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i 1 Here and There the Turf on 1 , — — c Damage at Miami. 3 Prospects at Jamaica. Sister to Paddy. 5 Fever at Lexington. « 6 It is fortunate that the beautiful new race I course of the Miami Jockey Club should have suffered little injury from the tornado that swept over the Hi ale ah portion of Florida, doing much damage in that vicinity. The . damage at the track consisted of the tearing out of a corner of one stable. The damage will [ not amount to more than 00, it is said. Elaborate plans have been made for additions to the capacity of the stand of the Hia- , leah course, but that work had not been begun at this time. With the issuing of the program bock of the opening meeting of the New York racing season, the fact is brought home that the season is almost here. As usual the Paumonok Handicap will be the opening feature of the Metropolitan Jcckey Club at Jamaica and, as usual, it will attract a particularly speedy field of sprinters. And it will not b? confined to the sprinters, for many a horse of more ability than mere sprinting tries for this opening stake race, as a glance at the roster of its winners will divulge. This year among the names are found Sara-ten. the 1924 champion; Wise Counsellor and Ladkin, the two other conquerors of Epinard, the French champion; Worthmore, Stimulus, Nicholas, Nellie Morse, the Preakness Stakes winner of last year; Sunny Man. Maud Muller, Swinging and many others of high repute. Then there is the Kings County, the Excelsior and the Long Beach handicaps. A new stake race of great importance 13 the Wood Stakes, for three year-olds. This is a mile and seventy yards dash, with 0,000 value, and is one of the most important of the early races for three year-olds. It is named in memory of the late Eugene D. Wood, one of the chief stockholders of the Metropolitan Jockey Club. In the list of eligibles are found the names of most of the candidates for the . big three-year-old stakes. This race is to be decided Saturday. May 2, and it is a date that in no manner interferes with the Preakness I Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on May 8, or the Kentucky Derby, to be decided at Churchill | Downs on May 16. In fact, its date would | make it a first-class preliminary for these I 0,000 races. John Hertz is the proud possessor of a sister f of Paddy, recent winner of the Liverpool I Spring Cup. This is a daughter of Golden Sun I and Shanogup, and she cos-t the Chicago sports man ,850 as a fcal at the December sales. . This miss is in this country now and, taking a line through Paddy, it is entirely probable » that she brings new fame to the silks of the » Ijcona Farm. Another blood reason for the ? success of this filly is the fact that Golden Sun, her daddy, also sired Marshall Fields e good filly Golden Corn. Even should this Hertz filly fail to attain any greatness on the turf, her importation i means the bringing over of desirable blood to i this country, and she has even- reason to become a successful matron when her racing ■ days are over. It was expected that with the increased taxation - on the half mile courses in Ontario, i, bringing the levy up to the ,500 charged j the mile tracks, that several of the half miler.-would . enlarge their plants to a mile. There e was every business reason for building a huf f mile ring, rather than a mile, when the tax . I | | I f I I . » » ? e i i ■ - i, j . e f was only ,500 a day for the half mile, and! ,500 a day for the mile, but with a flat tax! of ,500 for both, the mile becomes much I more desirable. The new track at Niagara I Falls is the first to promise a mile instead of the half mile, and doubtless others will follow suit. Reports are that the epidemic of catarrhal fever that worked such havoc at the Lex-l ington track has about been conquered and j it is expected that the bill of health will be a , clean one before the opening of the meeting 1 on April 25. The death toll has been very heavy at the course of the Kentucky Association, and some particularly promising thor oughbreds have been sacrificed, but there ha« been every precaution taken to keep the lis ease confined to one section of the course. It is natural that the epidemic should have worked a great hardship, but it cannot seri-r ously affect the meeting, now that it has been segregated and just about brought uncbr controL Undoubtedly the sickness prevented some stables that had intended raring at Lex-i ington from shipping hor.-es there. Plans have been changed, but there are more than enough fit horses on hand to carry out the big pro-i gram of the association, and it is expected that the opening of the Kentucky racing season will be an eminently successful one. There were two performances at Bowie Monday that were just a bit hard to explain. Tkev were the races run by Myrtle Belle and Roller. Myrtle Belle finished last in a five and a half furlongs sprint which went to St. Valentine, while Roller was utterly disgraced by a lot of cheap ones in a race of a mile and a six ternth that went to Tarrayce C. Myrtle Belle has had a lot of racing at Mis ami and she recently raced second to Noah j , 1 at Bowie. It is entirely possible that she has had too much campaigning, but her race was too altogether bad even making every allowance for her being overraced. Roller in hb previous race showed an abundance of speed, but came back just about as slow a horse as could well be imagined. Of course, when horses have so little claim to any grade of class as those that met in the race in which Roller offended, it is nonsense to expect any great degree of consistency. Then an alibi that has been offered is that 1 , j Roller is a confirmed stall walker. That may have been reason enough for his showing, but j I it takes many an excuse to satisfy the public j when horses perform as did Myrtle Belle and RoUer.
