucky Derby rather than be sent to the post unfit for the race. By this it is not meant that there is any particular danger of St. James not being ready for both of these engagements, but the Joyner; horses, when they are ready to race, are ready to run all the way. Last year, after St. James was the winner of the Futurity at Belmont Park, Joyner announced that he would not send him to the post again until his engagement fell due in the Pimlico Futurity. Many another trainer would have gone on with the colt for that engagement, but when St. James did not train with the snap and vim that suited Joyner he was put aside. This method should do St. James no end of good this year. He has had a long rest and been permitted to grow big and robust for the three-year-old stake races. He is a colt of high class and it is almost inevitable that he wiil keep the best of them exceedingly busy this year. Everj move made by any of the Kentucky Derby candidates becomes of great interest, now that the list of eligibles is definitely known, and before long there will be plenty to tell of their gallops in training. The reports from various training grounds are that the health of the horses has been better than has been the general rule at this time of the year and it will not be long before they j will be sent along in strenuous training. Already the Preakness Stakes colts and fillies are being sharpened up at the Maryland training grounds and at the old Benning course, while not a few of them at Long Island training quarters have been brought to a point where something approaching speed will be possible before long. Before the running of the big Pimlico race there wiil be afforded a line cn the candidates for both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby. Races are to be offered at. Bowie, Havre de Grace and New York that offer great opportunities for these eligibles and each year they play an important part in the fitting of the candidates. Zev began his campaign last year by a victory in the Paumonok Handicap in New York and went on to a glorious victory in the Derby, though he was soundly beaten in the Preakness Stakes. Many others of the winners have been shown at one or anpther of these tracks before the big engagement and invariably it has helped, though sometimes it has injured. That is a question that is squarely up to the trainer himself. He should know whether or not his horse is ready for the test that comes in an actual race and there have been occasions when the race instead of doing good ruined the chance of a potential candidate. One striking case was in 1913, when Ten Point won from Shacklefon and Adams Express at Havre dc Grace, in which he took up 113 pounds and gave away weight to both thes2 cider horses. Ten Point came out of the race in rather bad condition, though he had won, and it took so much out of him that it probably accounted in part for his defeat in the Derby by Donerail. There have been other cases of good ones that have been hurried into oblivion in making ready for a big race. But these races have real value in the preparation when the trainer makes intellgcnt use of the opportunity. The various stakes of the Saratoga Association, that were closed yesterday, just about winds up the early closing events for the year. Taking a iino through the returns from other associations, it is assured that when the . entries are al counted it will be found that the August racing wiil be up to the best i . i traditions of that delightful course. It is there that the horsemen foregather with their best horses from every racing center. Saratoga is the testing ground for them all and enough is known of the returns at this time to warrant the prediction that Kentucky will be in the field with a stronger hand than ever before. There has always been sporting rivalry between Kentucky and New York at Saratoga and frequently New York has had the better of the argument, because of the fact that Kentucky was not adequately represented. Last year the most notable Kentucky absentee from Saratoga racing was Wise Counsellor, the undisputed Kentucky champion two-year-old. It is likely that Wise Counsellor will be the winter favorite or second choice for the Kentucky Derby. Another absentee last year was In Memoriam, the colt that gave Zev such a great battle in the fall. Both In Memoriam and Wise Counsellor will bz at Saratoga next August and in two such representatives Kentucky will hold a hand that will make it uncomfortable for the best in the east.
