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7 7 Here and There 1 1 on the Turf 2 3 - j 4 4 Victory of Big Blaze. 5 5 Sarazen Still Champion. G 6 Master Charlie Good. , 7 Miami Eeady for Racing. ; - 1 1 It was a great day for Samuel D. Riddle 2 2 and Gwyn Tompkins at Laurel Saturday when 2 3 Big Blaze was the winner of the Washington 4 4 Handicap, at a mile and a quarter, and American 5 Flag won the Manor Handicap. These two victories, apart from the sporting glory C G that rewarded victory, netted the popular Glen , 7 Jliddle Stable 5,425, making it a truly profitable afternoon for the. black and yellow. The 1 victory of Big Blaze in the Washington Han- j 2 dicap was not as surprising as the defeat of J 3 Mrs. Vanderbilts Sarazen. The son of High 4 Time and Rush Box did not come back to ! his showing in the Maryland Handicap, in 6 which he carried the same weight he took up in the Washington Handicap, and it was below 7 lis measure showing in the third International Special at Latonia, when he took the measure -of 1 Epinard, Mad Play, Altawood and the , best that could be mustered. : In the Latonia race, Sarazen, carrying -weight for age, 120 pounds, ran the mile and a quarter in 2:00, to win with speed to 1 spare. Then in the Maryland Handicap he took up six pounds over the scale, just as he did in the Washington Handicap, and finished out the distance in 2-02, to beat Rustic, Aga Khan, Sun Flag and other good three-year-olds. The Washington Handicap was won by Big Blaze in 2:04f and Sarazen finished fifth, though hardly more than two lengths back of the winner. So much for the time, which, after all, 1 countj for little. But the race did d2monstrate that Sarazen had gone off slightly from his other performances. He was not there right at the end and tired when called on, as though t ha had staled slightly. But, with all, Sarazen xan a magnificent race, though beaten, when it is considered that he gave away twenty pounds to Big Blaze, a like amount to Aga Khan, nineteen to Rustic, twenty to Sun Flag, a year and eight pounds to Spot Cash, sixteen pounds to Princess Doreen, twenty-one pounds to Donaghee, a year and four pounds to My Own, and a like concession to Hallucination. That affords an idea of what Sarazen was required to do in the Washington Handicap, and though he was beaten he still stands out as the champion of the year. But Big Blaze, even though he had this liberal weight concession from Sarazen, ran a capital race and Gwyn Tompkins is to be congratulated on the manner in which ha brought the son of Campfire and Queen of the Hiib to this engagement. In his previous race, the Laurel Handicap at a mile, which fell to Wise Counsllor, Big Blaze was a good second and carried 110 pounds, just four pounds more than he was required to shoulder Saturday. He was enjoying a seven pounds advantage over Sun Flag for that mile race, while in the Washington Handicap they came together under equal weights and Gwyn Tompkins thought well of Big Blaze in the Laurel Handicap. He would have liked his colt better had it besn a mile and a quarter, as was the case Saturday and it is probable that he would have beaten Wise Counsellor had the race been a quarter of a mile longer, taking a line through the Maryland Handicap, in which Wise Counsellor was so thoroughly beaten. Big Blaze as a two-year-old had to his credit a victory over St. James when he wa3 winner of the Grand Union Hotel Stakes. Then in the fall at Laurel, he was winner at a mile for all ages and also took the Manor Handicap. Incidentally the Glen Riddle colors were repeating in both the big closing day spacials at Laurel for Oceanic had won the Washington Handicap in 1922 and Big Blaze the Manor Handicap of 1923. And while all this was going on at Laurel William Daniels Master Charlie was making good in the running of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes of a mile over the Churchill Downs track. This good colt, sant from New York for the running of the race, was rather an easy winner in fast time and still further clinched his supremacy among the two-year-olds. On each occasion since the running of The Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Springs this fast-running son of Lord Archer and Bachelors Choice has shown further evidence of his worth. Master Charlie is engaged in the Pimlico Serial Weight for Age tandczs, at three-quarters, a mile and a mile and an eighth. He is also 1 in the Walden, a mils handicap. He will find i plenty of opportunity in these engagements to 1 add to his reputation and, if Blakely brings i him through his Pimlico campaign succass-fully there will be none to dispute his right ; to the two-year-old championship. Sarazen is the one two-year-old that has 5 been returned winner in a Pimlico Serial weight for age race. Last year lie won the mile race in the series, in which he easily ; took the measure of the three-year-old General Thatcher and the six-year-cld Blazes. 1 i 1 i ; 5 ; Pimlico has had an auspicious opening of its twelve-day meeting. The Maryland Jockey Club, the eldest racing association in that state i and one of the oldest in the country, has always played an important part on the American turf and its importance has been growing year by year. For the meeting that opened Monday, the offerings right through eclipse all. that have gone before and it is racing that gathers together the best horses and the best turfmen. With the New York racing season completed there has been a general exodus of the Metropolitan sportsmen for Baltimore and many of them will remain in Maryland right through the Bowie -meeting that follows the twelve days of the older Baltimore track. While there is a stake race of importance each day, one of the biggest of the meeting is to be run this week in the Pimlico Futurity, a mile dash for two-year-olds. This great race has an added money value of 0,000 and is is an early closing fixture that received 1,380 nominations. It is to be decided Friday of his week. The Pimlico book is dways one of great racing interest and one feature that is to bz commended is the number of races over a long distance and the daily steeplechases. Thes2 are race3 that are particularly popular as spectacles; and this meeting has every promise of being a bigger and better one than any that have gone before. A visit to the n2w race course at Miami fm-- presses with what has been done by the : Miami Jockey Club in preparation, for its i : initial race meeting. The course is one that is a model of modern track building and what impress3s most is the substantial way in which the construction has been done. It is a course that is built to stay and it is evident there has been no stinting of money in bringing on the great racing ground to its present condition. Luke Cassidy, who has been in charge of much of the work for the Miami Jockey Club, with his thorough knowledge of racing, had the track proper built first, so that the horses will find a seasoned ground to race over in January. Too often more care and attention is given the stands and the accommodation for the public than is given to the needs of the horses. While nothing has been neglected in looking to the comfort of the crowds, the horses have bzen. considered on these grounds and will find a safe track over which to raw, as well as comfortable stables to house them through the meeting. The track is virtually ready now, and Mr. Cassidy expects to begin receiving the thoroughbreds by November 15. The meeting does nott open until January 15, so that it will offer an opportunity to rest horsss in that Florida clime before sending them along in serious preparation for racing. In addition to the many big New York stables that will be represented at the Miami meeting there are several of the prominent Kentucky turfmen who will show their colors at, the new course. The reservations that have already been made leave, no doubt ofjan abundance of high-class horses for the meeting.
