view raw text
Here and There on the Turf Pimlico Meeting Ends. Present Prosperity Earned. Single Foots Walden. Sun Flags Mishap. Another chapter ended in the racing season of 1924. The meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club has come to a conclusion and as far as racing in the East is concerned thsre only remains the meeting at Bowie, which is to begin Monday. The Maryland Jockey Club, one of the oldest of racing associations in this country, magnificently maintained the best traditions of the famous old club and from the opening day to the closing day there was a gratifying patronage that told eloquently of the continued and ever-growing popularity of the sport in Maryland. Maryland has a long and honorable history as far as th turf is concerned and the Maryland Jockey Club has made much of that history. As the racing has prospered Pimlico has grown in importance and at this time the Maryland Jocke Club is well repaid for what it has done for American racing. But there were long years when this racing was anything but a paying venture. It was a sport for which the sportsmen had to pay. It was a sport that cost the Maryland Jockey Club a pretty penny. But the Maryland Jockey Club paid, and paid, and paid, until it is more than entitled to any degree of prosperity that has come at this time. There are those who loosely talk of the revenue that comes to race associations. They invariably exaggerate the profits that come from the conduct of race meetings and there is absolutely no chance for any of them to ever take into consideration the lean years. This is not peculiar to the Maryland Jcckey Club. It applies to New York and it applies to Kentucky. It applies to almost every section where horses are raced. It is an unfortunate fact that racing has been the victim of no end of persecution. It is doubly unfortunate that frequently those who would break down the greatest of all sports have almost succesded. They would have been successful had it not been for the sportsmen of New York, Kentucky and Maryland who were willing to pay and pay and pay for their sports. The racing was continued in the face of threatened financial disaster, but it was continued and any measure of prosperity that comes at this time has boon earned to the-last penny. Had the sportsmen, who have kept racing alive through the years, been of lesser courage the racing would have passed long ago. If it had only been a question of racing for revenue the sport would have been abandoned. It has not been those who raced for revenue that may be thanked for the present financial returns that come to race meetings. All that credit belongs to those sterling sportsmen who kept it alive when there appeared a chance to make it pay its way. The Maryland Jcckey Club is composed of such sportsmen and the success of the 1924 meeting and all that have gone before as well as all those that follow has been nobly earned. Racing never before enjoyed such success as has come in all sections this year. But it is always well to hark back to the lean days and remember the sportsmen who kept it going at big personal loss. The running of the Walden Handicap at Pimlico Friday gave J. E. Griffiths Single Foot another importance. It was fitting that this rich prize should go to a Maryland horse 1 and the son of Wrack has shown all through the year that he is in every way worthy to have his name inscribed on the roster of winners of the prize. And there is one more lesson that is taught in the running of . the latest Walden. That lesson is that with the right sort of handling the sprinter may win over the mile distance. No one ever questioned the speed of Single Foot, but there has been a question raised, with good reason, of his ability to stay for a mile. Charlie Fairbrother, a veteran rider, made Single Foot stick it out. He made him stick it out by waiting with him, though in most of his races all dependence has been placed in his speed rather than his stamina. And it was his speed that won the Walden. Taking a good position, Fairbrother was able to keep him within striking distance without making demands on his speed. Then when he called on the colt he still had that speed to come home to a glorious victory. There are horses that must "step" all the way and die in front. They are not champions and never can be champions, but there are others that, if handled in the same intelligent manner as was Single Foot in the Waldsn, may become champions. Fairbrother must share bountifully in the glory of the Single Foot victory in the latest of the Walden Handicaps. It is cheering news to know that Julius Fbischmann is making liberal foreign purchases of thoroughbreds. It is doubly cheering to know that a considerable number of these purchases will be raced in this country. Fleischmann has been a name that has long been an important one on the American turf and the silks have attained a wealth of glory-in the history of the sport. Julius Fleischmann is making every effort to keep that glory alive and his investments abroad bid fair to give th; silks even a new glory. It is truly unfortunate that Gifford A. Cochrans Sun Flag has been so seriously lamed that he will not be seen under silks again this year. As a matter of fact, it was not intended that Sua Flag would be campaigned much longer this season, but at the same time there is disappointment. Mr. Cochran has this satisfaction that his sterling son of Sun Briar wound up this season brilliantly when he was winner of both the mile and the mile and a furlong weight-forage races at Pimlico. These races have a peculiar appeal for after all races at the scale weight are the only adequate tests to determine a championship. It is not meant that Sun Flag is a champion there were too many of the aspirants for the crown that did not meet him but he has proven himself a horse of high quality and it would seem that after all Mr. Ccchran obtained a bargain when he purchased him from Willis Sharpe Kilmer for 5,000. At the time of the purchase there were several shrewd horsemen who were of the opinion that he had paid too high a price. Steeplechasing has come to an end for the s3ason. The last cross-country of the regular season was run at Pimlico Friday. There has been much to commend in the j cross-country sport that has been furnished, but it has not yet grown to the importance it should have in the turf scheme of the country. There are steeplechasers enough to make this sport better than it has been, but an advance has been made and if thosj who arc vitally interested in races through the field keep hammering away the results will be even better next season. The good that has been accomplished is only a start and this is the time to scz to it that the 1925 races through the field will be better and of greater importance than they were this year.
