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Here and There on the Turf Bowie Meeting Ends. Open Date in Schedule. Havre de Grace Importance. Local Season Approaches. . _ -— — — — — — .____ ___ — — — — — — — With the eleven days meeting of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Association just closed at the Bowie track, the new northern racing saason has fairly begun. It was a tremendous success frcm the beginning and for the most part a meeting that was marked by formful racing. One exception was the case of Vexation, which was told of when that horse offended. But with all the success of the first meeting there was a lack of horses of good class. Secretary McLennan obtained remarkable results when the grade of the horses on hand is taken into consideration. He brought about fine contests, but it was necessary to have a preponderance of races for cheap ones to take care of the material on hand. Arabian, for a time, promises to be one of the developments of the meeting, but his race in the Prince Georges Handicap to an extent exploded the idea that he is a good-class horse. Then Dr. OMara was another whose Princ? Georges Handicap race upset theories of his ability. But Reparation came back brilliantly, while Ijeopardess, winner of the Inaugural Handicap, by her race in the Prince Georg?s Handicap, added to her reputation. Navigator, the son of Broomstick and Alster Cress, and accordingly a brother to Moonraker, was undoubtedly the best of the two-year-olds raced during the meeting. His race Saturday was enough to give him that proud distinction. For a time in the running of that half mils he was last of the field of nine that started and he was forced to come around them a!l to be the winner. He has b»gun his racing career in a fashion that may take him far this year, but of course it is still too early to attempt to name a possible champion two-year-old. More will have to be asked of all before a champion can be chosen with any certainty. In allotting the dates for the spring racing in Maryland the commission so arranged the schedule that today is shipping day from I Bowie to Havre de Grace. The thirteen days meeting of the Harford Association begins tomorrow and, as usual, it is the Harford Handicap that is the opening feature. That ! I is a three-quarters dash, to which ,000 ■ i added, and the nominations for its renewal never before contained the names of such notable eligibles. This race did not close until April 4, and with such a late closing it is natural to expect a greater number of acceptances than would be the case with an early closing. By that time a trainer should have an excellent line on the chances of his sprint ers for a race to be run April 15. It is at this meeting that many of Ihe candidates for the greatest three year old races of the year will make their first appearance. Probably some of them will be shown in the Harford Handicap, but even should the best of them decline there are other opportunities and the best of these is the Chesapeake Stakes to be run on the last day of the meeting, April 29. This is a mile and a sixteenth dash, to which 0,000 is added and it is the most im-portant of the offerings for that age. No matter how important the early stake offerings become, there are many trainers who will always wait with their horses until at least the end of April before bringing out the best. Time was when it was the middle of May or even June before the good ones put in an appearance. The late General Stephen I ! I i Sanford, who bred and raced many a champion, seldom showed his colors until the August meeting at Saratoga Springs. There have been great changes in this practice of the big stables since the sport came to such an importance in Maryland and now the stable that is not ready for Havre de Grace and PimUco will miss many a truly important racing opportunity. For that reason the meeting to open Wednesday will introduce moft of the prominent of Eastern racing stables. Ten days after the beginning of the racing at Havre de Grace the Kentucky campaign will begin at the Lexington track. That is always a tremendously important part of the racing of every year. Kentucky has a great army of turfmen who year after year confine practically all of their racing activity to that state. With the sport moving from Lexington to Louisville and then to Latonia, there is offered every chance and ample opportunity for the thoroughbreds, while for those who want continuous racing there is the big meeting at Hawthorne that fills in until the fall racing begins on the Kentucky circuit. Still others put in the month of August at Saratoga Springs, where fur many years the best of the East and West have been brought together. But with the increased importance of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and the big stake races at Latonia, the eastern aspirants to championships make frequent trips to Kentucky before August, until Saratoga is not the testing ground it was before these big Kentucky races came to their present importance. Then, simultaneously with the opening of the me3ting at Lexington, the thoroughbred returns to New York with the first day of the United Hunts Association meeting at Belmont Park. The secend day will be April 27 and on April 29 the Metropolitan Jockey Club will inaugurate the first meeting of the tracks of The Jockey Club. Ihe open spring has made it possible for the trains to have their horses further ad vanced than has been usual at this time of the year and when Jamaica opens its gates it j will be found that many of the sterling eligible | to the Paumonok Handicap will be fit and j ready. There is little chance now for any in- j terruption of training by reason of stress of , weather and thus far the various Long Island j training grounds have been singularly free I from sickness, that is an ever present danger in ■ changing seasons. The United Hunts meeting will be a delight- • ful curtain raiser for the big racing season j and John McEntee Bowman and his associates of that sporting organization have made the program so attractive that some of the best will ! be seen under colors before the opening at Jamaica. Frederick Johnsons Quatrain, wjnnni of ,he , New Oilcans Handicap, as well as the Louisiana Derby, has a great chance to duplicate the ! feat of Mrs. Hoots Black Geld last year, when ; the latter was winner of both the Louisiana and the Kentucky Derbys. Quatrain is training exceedingly well at Churchill Downs and in his last move he gave further evidence of his ability to race through heavy going. Trainer Harmon permitted him to gallop along for a mile in 1 :461/i and it was surely a creditable performance. What was of especial merit was the even pace that was maintained by the son of Omar Khayyam and Bonnie Mary. Covering the first quarter in :26yr„ he put in a second in :24% ; his third quarter was covered in 26 % seconds and his final quarter in 27 seconds. He demonstrated in both of his notable New Orleans victories that he is a stayer, so that he has now shown convincingly that ho has the Derby qualifications and an ability to race through muddy going that would better his chance with such a track condition prevailing on May 16. It is expected that before long " Quatrain will be shipped to Maryland, for the express intention of Mr. Johnson was to have him try for both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby.
