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Here and There on the Turf Bowies Success. Havre de Grace Stakes. Exterminator Entered. The Chesapeake Stakes. The Bowie meeting is now well under way and the continued good attendance in the face of adverse weather and track conditions is an excellent index to the popularity of the sport. The Bowie track labors under the handicap of inadequate and uncomfortable transportation facilities and the fact that so many people are willing to make the trip from Washing ton and Baltimore each day for the sake of seeing a days racing is strong evidence that the turf is among the most popular of all out -of doors entertainments. Good horses have been attracted to Bowie for the present meeting and this is proof that the Prince Georges Park course has assumed a really important part in the eastern racing scheme. The days when Bowie merely served as a stop gap between the winter racing and the real opening of the eastern season are past and many of the best horses in training now begin their campaigns with the opening at the Southern Maryland Agricultural Association plant. The entries in the stakes of the Harford Agricultural and Breeders Association, which conducts the meeting at Havre de Grace, have closed with an exceptionally good return. Most of the horses which have taken part in the Bowie meeting will move on to Havre de Grace when the present meeting closes, and will be reinforced by aggregations of thoroughbreds which were not far enough advanced in their conditioning to race at the Bowie meeting. The stake lists for the Havre de Grace meeting contain the names of all of the stars that could have been expected to race at that course and many that ordinarily would have waited until later in the season before beginning the campaign. The Harford Handicap, which will be run April 16, the opening day, has attracted an exceptionally good entry list. W. S. Kilmers Exterminator is entered in this and it is quite possible that the grand old gelding will make his return to eastern racing in that race. Exterminator showed by his race behind Runstar, Osprey and Cherry Tree in the Cof-froth Handicap that he is still a good horse, in spite of the fact that he did not win. The Harford Handicap is a three quarters dash. Exterminator has won it before in spite of the fact that he is noted for his long distance feats rather than for sprinting. He will have plenty of high class opposition in the Harford Handicap, however. The Ran cocas Stables Zev, J. S. Coedens Dunlin, the Kenton Stables Senator N orris, R. T. Wilsons Wilderness, Edward Arlingtons Dominique, W. J. Salmons Vigil and many others of similar repute are among the nominations. If even a part of this aggregation of stars accept the weights, which are to be announced April 12, the Havre de Grace meeting will be graced with a decidedly interesting feature contest for the opening day. The high point of the Havre de Grace meeting, however, will probably be the running of the Chesapeake Stakes for three year olds April 30. This ,000 fixture at a mile and a sixteenth usually attracts enough Preakness Stakes eligiblrs to make it of some value as an indication of fitness of the candidates in the Pimlico feature. This year there are a number of the most promising Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby candidates among the nominations to this Havre de Grace event. The Kenton Stables Senator Norris, which has been the center of interest among the Maryland trained three-year olds this spring, is one of the entries. Mrs. W. M. Jeffords Diogenes is another promising candidate in the list. ! The Rancocas Stables Mad Play, which ran j Wise Counsellor to a neck in the Kentucky j Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs last | j fall, is also scheduled to try conclusions with ! his rivals in this stake race. The Xalapa | , I Farm Stab!es Happy Thoughts, a 5,000 purchase last summer, is also in the probable field. The two remaining stakes of the Havre de Grace list are the Philadelphia Handicap with ,000 added for three year olds and over at a mile and a sixteenth and the Aberdeen Stakes with ,000 added for two year olds at four and a half furlongs. The Philadelphia Handicap will be run Sat urday, April 19, and the Aberdeen Stakes on Saturday, April 26. Both promise excellent racing, judging from the entry list. j The Philadelphia Handicap may bring together I Exterminator and General Thatcher, which won the Inaugural Handicap at Bowie. [ Ther ■ are plenty of other good horses in the | field, but there will be partciular interest in the two, if they start. j General Thatcher came back to the races at Bowie on the opening day in excellent condition. He promises this spring to, possibly, j accomplish many of the things which were expected of him before, but never realized. At Havre de Grace he will meet a severe test if he starts in the Philadelphia Handicap. ; If he emerges from that race .uccess fully, greater things may be expected of him.
