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Twenty Years Ago Today Chief Turf Events of May 5, 1905 Racing at Belmont Park, Lexington, Kansas City. San Francisco, Union Park and Fair Grounds at St. Louis. Belmont Park was opened today and the Metropolitan Handicap was the big feature of the afternoons program witnessed by 50,000 race fans. The officials were wrong when they advert ieed that everything would b? ready. A thousand or more details had been overlooked and this caufed no end of inconvenience. The track was not nearly finished and after the races were over the traffic facilities were utterly inadequate. Regarding the Metropolitan, Sysonby and Race King ran a dead heat, but trainer James Rowe was lucky in that O. L. Richards did not insist on running it off, for Sysonby was dead on his feet and could hardly have gone to the poet a second time. Rowe had spread it broadcast before the opening race that he would run Sysonby in the Inaugural, but at the last moment scratched Delhi from the Metropolitan and sent Sysonby after the money instead. Running the wrong way of the track may be all right, but it causes confusion and a bad accident would not be at all surprising. Turn ing for home Sysonby and Race King, th? leaders, naturally bore out until they reached the outside rail. This helped Sysonby, for he was on a hard strip of ground, while Race King had to fight his way in six inches of dust. Thi3 dust is the cause of complaint from horsemen. They claim th* footing is not secure. In the run to the wire Sysonby and Race King fought it out hammer and tongs and at the finish were so close together that the judges could not separate them and it wa3 declared a dead heat. Sysonby, a three-year-old, was conceding chunks of weight to everything in the race save Beldame. The latter finished ninth in the field of twelve, whil? Colonial Girl was the third horse at the finish.
