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Here and There on the Turf Winter Season Is Here. The Rise of Sumpter. Another Juarez Rumor. Racing and the Merchants. Racing has begun for the long winter season. Jefferson Park has thrown open its gates for a meeting that is to continue for the rest of the year and Tijuana has begun its meeting that will go on continuously until well on in the spring of 1925. Most- of the racing establishments that will campaign at one or other of the winter rac3 courses have settled down into their quarters that will be home until the call of the spring takes them back to a more northern clime. With the long season ahead, the quarters have more an air of permanency than at almost any other racing ground. All of the summer circuits mean jumps from one course to another and even should permanent training quarters be established there is the constant moving of the horses to fill their engagements. Now it is only a question of the trip to the paddock. It is possible to set up a moderately permanent abode and this is the custom of ahiiost all the trainers. Like coming back to home to many of them and at every winter racing ground the first few days are brightened with the reunions of those that scatter in the spring. The opening at both Jefferson Park and Tijuana was all that could have been desired. The response to the offerings was liberal and the sport of a character that promises well for what is to come. Oriental Park is all ready for its opening Saturday and then it is that the long season will be thoroughly under way, for it also brings the closing of the season at Bowie. The Maryland track has attracted a greater number of horses than ever bsfore and the offerings were of a character that owners were loath to leave before the last race of the last day. The closing means that each of the winter racing grounds will receive many more recruits -with every train that comes from Bowie and the cessation of the Maryland season will add greatly to the promise of th.2 other racing. Robert Odoms Sumpter has just about earned his way into a place with the superior Bowie performers. That is, he is one more that finds the peculiar track to his liking. His two recent performances have been first class and his showing "Wednesday was particularly meritorious. Sumpter had been looked upon as only rather a handy selling plater, but in that race he took the measure of several of stake pretentions and he did it like a first class colt. This good son of Sandmole and Isirose, is a product of the Sanford Farm and he has shown an ability to go on that may give him an altogether greater importance next year. Sumpter is an eligible for the mile of the Endurance Handicap for the juveniles, to be run Saturday, the last day of the Bowie stakes, and on his two most recent performances he must be seriously considered. Of course in the Endurance Handicap he will be meeting a better band than he has yet been called upon to race against, but in his present condition, and over the Bowie track, he has earned the right to start against the best of them. James Rowe has signified an intention of starting both Candy Kid, winner of the Breeders Futurity at Lexington, and Noah in the Endurance and both have shown more speed than Sumpter, but he is undoubtedly a better stayer. Then it is probable that J. E. Griffiths good colt Single Foot, winner of the Waldca Handicap at Pimlico will be another of the Saturday starters. He is one that will have a great following for it is doubtful if there is a more popular horse in Maryland. The improved form of Sumpter is just one more reason why the "Endurance Handicap should prove a stake of fitting importance for the Bowie meeting. Ever since the closing of the Juarez track there have been announcements from time to time of a proposed resumption of racing at that little Mexican town that adjoins El Paso. Thus far nothing has come of all this but the talk and Juarez remains dark. Now there is a brand new schame and the merchants of El Paso are back of the movement. "Word comes from El Paso that the merchants have subscribed i a sum of 0,000 to guarantee against loss for a reopening of the Mexican course. It is also proposed that every effort will be made to have Colonel Matt Winn and his associates agree to give a meeting next spring. This looks well on paper, but it is doubtful if anything will come of the desired revival of the sport. With Tijuana, New Orleans, Miami and Havana all conducting winter meetings there is scant room for another course. Of course, it is possible that Juarez would speedily take its place and prove a paying venture, but the fact that the others are established would make it something of a trick to lure horses away from any one of them to Juarez. When Colonel Winn established the racing at Juarez several thoroughly successful meetings were conducted. Much of the racing was carried on while Mexico was harassed by Pancho Villa and it had handicaps that hav never been experienced by other racing associations. But the able management of Colonel Winn brought the racing safely through. Should Colonel Winn be induced to lend his talents and his energies to the rc-establish- ment of the sport at Juarez it would undoubtedly be a go. That, at this time, seems to be tha only chance. Colonel Winn is the one man who can bring the racing back to Juarez and, if the merchants of El Paso would succeed in their desire for the sport, they must first induce Colonel Winn to lend his valuable aid. One other lesson is taught by this effort on the part of the merchants to bring back the Juarez sport. It is that racing is of direct and lasting benefit to the business interests of any community. It is a sport that brings a flood of money to the city and the followers of the races are proverbially good spenders, They live well and they pay well as they go. That is the reason for merchants lending their support. No matter what line of business there is a direct benefit when there comes a lon.g season of racing. There is new money left in the community that only comes there by reason of the racing. It is no wonder that far-seeing merchants, whether or not they are attracted to the sport of racing, see a direct business benefit in the sport. They know that those who come to their city, only by reason of the races, must live while they are there. They must be clothed and they must be amused. They pay as they go and pay liberally. It is purely a business venture with the merchants when they contribute to any fund seeking to bring about a long season of racing. It is remembered that long ago when the late Charles S. Bush was induced to open up the Fair Grounds at New Orleans, for a season of racing, he asked for financial aid from merchants. These merchants contributed to. a fund to guarantee against loss and in one season the sport became a fixture. Following seasons many of the same merchants desirad to subscribe again, and be counted in on any dividends that might come from the racing, but Mr. Bush kept the racing for himself. The merchants wanted to see to it that the racing would continue. They knew it meant much to the city. It grew and prospered for years under the able Bush direction, but after that first season the merchants had to be content with the increased business that came by reason of the racing, without sharing in the dividends of the association. There are many merchants now in New Orleans who remember how they helped along with the first of the Charles S. Bush meetings at the Fair Grounds and it is doubtful if any one of them wont admit that it brought dollars and business to the city that would not have come except for the racing.
