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Here and There on the Turf Sickness of Ordinance. Another Horse Trade. Injury to Sunsard. Lacking of Sporting Spirit. It would seem that some one blundered when a shipment of race horses is held in a freight yard for seven hours. It would also appear that something was radically wrong when it would be possible to hold up such a valuable shipment in as short a distance to be covered as from Saratoga Springs to New York. It was such a shipment that has forced the retirement of August Belmonts good colt Ordinance for the rest of the year and brought oh a sickness that may permanently affect him. Ordinance was being pointed for races with Epinard, the French champion, and by reason of his unfortunate illness he has been declared out of these engagements and it has been decided that he will not race again. After having been delayed on his journey to New York an unreasonable time, by the holding up of the shipment in Albany, he, with the others, had to be unloaded at Belmont Park, while overheated, in a downpour of rain. This good colt, as a result, contracted a severe cold, and fever that for a time threatened his life. Fortunately he has since been declared out of danger of death, by Dr. McCully. But he has been "knocked out" to an extent that Major. Belmont determined not to put him in training again. From time to time thoroughbred shipments have been delayed beyond reason and, with the charges that are made for such shipments, there surely should be better care taken of the seryic3. Race hors3S are surely perishable freight. They compose freight of great value and it is inexcusable that they should be subjected to a treatment that endangers their lives. Harned Bros. and Jones made another important thoroughbred sale in Chicago Thursday and J. J. Hedderman made an important purchase when he obtained Sanola for 0,000. What is of greatest importance is that Mr. Hedderman is a newcomer to the turf and : when one makes such a purchase it is evidencs enough that he proposes entering the sport auspiciously. Sanola has been a wonderfully j consistent and successful performer at Hawthorns during the long meeting that is to close Monday and she should prove an excellent j bargain, as thoroughbred prices go this year. Though Harned Bros. and Jones made another important sale when Glide and My Dream were -disposed of to C. G. Cudahy, the racing confederacy still has a strong stable, while the disposing of these to other owners makes for j better sport. Both Mr. Cudahy and Mr. Hed derman are to be congratulated on their pur- chases and it suggests that each will come to j racing in a manner to take front rank before the end of the racing year. Before the running of the Adirondack Han- dicap on Wednesday there were many shrewd judges who expressed the opinion that Willis Sharpo Kilmers Sunsard was best at the I weights. It was freely expressed that he r would take the measure of Mrs. Vanderbilts 1 Nicholas at the difference in the weights, and 1 it was also agreed that the only other of the n field that had a possible chance to beat him was ti j j j j I r 1 1 n ti Johnson N. Camdens Pas Seul. Then there was general surprise when Cloud-land and Buttin In finished first and second and, while Pas Seul was able to save third money, both Sunsard and Nicholas were well beaten. It was a race that was hard to explain, but the explanation has come as" far as Sunsard is concerned. The son. of Sun Briar and Rhajes was severely kicked while at the post by Buttin In. It resulted in a painful injury to the hock, and not only was it enough to account for his failure bu it will also prevent his starting in the Hopeful Stakes, the richest of the races for two-year-olds offered by the Saratoga Association. This is a bitter disappointment to Mr. Kilmer, but he still has a giant to fall back upon in Sunny Man, possibly the best two-year-old of the year. Fall racing which begins with the Belmont Park meeting and the first of the International races on Monday, was never richer in promise. The sport returns to Kentucky on September 13, when Latonia .opens, while the Timonium meeting, which opens Monday, marks the- return of the thoroughbred to Maryland. Can- ada is in full swing and Maple Heights, in Ohio, will begin its meeting September 6, the same date that will mark the opening of the meeting at Aurora, Illinois. Thus it will be seen there will be no lack of racing through the closing months of the racing season. This Aurora meeting will continue for twenty-five days and the preparations that have been made, suggest that it will be a racing success. It has been proved at Hawthorne that Chicago is well able to support a long term of the sport and Aurora is really a Chicago venture, for it will draw its patronage from that city. Racing is surely on the "crest wave of prosperity and the horizon is broadening each season until opportunities are afforded that have never before been enjoyed. Just so long as the sport is properly conducted the expansion is greatly to be desired, but unless it is properly conducted each expansion is a menace. It is wellnigh distressing to see how the programs at Saratoga dwindled in the closing days of the meeting. The sport has been seriously handicapped .by some rainy weather, but the horseman have not done their part, even with that excuse." There is a woeful lack of the sporting spirit. Trainers are still waiting for spots. Those who have been longing for muddy going, and there are many of them, did not take advantage of the muddy going when it prevailed, while others have shown an utter lack or the spirit that is willing to take a chance. There does not appear to be any good reason for races failing to fill when one looks over the number of fit horses that are on hand. During the work hours the track is crowded with horses ready to race. Some of them have been training steadily ever since the opening week of the meeting and have never been shown under colors. This is all wrong, but there does not seem to be any remedy, for it is impossible to make a man start his horses unless, he is in the humor to do so himself. If he is too timid and so little of a sportsman as to be afraid to show his horses, then he really does not belong If he is only in racing for revenue only he is at the wrong track, and, altogether, the man with a fit horse that he will not race is not welcome at any course1 and is hardly, a credit to. the greatest of all .sports.
