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HISTORY OF UNITED HUNTS *_ . Interestingly Told in Booklet Issued to Association Members. « Organization Was Effected by Seven Sportsmen in March, 1905, and Is Now at Its Peak. ■ » NEW YORK, N. Y., April 12.— The United Hunts Racing Association, of which John McEntee Bowman is president, has announced its spring meeting to take place Saturday. April 25, and Monday, April 27. at Belmont Park with a card of seven flat and jumping races on the first day and ! six on the second day. The meeting will ! i be the opening of the thoroughbred racing J j season in the metropolitan district and sec-j retary H. A. Buck promises an excellent card ! for each day. Members of the United Hunts have re- | I cently received an interesting souvenir of the association in the form of an illustrated booklet, containing a complete roster of United Hunts members and a comprehensive historical sketch of the organization. OLD RACING PICTURE. The front cover carries a reproduction of an old racing picture, showing horses in a hurricane finish sweeping past the crude old- fashioned grandstand at Newmarket in the | latter part of the eighteenth century, with j a little group of spectators. The association j slogan "For Sports Sake and Better Sport," I is displayed above the quaint old cut. Some I of the other illustrations are almost as I quaint in their way, and afford an interesting demonstration of the contrasting styles in the past two decades. The story of the United Hunts Racing ! I Association, as outlined in the brief hls-I torical sketch included in the Hunts book-j let. abounds in valuable turf data, personal mention of notable figures identified with | amateur racing in this country, and includes | authoritative and well-told memories of the ■ outstanding big days in the various meetings j held by the United Hunts Racing Association ■ since its organization. ORGANIZATION MEETING. The story of its inception and earliest be-[ ginnings is in itself of absorbing interest. I It is told in the booklet as follows : "Late in the afternoon of March 31, 1905, j in a room in the Metropolitan Club, New-York City, a meeting was held that was des-I tincd to play a momentous part in the realm • of amateur sport. Only seven men were I present and their deliberations were brief, but when they adjourned they had written | a page in American turf history, for then and there they laid the foundations of the | Tatted Hunts Racing Association, an organ-ization which from its inception to the present time has exerted a constantly in-j creasing influence for the betterment of ama-I teur racing and the improvement of the race horse." The seven men who thus achieved fame for their part in launching the United Hunts Continued on second page. | j ! i ; : ! I [ HISTORY OF UNITED HUNTS Continued from first page. were Perry Belmont, P. F. Collier, Ralph N. Ellis, Joseph P. Grace, Henry J. Morris, II. S. Page and Belmont Purdy. They showed that they were in earnest and anxious to attain their announced object, which was to arrange a steeplechase meeting for the ensuing autumn, by effecting an organization and incorporating by the following July. The first officers were Perry Belmont, president ; Howard N. Potter, vice-president ; Ralph N. Ellis, treasurer ; Belmont Purdy, secretary. FIRST RACE MEETING. The first meeting held at Morris Park, Westchester County, October 21, 25 and 28, 1903, was remarkable in a number of its aspects. Rarely has there been a meeting at which the steeplechase was more elaborately exploited. There were four steeplechases in the first two days, a flat race for hunters, and the Galloway Scurry, while for the third day there were five stceple-Icfcaasa, one of which was the Military steeplechase, the premier of all military steeplechases in this country. An interesting view of the opening day of this inaugural meeting at Morris Park is shown. The photograph gives a eyeloramie view of the race course and the lawn, on which a large assembly of New Yorks ultra-f:ushionnble horse lovers is seen. Even a man can recognize at a glance that this is a gathering of superlatively stylishly garbed women, but the style of a bygone day. The United Hunts held its 1906 meeting at the Benning course, Washington, D. C, but from that time on until 1922, all meetings wen held at the Belmont Park Terminal. Since 1922 all the meetings have been held at Belmont Park. The booklet pays a de-! served tribute to the high courage and resolve of the United Hunts as follows: •The prime object of the United Hunts has ever been the encouragement of amateur sport and the advancement of stceplechasing. Its members have always been ready and ca?er to make sacrifices for Sports Sake and Better Sport. their slogan. For this reason they pluckily carried on year after year at Belmont Park Terminal, without a sv.-ttid or other conveniences, arranging splen- did programs and surprisingly large purses for events which only a comparative handful of sport lovers saw. And during the dark da;. i of 1919-1* when racing was discori-l iii cl on all the big tracks in New York state, the United Hunts came to the front in the interest of the sport. Its meetings, with those of the Piping Rock Racing Association, were the only ones held la the state during that period, and were largely responsible for keeping racing alive and interesting other amateurs who since then have attained eminence in the turf world." John McEntee Bowman was elected president of the United Hunts Racing Association in 192ft succeeding I. J. It. Muurling. Mr. Bowman is the associations third president, and since his election to office the membership of the United Hunts has quadrupled. Among other innovations to Mr. Bowmans credit is the United Hunts annual dinner, the first of which was held Friday, October 31, 1924, at the Biltmore. The dinner was a huge success and president Bowman predicted that every succeeding one in the 1 future would be larger and more important. ! The late Maj. August Belmont was one i of the honor guests and in one of the last .public utterances of his life praised the | United Hunts and called it the cradle of ! amateur racing in this part of the country. The little history includes references to I salient turf events and mention of brilliant performers, among others the Sportsmans j Steeplechase Dinner Stakes, a private sweep-1 stakes, which took place at the United : Hunts spring meeting at Belmont Terminal i in 1912, the field of nine, including such well-known amateurs as F. Skiddy von | State, Henry L. Bell, B. B. Lewis, F. Am-I brose Clark. Charles L. Appleton, G. F. Al-, pers, M. Clapp, S. Stich and M. Bamberger. The winner was Mr. Archdales Gold Plate, i with Mr. von Stade up, in a close finish with ; Mr. Bells Tyosa. This was considered one ] of the best contests, gentlemen riders in the saddle, held in this country in recent years. It tells of the great racing in 1916 spring and autumn meetings, and describes the bril-i liant triumphs of Cherry Malotte in the Great United Hunts Steeplechase, at two and one-half miles, and the Queens Steeplechase Handicap over a three-mile course against j two remarkably high-class fields. It tells of the victory scored by August Belmonts Top Bat in the Turf and Field Handicap In the 1916 spring meeting. Top Hat, a brother of the great Tracery, is now in the stud in Kentucky. He is owned by John McEntee Bowman. The surprising defeat sustained by the ■ great Exterminator, winner of the Kentucky Derby, when Joseph E. Wideners Kilts II. outran him at Belmont Park Terminal la 1 19 IS, is also recalled.
