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Here and There on the Turf Saturdays Big- Races. Three Courses Make Bids. Mania for Record Breaking Handicap to Our Thoroughbreds. With all the big things that have gone before there is another great day of racing promised Saturday. Latonia is there with its Championship Stakes, at a mile and three- quarters, for three-year-olds, with 5,000 added. Laurel has its mile dash of the Laurel Stakes, for all ages, with 0,000 addsd, and at the Yonkers track cf the Empire City Rue- ing Association the offering will be the N2W Rochelle Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth, for three-year-olds, to which ,000 has been added. The Latonia Championship Stakes is a weight-for-age race, and it was in its running last year that In Memoriam scored his notable victory over Zev and My Own. Its distance, value and sporting importance gives it the call over the attractions at the other big racing centers, and, at this time, there is every hope that the field will be a remarkably good one. It is intimated that eleven will strive for the big race. Unfortunately, Mrs. Vanderbilts great gelding, Sarazen, conqueror of Epinard. is not an eligible. He is at Laurel and will start in the 0,000 feature there. And there are some other good ones that are not eligible. One most notable absentee is C. B. Heads Altawood. This great stayer, by his magnificent race behind Sarazen, Epinard and Mad Play in the third special Saturday is denied his best chance of the year by reason of his not having been named for the race. It is a long time since the American turf has seen a more brilliant stayer than this son of Master Robert. Ladkin is another that was not named, and Wise Counsellor is not eligible, so that all hrce that have beaten Epinard will not have a chance to verify their victories. August Belmont will have to depend upon Blind Play, if he has a starter, for Ordinaccs, the other eligible from the stable of the chairman of the Jockey Club, is on the shelf. But, while Sarazen was making glorious history when he raced the mile and a quarter in 2:00, at Latonia, Aga Khan was proving his worth at Jamaica, by covering the same distance in 2:01 to win the Pierrepont Handicap easily from his stablemate, Priscilla Ruley. It is true that while Sarazen was taking up hi3 weight of 120 pounds Aga Khan was only asked to shoulder 100 pounds, but his was a great race and he may be expected to adequately represent New York in the absence of Mrs. Vanderbilts great gelding. Weight is a great leveller, but at thb writing Aga Khan stands out as one of the most brilliant hopes that will bear New York colors at Latonia Saturday. , It was confidently expected that Pierre I Wertheimers Epinard would be a starter in the Laurel Stakes, at the Maryland course, Saturday, about there has be;n a change of plans and the invader is still at LatoniaT Of course he would again be opposed by Sarazen and Mrs. Vanderbilts gelding pretty conclusively demonstrated that he is the master of the son of Badajoz and Epine Blanche, just as he is the master of all the others this year. It is regretted that Leigh will not have Epinard at the post so that Marylanders would have an opportunity to see that great four-year-old in action, but he is also engaged in the Washington Handicap to be run November 1, and it is possible there will be a changD of plana that will enable him to keep that engagement. 1 2 : . , I The Laurel Stakes will afford Sarazen an opportunity to add to his fame, but there is real regret that he is not eligible to the Latonia Championship Stakes, for it is a race that thoroughly tests all that is to be desired in a champion. A gallop of a mile and three-quarters at weight for age is surely a championship test. And this same Championship Stakes has taken away others that would surely be stars of the first magnitude at one or other of the two big tracks that conflict with the Latonia program. One of these is Mad Play, Harry F. Sinclairs three-year-old brother to Mad Hatter, that was third to Sarazen and Epinard. This colt is just a bit erratic, as is his older brother, but he is a colt of high class and has both speed and courage. He has been carefully pointed for the Championship Stakes, and his race in the International Special should do him a world of good, so that after all Aga Khan may not be the best hop2 of New York at Latonia Saturday. Both Aga Khan and Mad Play are eligible to the New Rochelle Stakes at Yonkers track, but their being in Kentucky may result in a better race, that is to say, a better contest, for it will induce trainers to try for the race win would not otherwise have a starter in the feature at the Hill Top track. While there is always a real thrill in a swiftly run race, and there is no end of credit in a sustained flight of speed, trainers would greatly prefer to race their horses over courses where the phenomenal records are not possible. Of course the first requisite of every horse is speed and the second is more speed, but it is possible to develop that speed without the track surface being hard, as it must be for sensational time. Thsre have, been miles in. 1 :38 and 1 :40 that offered a better test of the horse than miles in 1:36, or even faster. It has been merely a question of track surface;. When the track is honed down until the top soil is all but gone it is natural that phenomenal sp;ed will be shown by the horses, but too often this phenomenal speed is shown at the expense of th2 horse. Galloping at top speed over a hard track, with weight up, is a tremendous strain on the tendons of the stoutest horse, and the desire for record making races should be curbed. Efforts were made to restore a suitable cushion to the Latonia track before the running of ths Third International Special, and much was done with the harrows, but the track was still hard as the time hun out would prove. Ic FnLnca and England, where the races are run over turf the going may become baked and hard, but it can seldom ba as firm and resisting as one of the record making American "dirt" tracks. It is the chief reason for the early breaking: down cf so many American thoroughbreds. Our horse3 have earned a reputation for unsoundness and shortlived usefulness, by reason of the tracks over which they are raced. The American thoroughbred is just as fleet of foot as any, and it is possible to produce just as remarkable stayers, but as long as there is a mania for record-breaking time contests horses will be broken down. The winning post is .the only reliable test of the thoroughbred horse, but there are many other things to be taken into consideration other than how swiftly the race is run. The weight that b carried and the distance that is covered are of vastly more importance than the electric speed. Then when the horse himself is sacrificed for speed, by reason of the track surface., a heavy price indeed is, paid for the establishment of the record. For the preservation of the breed and to give the American thoroughbred bis proper place as a long-wearing, sturdy product, there must be thb needed reform in track surfaces, furnishing a grateful cushion of top soil.
