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Here and There on the Turf Training On Long Island. Nautical In Classics. Exterminators Future. United Hunts Outlook. With the opening of the New York racing season almost at hand, there has come new-activity at the various training quarters on Long Island. Horses are being sent along faster each day and when the Metropolitan Jockey Club opens its gates on April 29 it will be found that there will be no lack of thoroughbreds that are ready. And they need not be horses that have been campaigned in Maryland. Most of those now there will remain in Maryland for the Pimlico meeting before journeying to New York. They will be horses that have not been seen under silks since last fall and all reports tend to show that the good ones will come back better than ever. From time to time there have been interruptions in the spring training. That is al ways to be expected. But the winter was anything but a severe one on the horses and the big thing is the absence of sickness. This robust health is what is most to be desired. The trainers have had something to work on. They have had big strong horses that were ready for the hard knocks of training. That is the retirement that does great good. The horses are freshened by the idleness. There is no occasion for "babying" and it is not much of a trick to bring a strong, healthy horse to racing condition. Stables are already moving to Jamaica, but it is natural that both Aqueduct and Belmont Park should remain more popular training grounds. Both of these big courses, with their great wide stretches, are better adapted to the fitting of horses and it is promised that more than ever before one or other of these tracks will remain permanent training grounds throughout the season. Horses will be "vanned over to Jamaica to fill their engagements and this has been found a thoroughly satisfactory arrangement in the past. The haul is a short one and the vans are comfortable and safe for the transporta tion of ihe horses. Some time ago J. S. Cosdens Nautical Bhowed Wdliam Garth enough to warrant pre paring him for the big three year old races. He is an eligible to both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby and he has begun his racing year with a victory. Thi:« was in the Yarrow Brae Purse at Havre de Grace Thursday and was only a three quarters da?h. but it was enough to show that the son of Sea King and Bambi at least has plenty of speed. Nautical has been in training for a consider able time and this race is sure to do no end of good in the program of his conditioning. The band that followed him home was not a par ticularly brilliant one, but he took up 110 pounds, ran fast and won with great ease. That was all that could have been asked. Of course, the coming back of Exterminator is a big racing thing. Anyone who had the good fortune to be at Havre de Grace Tliurs !:ty knows what the victory of the old war rior meant. The manner in which he was received when he appeared on the track and the riotous cheering after his victory testified to his popularity. It was a tribute to the eld champion and one that was richly deserved. By his long yearr of honest and brilliant en deavor on the turf the son of McGee and Fair Empress has done more probably than any other horse in history for the American turf. He has inspired that sentiment most to be desired. The fact that he was to race had much to do with a big crowd being present on a disagreeable day. All were handsomely repaid when the old fellow, with his old time courage, made his winning rush through the stretch. Exterminator may only be a shadow of the cup champion he was a few years back, but he is still the Lonest, courageous thorough bred that endeared himself to the racing public long ago. He has all except youth and no skill of Henry McDaniel can bring that back. He is probably as fit as he can be made and it is too much to expect that a horse could go on after eight years of campaigning without los ing considerable speed. He has carried exces sive weights and raced over all distances in that long and honorable career and it is re markable that he was even able to beat Golden Sphere Thursday over the mile and seventy yards distance. It would be a grand thing for racing general ly if McDaniel could take the 5,000 Dixie Handicap with Exterminator at Pimlico on May 3. The Dixie is at a mile and three sixteenths. That is well within the powers of the old gelding, but he will be pitted against the best handicap horses in training and it is only a remote hope that he will be up to such a race at his venerable age, It is well that Hal Price Headley has decided to start his good mare Chacolet in the Dixie Handicap. She will be sent from Ken tuck to keep her engagement in the big race and reports of her training indicate that she wdl be ready. Chacolet is a mar? that has j shown herself to be a brilliant stayer and she will have the hearty support of the Ken tuckians. She has to her credit a victory over In Me ! moriam and it is probable that she will meet the Carl Wiedemann Mat in the Dixie again. Such a pair will give Kentucky a strong hand and the Maryland and New York sportsmen will have to look to their laurels or Kentucky-will carry away the first big handicap of the year. Arrangements have been completed for the two days of racing that will be conducted at Belmont Park by the United Hunts Racing i Association before the opening of the regular New York racing season. These race days are Saturday, April 26, and Monday, April 28. Time was when the United Hunts was almost a strictly amateur organization and it brought together the best of the amateur riders. But the association has grown greatly since those days and now, while the amateurs are afforded plenty of opportunity, there is room also for the professional stables. John McE. Bowman has done wonders in bringing new interest to the United Hunts meeting and his labors promise to be repaid this year by more interesting sport than has ever before been served up to the public.
