Here and There on the Turf, Daily Racing Form, 1924-09-07

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Here and There on the Turf Belmonts Last Week. More Rough Riding. Epinards Next Engagement. Macombers Big Sale. With the Westchester Racing Association entering the last week of its fall meeting there are many stakes of importance that are to be decided. Monday there comes the Matron Stakes for two-year-olds at three-quarters. This old fixture dates bask to 1892 when it was a feature at Morris Park. Tuesday there comes the Twin City Handicap, at a mile and a quarter, that is an inheritance from the Coney Island Jockey Club of Sheepshead Bay. This stake was first run over that famous old course in 1884. Wednesday there is the Champagne Stakes, one of the oldest of American stakes. It is a seven-eighths dash for the two-year-olds, and goes back to 1867, when it was inaugurated at Jerome Park. Thursday the stake is the Nassau Stakes, a comparatively new claiming stake race at a mile distance. Then on Friday the offering is the Fall High Weight Handicap at three-quarters, that had its first decision in 1914. But Saturday is the real big day. It is the closing of the meeting at the big Nassau County course and there are three stakes with 0,000 added to each that are down for decision. Of course the greatest of these is the Futurity, the most coveted of all our two-year-olds races. It had its first running in 1888 when Prcctor Knott beat the mighty Salvator. This is also an inheritance from the Coney Island Jockey Club. This year a modest estimate of the value of the race put it well over 0,000 and it is befitting that the reward should be princsly when the importance of the race is considered. The Jockey Club Gold Cup, at two miles, was established in 1920, but it has come into instant importance and it is another of the Saturday offerings. The third is the Brook Handicap Steeplechase. This was first, run in 1905, the year that Belmont Park was opened and it is the richest of all New York offerings for the steeplechasers. With such a glorious card for the closing day at Belmont Park the meeting will be brought-to a brilliant termination. Aurora has had its opening. The new Chicago racing season has been auspiciously launched and the generous patronage that was accorded augurs well for its success. There was a slight handicap in the newness of the plant, but a racing crowd is proverbially good natured and no complaints were heard. The rush of work at the eleventh hour did much to clean up odd ends of the work and it will continue until in a few days the plant will be as complete as any other established race course. With the train arrangements that have been made it would sezm that Aurora will reach new importance. The eleventh-hour postponement of the first of the international polo matches naturally caused a bit of a mixup among racing folk. It had bztn announced that the racing would begin Saturday at 1 oclock and there were many who did not know of the change back to the regular 2:30 hour until they reached the race track. Every effort was made to inform the public of the chang?, but the decbion was reached so late that it was impossible to give proper publicity and it was natural that many arrived at the big course a couple of hours ahead of post time. That meant.that they were cold and tired bsfore the racing began and in no good humor for the sport that was offered. There was another bit of disgraceful riding at Belmont Park in the last race Friday when the Rancocas Stables Silver Fox was completely knocked out of contention. For a time it seemed that the colt would go down an dwhen Fator had him back in his stride he was hopelessly out of the running and never able to recover from the mishhap. Silver Fox has been a bitter disappointment up to this time and it is entirely possible that he will continue to be a disappointment, but he had every excuse for his showing Friday. He was one of the highest-priced yearlings sold a year ago by Phil Chinn and he has shown enough in his private trials to warrant belief in his racing ability. Friday his condition pleased Hildreth and there was con-1 fidence he would be the winner, but it was all j upset when he was all but knocked down. There have been too many cases of rough ridin gat Belmont Park recently and it would be well if the stewards would obtain a better control of the jocke3s by some v;ell-merited punishments. "All hope is by no means lost of having the n?xt Epinard race back to Belmont Park, where it properly belongs. No stretch of the imagination would make Aqueduct adequate to take care of the crowd that will be out to see that great mile race and just why iha change should not be made is hard to understand. When all of the advantages of Belmont Park are weighed against the disadvantages at Aqueduct there is no argument of where the race belongs. It is still the race of the Queens County Jockey Club, no matter where it is won, and it would be unwise from every angle to attempt to crowd patrons into the old course that is so inadequate for the occasion. One more week and the thoroughbred is back in Kentucky for the fall meetings. Beautiful Latonia opens its gates next Saturday and its opening feature is the Covington Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth. It is a race that has attracted nominations of the best handicap horses in the West, while some of the New Yorkers are also eligible. It is not likely that New York will be represented, but jt is sure to-be a worthy beginning of a big meeting. This Latonia meeting continues until October 18 and, seme of the. bright spots .of the long meeting are the Latonia Cup, to be run September 27 ; the Queen City Handicap at a mile, for two-year-olds, to be run October 4; the 0,000 International Special that engages Epinard over a mile and a quarter route and the Latonia Championship Stakes, at three-quarters, with 5,000 added. It is the International Special that is the big feature of the meeting, but even without this attraction Latonia never had a stake program of stronger appeal than that for the meeting so soon to begin. There will be a thoroughbred auction of importance in the Belmont Park paddock Thursday and Friday, when the A. K. Ma-comber stock goes under the hammer. This is a sale that is conducted by the Thoroughbred Sales Company, with George Bain as the auctioneer, and the offerings are particularly attractive. Most of them were imported from Mr. Macombers Haras du Qaesnay in France, and the catalog contains brood mares, foals of 1923 and of 1922, as well as a considerable consignment of horses in training. The horses have all reached Belmont Park in excellent condition and it. is probable that the; sale wiH"be one of the most important 6F thlar.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1924090701/drf1924090701_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1924090701_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800