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Here and There on the Turf Hunting the Champ. Hopeful Possibilities. Five Furlongs Menace. Mistakes in the Weights. With only seven more days of racing at Saratoga there remains much of a jumble in the two-year-old division, though one of the aspirants for the crown appeared to have been eliminated by the racing of Thursday. That one was the Man o War colt, By Hisself. This one had shown Bob Smith -so much in his training that there were many good judges who rated" -him as better than American Flag, arid, consequently, the best one the wonder horse has sent to the races. It is added that he has given away considerable weight to as good a colt as" Blue Ridge, and the track was heavy, but By Hisself did not show much fighting spirit in the stretch. In the early running he went along in a manner to indicate that the condition of the track was no handicap. Swinging for home he still had a good advantage, but when Blue Ridge challenged he did not show an ounce of fight in his system. That was what eliminated him from present consideration among the possible champions. Thus it is that, one by one, candidates for the 0,000 Hopeful Stakes, to be run on the last day of the meeting, are falling by the wayside. Another one-time possibility will have to be parsed up after the racing of Thursday in George D. Wideners Marcellus. Swope dees not seem to measure up to probable Hopeful company, though he ran some excellent races on Long Island, and as the date for the running of the big Saratoga feature draws near, the field is thinned to four or possibly five possibilities. American Flag has shown that he belongs in the list with the best of them. Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sunny Man has raced his way into a prominence that makes him a real contender. J. C. Milams Kentucky Cardinal, the fast-running son of North Star III. and Lucrative, qualified handsomely for the race by his cantering victory. He is a worthy representative of Kentucky in the big race. Just now this colt has Gwyn Tompkins worrying not a little for American Flag, when the two of them come together. Leroi, the son of Fair Play and Babe, for which W. R. Coe gave Victor Vivaudou 8,100 at the recent sale, is still another. This one has not yet raced to his high purchase price, but he has shown enough in private to create the impression that he has better than an outside chance to win the Hopeful Stakes. -Thesa just about dispose of the prominent eligiblss for the last and best "two-year-old feature of the August racing at Saratoga. It is to be decided August 30. Then after the Hopeful Stakes has been run the winner will have to reckon with Mrs. Van-derbilts 0,000 Nicholas before his title to the championship is clear. It is unfortunate that Nicholas is not eligible for either the Hopeful Stakes or the Futurity, for he surely belongs in both, as far as his class is concerned. Ho has improved marvelously at Saratoga and has the cut and the manners of a champion. A colt that is rather hard to handle, and a bit fractious at the post, he seems to be improving in his manners, add any time he leaves the barrier with his competitors he is sure to keep the best of them busy all the way. It is to be hoped that the fact of Nicholas not being eligible for some of the best of the two-year-old stakes to come, will not prevent his having opportunities, to . show his real ability and establish his true position in his ago division. It would be well if the remaining two-year-old races at the Saratoga meeting be fashioned for distances not less than five and a half furlongs. There are two excellent reasons. In the first place, two-year-olds should be well able to race such a distance in the latter days of August and a more important reason is that the five-eighths post is not a good one at which to start large fields. The two-year-olds are more numerous than the other age divisions at the meeting and usually the five-eighths dashes are built for either maidens of little education or cheap ones of little dependability. With these big fields the first turn is altogether too close to the starting point and it is inevitable that crowding will come in the scramble for advantageous positions. The jockeys have been lectured cad they have been punished for rough ridicg, but the association should do its part and lesser the chance for rough riding by doing away with the five-eighths dashe3. The rider whe does not . endeavor to take a favorable position hen going to the first turn is not doing hL full duty to his mount and, with a big field of horses, bumping and crowding on that turn is well nigh unavoidable. The accident to Grace Troxler, Wednesday, could be charged to the fact that twenty horses were started from the five-eighths post. Had the race been over the five and a half furlongs or the three-quarters distance there surely would have been less chance for such an accident. There has been an appalling number, of mistakes in weight to be carried by horses during the current meeting. Hardly a day goes by that it does not become necessary to make various corrections from the printed program weight, and it is a strange thing when the notice board does not carry some such correction. Trainers are responsible for the weight carried, and they at least have been careless. Trainers must claim their allowances at the time of entry, and they must know the penalties their horses have incurred. But it would appear that many of the trainers at Saratoga do not even know the races to which their horses are eligible. If these trainers were compelled to live up to the rules strictly, there would be fewer of theso mistakes, all of which are unpardonable. It should not be the duty , of the racing secre-. tary to figure out the weights, that are to be carried, and he should not be compelled to check up on the trainers. He makes the conditions for the races, and if a trainer is doing his full duty, he knows the eligibility of his horse and he knows just what penalties or what allowances belong to the entry. It would be well if this rule was more strictly enforced for the good of the racing and the comfort of its patrons.
