Here and There on the Turf: Bowie the Stop-Gap. Donaghees Big Advantage. Rowe Makes Profitable Trip Another Paid Steward Reason, Daily Racing Form, 1924-11-25

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V. f Here and There on the Turf Bowie the Stop-Gap. t Donaghees Big Advantage. I Rowe Makes Profitable Trip. Another Paid Steward Rea- c son. 1 i 1 With the cloiing of the Kentucky szason at Lexington Saturday the faithful only have Bowie for turf entertainment until Thanks- giving Day, Thursday, when both the Jeffer- j son Park meeting at New Orleans and the Ti-juana meeting in Mexico, near San Diego, will launch the long winter season of sport. It has j been usual to have Oriental Park, the Cuban track, to open on the same day, but this year j the Cuban opening will not be until Saturday. , The opening of that winter season brings with it Sunday racing, both in Mexico and Cuba, so that until well on in the spring there ! , will be daily sport. Years ago there was Sun- day racing in New Orhans, when a little half- " , mile track gave Sunday matinees, while the ! larger tracks always closed down for Sunday. As a matter of fact, this Sunday racing across 1 j the Mississippi from New Orleans did much 1 , to bring the sport into disrepute in New Or- " . leans. It was unworthy racing. But that so-called sport was wiped out long ago and the 5 racing at New Orleans has come to a real importance in the scheme of the turf and it is 3 constantly growing in importance. Bowie will enjoy a monopoly of the racing I until Thursday and with anything like favorable - weather conditions it will mean a big 5 thing for the Maryland association. There is an overabundance of horses at the youngest t of the Maryland tracks and the sport thus s far has been better than ever before. The two big events of tli3 week are the 0,-000 Thanksgiving Handicap, to be run Thursday, .. and the mile of the Endurance Stakes, . for two-year-olds, which is down for decision n Saturday, the closing day of the meeting. Each j of these has attracted notabh entries and it t is assured that each field will be both large e and representative. When James W. Beans Donaghee was winner " of the Gadsen D. Bryan Memorial Handicap L" at Bowie Saturday it was just on3 more c evidence of the courses for horses and horses !S for courses idea. This good son of The Cur-ragh r" and Mabel Strauss is pounds better over ;r the Bowie course than any othsr. To put it in better fadiion possibly is to say that the 10 going is a help rather than a hindrance to him, while with most of the others there is a disadvantage s" in racing over the Bowie surface. Donaghee has proved his worth over other ;r tracks, but it is doubtful if he could have made e a show of that good band he met Saturday Y over any other course than Bowie, and it was 13 a notable field when Princess Doreen, Miss ss Whisk, Spot Cash, Noel, Reparation, Wise se Counsellor, Sunsini, Shuffle Along, Worth-more and the Y.ke followed him home. They ;y are all horses of established reputation, but Jt it went for naught at Bowie by reason of f the fact that Donaghee was so much better er in the going. And it was in the cards that a Donaghee should beat Princess Doreen. He e had beaten li3r with ridiculous ease earlier in ,n the present meeting, though it was considered 2and that the filly was easily better than the son n of The Curragh. Some of those who did not take into consideration the fact that Donaghee was peculiarly benefitted by the track surface predicted that the filly would turn the tables 03 on him at the next meeting and that she was as probably a bit short. But Donaghee beat her er just as handily and with not as favorable a a weight arrangement. Donaghee is only one of the horses now at at Bowie that is much at home over the track :k V. f t I c 1 i and there is no other racing ground in America where there arc always so many repeaters. James Rcwe made a profitable trip to Lexington when he went to the Kentucky track with Candy Kid for the last day of the Kentucky season. He brought back ths Breeders Futurity and it was worth just 5,984.50 to the winner. That was a nice addition to the score of the son of Peter Pan and Matinee. And Rowc had a thoroughly dependable line on Candy Kid before he shipped him to Lexington. He is a celt that had been showing no end of speed in his races and, while he was winner over the mile distance at Laurel, it was clearely demonstrated that the distance was a bit far for him to show to his best advantage. He ran as good a colt as Sunny Man to a neck in a six furlong sprint at Pim-lico and then in the mile of the Pimlico Futurity he cut out all the running to be beaten a length and a half by Stimulus and Star Lore. Again in the Wckhn he made pace for six furlongs, only to be well beaten. In all of his races he demonstrated that he was a colt of extreme speed and the Breeders Futurity, being short of the six furlongs, was just what he needed. It is probable that, had it not been for the heavy condition of the going, Candy Kid would have won with more to spare Saturday, but he was winner and that was all that was required. It may be that Candy Kid will learn to go on as a three-year-old, but at this time he merely gives promise of being a truly remarkable sprinter, with six furlongs his best 1 j j j , ! , " , ! 1 j 1 , " . 5 3 I - 5 t s .. . n j it t e " L" c !S r" ;r it 10 s" ;r e Y 13 ss se ;y Jt of f er a He e in ,n 2and son n not 03 was as her er a a at at :k route. It is to be regretted that the final day of the Lexington meeting should have been marred by a disgraceful reversal of form. That was when J. J. Troxlers King Nadi was an easy winner in fast time over the Futurity distance. In a previous start this same colt was beaten off more than a dozen lengths, while Saturday he took the lead at the rise of the barrier and : at no time was he seriously threatened. So startling was this performance that Trox- " ler was called into the stand to explain the , running of his colt, but he evidently convinced . the stewards of the honesty of his handling ; of this runner, for no action was announced. Too often on the closing day of a meeting : some unscrupulous owners are prone to play fast and loose. This is particularly applicable to the end of a season, as well as the end of a meeting. The manipulator knows he is ship- ping away to another track and that he will probably race under a new set of officials who will have no knowledge of this breach unless it merits punishment and is reported. In any event it is a safer time to monkey with the cards" than during the height of . a season. That is what makes the last day of any race season a trying one for those who sit in judg-e ment on the sport. It is not meant by this that Troxlcr was guilty of cheating with his colt. It is not meant as any criticism of the stewards in not inflicting a punishment, for they called Troxler before them and it is evident he convinced them on the honesty in the campaigning of his horses. But the fact remains that it is the last day of a meeting and preferably the last day of a season when the stewards have to use an especial vigilance. And while on this subject of the last day it might be remarked that it offers one of the strongest arguments for the paid stewards in New York. The same stewards should preside at all the race meetings and they should be men of practical racing knowledge. Time and again trainers or jockeys may ba guilty of minor infractions of the rules before one set of stewards and they may offend in the same manner before another S3t of officials. There are many offenses that are not reported from one body of stewards to the next and there are trainers who have a wholesome dread of one body of stewards, while none for those that may follow at the next meeting. It stands to reason that the stewards should always be in close touch with the form of the horses and the form of the jockeys. They must know the trainers and must know something of their methods. That knowledge can only come by constant service in the stewards stand. There is nothing more convincing than a first-hand knowledge of what is going on and no matter what the report from one board of stewards to another it cannot equal personal contact. If New York is never to have the stewards, then the next best thing would be to find a body of sportsmen who would be willing to give their time and careful attention to the racing and serve right through from the open-t ing day at Jamaica to the closing day at Em-ec pire City. There has been a consistent opposi-cc tion from the Jockey Club to the appointment of the paid stewards and it may be that New York will never have this desired change, but in all justice and for the best interests of racing the same stewards should serve right through a season. It is the only way that it is possible for them to keep alertly in touch with all that is going on in the sport.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800