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Here and There on the Turf Prospects for Miami. Kentucky Dates Next. Ward Plans for Season. Happy Thoughts for Oaks. From Miami comes word of rapid progress in he building of the race track, which will bring the sport to the most delightful of winter resorts. Luke A. Cassidy, who has had charge of the building of the plant, has gone about the work in a thorough fashion by first constructing the stables and the track proper before devoting any time to the stands, clubhouse and the various other buildings. Under this scheme the track will have that much longer time to become seasoned and the stables will also be the better for the early construction. Those stables are models of comfort and convenience and the care that has been taken in their construction is reflected in the buildings themselves. Each is four feet from the ground, assuring their being dry in all weather. They arc built of well-seasoned lumber and the drainage about the stable quarters has been one of the important works to bs completed. The track loam is on hand and is being mixed and spread and it will be thoroughly worked in and from time to time treated until the surface promises to be as safe as the oldest track in the country by next January, when the first meeting will be conducted. The steel for the stands has been ordered and will shortly be on hand, and with that construction little will remain to be completed. And whle this work of track building is going forward there have already been made many applications for stabling, even at this early date, and Miami promises to have an abundance of good horses when the gates are opened. It is a track that will attract stables that have never before raced through the. cold j months, and it is the promised plan of the; i new association to make its program one that! will bring together the best horses. A. J. Joyner is one that has promised, to be on hand for the first meeting with a detachment of the horses of George D. Wjdencr. Samuel C. Hildreth has assured that he will rend some of the Rancocas Stable horses to the Flida track or, rather, bring them there, for he intends to go racing there in person. James Rowe will show the Harry Payne Whitney silks at the meeting. Walter J. Salmon, who has seen the work that is progressing, is enthusiastic over the prospects and he is another who has promised to show his slks at the mealing. This means that Thomas J. llcaly, who trains for Mr. Salmon, will also have some of Richard T. Wilsons horses at the meeting. In addition to the New York sportsmen who have signified an intention of being at Miami, there have bcn several applications received from big Kentucky stables, so that altogether it would seem that the first meeting at Miami will be in many respects a notable one. With the Kentucky Racing Commission named and a meeting of the new body set for next week, there is another important step completed toward the season of racing. At this meeting of the commission it is expected that tha dates of the racing year in Kentucky will be announced, as well as appointments of some interest. In the matter of dates it is usual .in every racing section for the different racing associa tions to come together and agree on the division of the time. When this schedule is agreed upon it is submitted to the governing body for the stamp of approval. The Kentucky dates have been agreed upon by tha associations as far as the division of time is concerned, and it is not expected that there will be any change made in that schedule by the racing commission. Under the dates that have already been published the reason in Kentucky will open at Lexington on April 26. j The next most important date is May 17, when the Kentucky Derby is to be decided at Churchill Downs, in Louisville. While John S. Wards Wise Counsellor is on3 of the most talked-of cligibles for the Kentucky Derby, it would appear now that he will be shown in Maryland this spring before he is sent to the pest in Kentucky. It is also a promise that the Ward stable will be raced more extensively in the East than ever before. Wise Counsellor and the others of the Ward stable horses, according to current rumor, will be shipped to Maryland the middle of April, and it is intended that possibly both Wise Counsellor and Worthmore will be sent to the post in the Preakncss, to be run at Pimlico May 12. This does not in any sense mean that th2 choice has been made over the Kentucky Derby, but a reason made for the shift to Maryland is to find more suitable training conditions. The Preakncss and the Derby are far enough apart to make the starting in each easily possible, and in the Preakness Wis2 Counsellor will not be called upon to meet Sarazen, the unbeaten gelding that on the form of last year seems to be his most dangerous opponent. But whether or not Wise Counsellor is shipped to Maryland in April, it is of vast importance to New York racing that Mr. Ward has made plans for a campaign in the East. While talking of the plans of the colts, there is a filly that might come in for mention. This is Happy Thoughts, in the Xalapa Farm Stable of Edward F. Sims. This filly has wintered exceedingly well and is galloping at Havre de Grace, making ready for an appearance in the Pimlico Oaks. This rice is a mile and a sixteenth and is down for decision April 8, and the daughter of Sir Martin and Gipsy Love has every chance to be thoroughly fit and read for the running. James McClelland, stable manager for Mr. Sims, has spent most of the winter in New York. But now that the spring training season is at hand he will take up his residence at Havre de Grace, where Roy Waldron has had a considerable string under his charge. This string was augmented by the shipment of the two-year-olds from Saratoga a few days ago and the establishment has settled down to the business of making the horses ready. Andy Schuttinger, the stable jockey, is at Havre de Grace assisting Waldron in the training, and he is fit himself for race riding at this time. There are many who, without thoroughly analyzing the races of Happy Thoughts, reached the conclusion that she had gone back at the end of 1923. As a matter of fact, with the exception of her special race against Sarazen at Laurel, the filly was as consistently good at the end of the season as she was at an time. Her race against Sarazen is readily explained by the track condition, and it was altogether bad and so utterly foreign to her other performances that it must be thrown out. Happy Thoughts has every right to be up in the first flight of the three-year-olds this season.
