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Here and There on the Turf Fleischmanns Good Stable. St. James to the Stud. Value of Winter Racing. Some Futurity History, There was an important addition to the racing material for the 1925 season when the Minnewaska docked in New York after a stormy voyage of eleven days. This Atlantic transport liner brought over the foreign purchases of Julius Fleischmann and they were brought over by Thomas McCreery, who will train them for the Middle Neck Farm, the name under which Mr. Fleischmann races. The Fleischmann silks, from time to time, have played an important part in American racing and they have been carried by many a horse of high quality. Julius Fleischmann is comparatively a newcomer to racing, but the manner in which he is coming to the turf promises that all of the old glory of that family of turfmen will be brilliantly restored. Last season there were some smart jumpers shown under the silks of the Middle Neck Farm, but for 1925 the racing establishment becomes much more pretentious and the flat runners will outnumber those that will race through the field. All of these purchases were richly bred and fifteen are- yearlings of French parentage. The older horses that have already been to the races have performances as well as blood lines to recommend them and some of these will be used to strengthen the steeplechase division that will be raced by Mr. Fleischmann. Altogether the coming of these horses was a big event for the turf and racing is to be congratulated on their safe arrival in this country. When St. James went amiss, after having been winner of the Paumonok Handicap the opening day of the New York season, April 29, the season lost a colt that was confidently expected to be the best of the year. In that one start St. James ran the six furlongs over the Jamaica course in 1:11 to make a show of Zev and the best lot of sprinters that could be mustered against him. St. James was started six times as .a two-year-cld and he was winner of the United States Hotel Stakes, the Saratoga Special and the Futurity "at Belmont Park. Following that running the son of Ambassador IV. and Bobolink IT., was intended for the mile of the Pim-lico Futurity. Unfortunately he did not train to the satisfaction of A. J. Joyner, who developed him and he was not seen under silks after his Futurity victory until he won the Paumonok Handicap last spring. Again he went amiss and that was the one race he ran as a three-year-old. This was destined to be the last race for St. James for he has been retired to George D. Wideners Elmendorf Stud in Kentucky. The passing of St. James from racing is to be deplored, for Joyner, than whom there is no better judge of a horse, repeatedly said that this colt was the fastest one he had ever trained. Retiring to the stud in the lusty vigor of youth St. James will undoubtedly be a valuable addition to the stock horses of the country, but it is unfortunate that he could not have trained on to the greatness on the turf that had been predicted for him by his astute trainer. Some idea is had of the number of horses that are engaged in winter racing at Jefferson Park, Havana and Tijuana when there were 248 named for the Wednesday sport. At Jcf- ferson Park, with seven races, there were 97 horses attracted. Tijuana with its eight races brought out 76 entries, while there were 75 named for the six races at Havana. That tells the story of how the winter racing has grown and the story of its importance. To a great extent the stables that are campaigning through the winter months are made up of horses that race right through the year. They are stables controlled for the most part by sportsmen to whom racing is a profession. They stick to it summer and winter and some of them indeed must keep going twelve months in the year. Then there are several others, in racing purely for the sport, who have such an abundance of horses that they have both a winter string and a summer string. The top notchers, of stake quality, are rested up through the winter months and reserved for what is offered through the spring, summer and fall seasons. The winter string is recruited from those that do not exactly measure up to the stake, or summer quality, that is required. From time to time one of these horses, that has been sentenced to a winter track, develops a form that will carry him far among the best of them when he comes back the next season. Frequently -the winter racing has uncovered a Master Charlie or a Black Gold, but in most cases the horse that is campaigned through the winter is not looked upon as a Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont possibility. This does not mean that the winter colonies at the different race courses is an inferior one. Horsemen have found that out to their sorrow when they had , hopes of winning purses with cheap horses by reserving them for such a campaign, but it is the exception I when a recognized champion, or one of potcn- tial possibilities, is kept racing through December, January, February and March. There must be steady employment for the thoroughbreds to keep pace with the production and the winter tracks play an important part in furnishing that employment. The number of entries for the Wednesday races is the best answer to the need for winter racing. And this same winter racing, season after season, becomes more attractive. The increase in the prize money induces the keeping in training of better horses than before and at the rate the sport has been growing the stake horses will soon know less of a winter of idleness. At the Fair Grounds, in New Orleans, there is to be a 5,000 prize to be decided on February 7. This is the New Orleans Handicap of a mile and a sixteenth, the entries for which are to close January 15. Such a prize as this is a tempting inducement to keep the best of them going through the winter months, and it is only one of the opportunities that come in the winter season. In less than a month, January 3, to be exact, the nominations are to close for the 1927 Futurity, to be run at Belmont Park. For this running the famous old prizs will have an altogether new importance. The West chester Racing Association is to add 5,000 to that running, and it has been conservatively estimated that the race will have a value of approximately 00,000. The Futurity is an inheritance from the old Coney Island Jockey Club and it had its first running at Sheepshead Bay in 1888, when Bryant and Scoggans Proctor Knott was winner over James B. Haggins mighty Salvator. The value for that running was 0,000. The race reached the peak of its Value in 1890, when August Belmonts Potomac and Masher finished first and second. That vear it was worth 7,675 to the winner. It reached the low mark in 1912, when George W. Lofts Papp was victor. That year the Futurity was reaping the benefit of the disasters that were brought to the turf by adverse legislation. That year it was worth just 5,600. From that time the Futurity began to climb Lack to the Potomac year and for the running last September, when H. P. Whitneys Mother Goose was winner, it had a value of 5,730, making it the second richest running in the long and glorious history of the race. It is probable that the Potomac year will be passed for 1927, and then, with the 5,000 added for that running, an entirely new money value record will be established. .
