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Here and There on the Turf Last Day at the Downs. Growth of United Hunts. New Orleans Big Stake. Changes in Belmont Stakes. Racing at Churchill Downs will come to a close Saturday and the feature for that day-is the Golden Rod Handicap, a seven-eighths dash for two-year-olds, to which the Kentucky Jockey Club adds ,000. This meeting will" complete the campaign of the Kentucky Jockey Club, but there will remain the ten days meeting of the Kentucky Associtaion at Lexington, which is to begin November 11 and continue until November 22. It has been a wonderfully successful year for racing in the Blue Grass state and has been up to the best traditions of the Kentucky Jockey Club and the Kentucky Association. The rich stake races have brought together the best thoorughbreds from every section of the country and the coming of Pierre Wer-theimers Epinard to Latonia and the wonderful victory of Mrs. Vanderbilts Sarazen over the invader made the meeting one long to be remembered. And already there has come prospects for another tremendous racing season in 1925. Even at this early date Colonel Andrew Venule has been fairly swamped with applications for box reservations for the Kentucky Derby and that is always an unfailing index to interest in the sport. Long ago the Kentucky Derby outgrew Louisville and it is the one race that has induced M. J. Winn from time to time to add to the seating accommodation at Churchill Downs until those who knew it a dozen years ago would, not know the .magnificent course at this time. The Derby is a race of which every Ken-tuckian is proud, whether or not h3 is a real devotee of the sport, and so long as there continues this sentimental interest it will continue one of the greatest of American turf features. Ever since the election of John McEntee Bowman to the presidency of the United Hunts Racing Association, there has been new interest taken in the racing of that sporting association. Much of this interest has been due to the president and it is a reward of his untiring efforts to build up that organization. Mr. Bowman has been a hard working president from the day he took office and with his energy he has livened up the whole association, until now, for the first time in the existence of the association, it is possible to conduct a race meeting without a considerable loss. The sport has been improved and purses of more importance have been offered as the association has gone along. For a considerable time the gentlemen of the United Hunts Racing Association, year after year, had to make good a considerable deficit after each race meeting. Now the meetings are paying their way and are growing in importance each year. The two days of racing conducted at Belmont Park Saturday . and ehclion day were particularly satisfying to both the association and to the racing public. The racing was a delightful valedictory to the big tracks that operate under the sanction and control of the Jockey Club, and just so long as these meeting are conducted along the same lines, they are sure to continue to grow in favor. Mr. Bowman and his associates of the United Hunts Association are to be congratulated on how well they have builded. It has been decided that the 5,000 race at the Fair Grounds, in New Orleans, next winter, will bo over a mile and a sixteenth distance, and will be under handicap conditions. It will be decided February 7, and at that time there will surely be some of the good three-year-olds well able to match their speed against the older horses over such a route. It is a race that marks a new era in winter racing values at New Orleans, and affords an illuminating idea of what sort of racing will be served up by Edward It. Bradley and the j new owners of the old Fair Grounds. Each announcement that has come for the coming meeting at the old courso tells of vast improvement and a liberality in the offerings that is calculated to bring together horses of a better class than ever before campaigned there through the winter months. This new stake for New Orleans will not be closed until January 1, and such a late closing should result in a greater percentage of the starters from those nominated than would be possible with an earlier closing. By January 1 there will be many developments and trainers are sure -to have a good line on their material when the race is to be run so soon after the closing. . Turfmen who have received the nomination blanks for the offerings of the Westchester Racing Assccaition at Belmont Park next year, are greatly pleasod with some of the changes that have been made in the races, and it is assured that they will receive a liberal reward. Theso stakes are to be closed by Victor E. Schaumburg, secretary, on November 20, and the most notable change is that each is an added money race The greatest change comes in the framing of the conditions for the Belmont Stakes of 1927, which closes at the same time as the 1925 stakes. This race has an added, value of 5,000 and is over a mile and a hah distance, making it more closely resemble the Epsom Derby than any other fixture. This race will have a value of something like 0,000, and its magniture should attract thfl best from abroad as well as the best American thoroughbreds. Another change is the early announcement of weights for both the Metropolitan and the Suburban Handicaps. These weights are to be -announced by Walter S. Vosburgh on February 1 and they will naturally be to a great extent reached by a study of the form of the previous year. Then there are some other innovations in the matter of weights. There are the usual penalties for winning after the publication of weights, but-, in respect to horses that are handicapped at 115 pounds or a greater weight, the penalties apply to the extent of one-half only. Also in the matter of three-year-olds no penalties will be imposed to bring a more excessive weight than 115 pounds. With these restrictions on weight and penalties it is certain that the handicaps will be more popular than ever before and ought to result in capital contests. With the running of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes there has come a general exodus of some of the best two-year-olds for Maryland and the meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico. Thess youngsters that raced in the big mile dash at Churchill Downs, have new opportunities at the Baltimore track in the Pimlico Futurity Friday and the Walden Handicap on November 11. Both of these are at a mile and the Pimlico Futurity has an added money value of 0,000, while the Walden- has 0,000 added. The Futurity is at weight-for-age, with breeding allowances of three pounds, if either sire or dam had not sired or produced a winner at the time of the closing of entries or an allowance of five pounds if both sire and dam had no winner at the same time. It is for entire colts and fillies, and since its first running in 1921, when Morvich was the winner, it has had great importance. Of the four runnings of this rich race it has gone to Edward It. Bradley on two occasions, when Blossom Time was first in- 1922 and when Beau Butler was its winner in 1923. Incidentally there have been four runnings of the race for the reason that in 1922 it was run in two divisions, each of equal value. It is small wonder that with this great record Mr. Bradley should ship his horses from Churchill Downs to Pimlico to have another try at the race.
