view raw text
Here and There on the Turf Avisack Is No Miler. Showing of Nellie Morse. Big Saturday Events. What Follows Latonia. There -were lessons learned in the running of the mile race for fillies and mares that was one of the best offerings at the Aqueduct course Thursday. One -was that Avisack, the consistent sprinting filly that bears the silks of N. Loscalzo, is not a miler, and another that weight brings them all together. This second lesson is an old one of the turf, but it is only recently that Mr. Loscako has expressed a willingness to match Avisack against any filly or mare over a mile route. Avisack has proved herself a wonderfully consistent filly, but it has been made plain that a mile is probably beyond her best distance. She is game and she can run fast, but with limitations. In her race Thursday she was taking up five pounds above the scale, but Nellie Morse, the Preakness Stakes winner, was taking up eleven pounds over weight for age. Lady Belle had three pounds more. Priscilla Ruley, the winner, was one pound Tinder, but she administered more than a pound beating to Avisack, and that was the Ecale difference of the weight. Ohone and Yankee Princess were both so unlucky at the start that they need not be considered in the race. . Priscilla Ruley was beaten by both Princess Doreen and Relentless in the running of the Coaching Club American Oaks, but it is likely, that both of these would have beaten her in the race of Thursday. The big idea is that Avisack has failed up to this time to demonstrate that she is a miler. There were some who were prone to find fault with the race that was run by Nellie Morse, but the weight tells that tale. In a previous race she was a good fourth to Outline, Avisack and Ohone, but it was over the three-quarters distance. In that she carried 119 pounds, while on Thursday she only had one more pound to shoulder. In the sprint rzee, which has never appeared to be Nellie Morses "leather," Merimee did not seem to persevere with her and it was natural that over the longer route Mr. Vosburgh should ask her to take up a pound more, even though she had been beaten. The mile appeared to be so much more suitable to her. Nellie Morse had begun her three-year-old campaign by a cantering victory over Yankee Princess, Relentless and other good ones at Pimlico, in which race she tarried 118 pounds. In a following race, carrying 121 pounds, ehe had again beaten both Rslentless and Yankee Princess. Then with her weight up she forced and set the pace to win the 0,000 Preakness Stakes from both colts and fillies. Still carrying her weight she was a good third in the Kentucky Oaks, in which she suffered from the interference for which Glide was disqualified and was moved into second place. .That brought her campaign right up to the three-quarters dash, which Outline won in the track record time of 1:10, while she was a good fourth. This makes it small wonder that Mr. Vosburgh made her the top weight in the mile race of Thursday and that he should require her to give away six pounds to Avisack, eight to Lady Belle and twelve to Priscilla Ruley, the winner. Nellie- Morse did not appear to be handicapped out of a good chance and in the light of her other good races the conviction is forced that she did not run her race. Like some of the other tkrec-year-olds that were rushed to meet early engagements, it is possible that Mr. Fishers filly has trained off slightly. She surely does not appear as good as she was when she was first home in the Preakness Stakes. Saturday is another big day in racing. The Latonia Derby is. down for decision at the beautiful Kentucky course adjacent to Cincinnati, while at Aqueduct the Brookdale Handicap, at a mile and an eighth, and the 0,000 Great American Stakes, for the two-year-olds, are features. Each of these, races has a strong appeal, and it should be a history making day. The Latonia Derby will ever be one of the biggest of the Kentucky stake races. There are others of greater value, but the fact that it is over a mile and a half route gives it an importance that is not measured in money, though its reward is a rich one, with its 5,000 added. This is just 0,000 more than its value of last year, and when The Clown was its winner it was worth just 5,650 to the owner. With ten starters this year the net value will be in excess of 5,000 to the winner. It is well that these desirable races should have a becoming value. Money value of races means little to the fame of the race itself. It has historically a real racing value that is not measured by money. The Latonia Derby has that real value and its distance takes a real race horse to win over its mile and a half distance, and it is the crowning ambition of every breeder to produce a stayer. Such great races will always mean much to the breeding interests, and they will always be an incentive to produce the best. Racing at Latonia comes to a close July 5 and it is a meeting that has been remarkable in many ways. With unfavorable weather for the opening days of the long meeting, there followed bright skies and a track that brought about some of the fastest races ever seen in Kentucky. It has not done much to decide championships, but it has been rarely good racing and sport that has been bountifully successful. Following right on the heels of Latonia and, in fact, lapping over for three days is the Chicago racing at Hawthorne, while beginning July 10 there will be the racing at Raceland. All of this makes the middle West a delightful racing ground all through the summer months. It has been the rule for several years for Kentucky to suspend its racing in August and most of the big stables journeyed to Saratoga Springs for that month. Now they may be kept busy at home and, while it will mean fewer of the Kentucky horses trying for the Saratoga prizes, there is an abundance of good horses that should make all threo race courses thrive. The American turf is indeed expanding and expanding in a healthful manner that will work great good for all the thoroughbred interests, just so long as it is governed as wisely and well as it is in the present day.