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Here and There on the Turf St. James Campaign. Nautical s Chesapeake. Bad Racing Weather. Normals Fifth Straight. Before George D. Wideners great three year-old St. James proved himself by winning the Paumonok Handicap there was a doubt of his Wing raced in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 12. A. J. Joyner, who developed the son of Ambassador IV., did not make know.i his plans for spring racing, beyond the fact that it was the Belmont Stakes that was their particular goal for the colt. For the past few •lays Mr. Joyner has been confined to his home through illness and, while he is rapidly progressing to complete recovery, he did not see St. James race in the Paumonok Handicap and has made no public declaration of his plans for the colt. It is to be hoped that with such a strong hand Mr. Joyner will send St. James to Pimlico for the Preaknes3 Stakes. In that race he will meet John S. Wards Wise Counsellor and many other of the most promising candidates for the three year-old championship, and it would be a worthy test for the Widener 6tar. In his present condition St. James is particularly fitted to keep both his engagements in the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby, without at all interfering with his Belmont engagement. With the Preakness Stakes run on May 12 and the Kentucky Derby following on May 17, there is ample time for the shipment to Louisville. Then, after the running of the Derby, the Belmont Stakes does not fall due until June 7, surely plenty of time to recover from any sort of a battle over the Churchill Downs course. It would be a good thing for racing if St. James would keep all of these engagements and as the dates are arranged, unless he should meet with an accident, there does not appear to be any good reason for his not starting in all three. J. S. Cosdens Nautical, by his victory in the Chesa[ eake Stakes at Havre de Grace Wednesday, earnrd new importance as a candidate for the Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby. This good son of Sea King and Bambi, by Mc-Gee, has improved greatly over his form of last year. He has been started three times at Havre de Grace and has been returned the winner on each occasion. He began by beating as fast a colt as Modest in a three quarters •lash and under 110 pounds raced the distance in l:ttfc. He followed this by a win at a mile and seventy yards, in which he beat older horses and then came the Chesapeake Stakes. And in the Chesapeake it was again Modest that finished a close second under equal weights. While Nautical was continuing on his winning way in the Chesapeake Stakes the stock of Senator Norris for both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby took a decided slump. It is true that Senator Norris was giving away seven pounds to both Modest and Nautical when he shouldered 121 pountL.. but there was no part of the race where he showed enough to warrant the belief that he would have beaten either one of them under equal weights. It is admitted that when he was beaten Johnson eased up Senator Norris and he could ■unly have been closer at the end of the contest, but his race was a decided disappointment in the light of what he had shown both in public and in private. The performance of Fid ward B. McLeans Modest was encouraging, even though he was beaten by Nautical, but the race of the Cos-den colt was even more promising. He made the pace for the mile and a sixteenth and still had enough speed left to resolutely fight it out to victory. It was indeed unfortunate that the Lexington program was all but wrecked by the unfavorable weather conditions Wednesday. It made necessary the declaring off of two of the carded races and substitutes took their places. Racing has had more than its share of bad weather this spring. Bowie was forced to delay its opening two days by reason of a severe snow storm. New York began at Ja maica Tuesday under miserable weather conditions, while now Lexington has had its handicap. The one cheering thing is that the health of the horses is better at this season than ever before. The good horses have been going right along in their preparation for the big races and, after all, that is much more important than the weather conditions. The racing crowd is a hardy crowd. It does not weaken when the blustery weather comes. The racing makes the crowd forget the physical discomfort and when the thrill comes of a well-fought out finish no one knows whether or not it is raining. It is not always the best horses and the big races that furnish the best entertainment. There was a race run at Jamaica Wednesday that had it been a Kentucky Derby, a Preakness, a Belmont, Suburban or any of the other big fixtures, would have gone down to history as the race of the year. And it was a battle between two lowly selling platers. That was the race when "Jack" Richardsons Normal just nosed out T. H. Wilsons Water Girl. Seldom has there been a closer finish and seldom has there been fought out a more exciting victory. Both of these useful cam paigners were entered under a valuation of | ,500, but had they been valued at 50,000 each they could not have furnished more of a thrill. Water Girl had cut out most of the running, while Normal met with some interference and had to move around on the outside. Then through the stretch in a remarkably game finish the old Plaudit gelding inch by inch wore Water Girl down until in the last nod he had earned the decision. And Water Girl was not flinching. She battled right to the end herself and it is a long day since : she ran a better race, even though she was beaten. Incidentally it was the fifth consecutive vic- I tory for Normal, and in eight races he has won six, being second on the other two oc- j casions. There are thoroughbreds belonging • to various classes, Lut the horse that gamely 1 dees the best of which it is capable does all i that can be desired
