view raw text
i FIVE STAKES FOR JUMPERS Belmont Park Officials Offer Attractive Steeplechase Events. Two of These Are 0,000 Features Trophies for the Winners In Addition to Rich Monetary Prizes. NEW YORK, N. Y., March 34 There is plenty of material for enthusiasm in the ranks of the cross-country clement in racing in the announcement of the Westchester Racing Association that the five steeplechase fixtures to be run under their auspices this year will have a total value of 7,500. Nominations for these are due on Monday, March 24. With so many jumping horses coming from England and France there should be a bumper entry for these events, two of which have a value of 0,000 each. The sum added to the Brook Handicap Steeplechase, to be run during the autumn meeting, is 0,000. The Charles L. Appleton Memorial Cup Steeplechase, to be decided in the spring, carries a guaranteed cash value of 0,000. The Brook is one of the cross-country features of the American turf and it is the hope of every owner of a jumper to win it. The race is for four-year-olds and over and is run over the two and one-half mile course. Such a contest calls for a lot of speed as well as jumping qualities. A cup goes to the winner, in addition to the lions share of the stake. Generous provisions for second and third in the shape of ,000 and ,000, respectively, makes a place in the Brook worth while. Nc jumping race in the United States has a broader appeal than the Charles L. Apple-ton Memorial Cup Steeplechase, which was named for a splendid type of American sportsman, who had a host of friends in the ranks of the cross-country devotees, and who was active in the promotion of amateur sport. None of the younger generation of racing men have more friends than Major Appleton had, and there was general rejoicing when it was decided to perpetuate his name through the establishment of a test of thoroughbred quality to be run under conditions with which he was heartily in sympathy. Like the Brook, the Appleton Memorial carries a trophy or, rather, two of them, for the winner of the race is the custodian for a year of the beautiful gold cup donated by the Greentree Stable, with which Major" Appleton was associated, and receives outright a cup that is the gift of the Westchester Racing Association. . The Appleton Memorial will be run in the spring over the two-mile course. It carries values of ,000 and ,000 to second and third respectively. Other races through the field to be run at Belmont Park in the spring are the Grand National Steeplechase Handicap, ,500 added, at about three miles ; the International Steeplechase Handicap, ,000 added, at about two miles, and the Meadow Brook Steeplechase Handicap, ,000 added, at about two and a half miles. All are for four-year-olds and upward. Belmont Park, which course is ideal, should be the mecca of cross-country devotees this year, with such an attractive jumping program to bring the best horses in the country into action.
