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Here and There on the Turf Death of Sunny Man. Thorough Probe Needed. Victory of Maid at Arms. Overweighting Champions. The poisoning of Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sunny Man, which died in agony at Pimlico Saturday night, merits the most searching of investigations. Sunny Man, as it happens, was one of the few three year olds of 1925 worthy of high rating on the strength of his two-year-old performances. He was training for his Preakness Stakes and Kentucky Derby engagements in a fashion that suggested he had an excellent chance to be close up in either or both of the big races. The overnight race in which the ill fated Kilmer colt made hi last racing appearance, as it was run, would hardly indicate that anything had happened to the eeli before the rac?. Wallace appar ently took Sunny Man up after he was away to a good start, but the colt closed a big gap when he was released from restraint in the last quarter mile, and finished a good second behind Prince of Bourbon. It is possible that the vandals who engineered this vile plot had some financial interest in preventing him from facing the starti r in the Kentucky Derby. Just when the supposed arsenic and chloral was administered to the colt has not been established and probably will not be, but there should be enough clues, if they can only be uncovered, to lead the in vestigators to the door of tho?e responsible for the poisoning. Thus far all efforts to run down the culprits have been instituted and conducted by private enterprise. Owner Kilmer, whose feeling for the dead celt cannot be salved by in surance payments, has employed private detectives to investigate the affair and run the culprits down, if possible. The Washington Post has offered a reward of ,000 for infor mation leading to the arrest and conviction of j crsons responsible for the poisoning of Sunny Man. Naturally, the insurance companies are also active in attempting to fix the responsibility for the death of the celt. All of these attempts to trace the vandals who poisoned the hors* are to be commended, even where they are inspired by the desire to protect the interests, financial and otherwise, of those who instituted them. It is to b? hoped that they will bring about the desired results and that the vicious criminals who committed the offense can be placed behind prison bars, where they will be powerbss to repeat their act of vandalism. But thus far the official body most directly concerned with the affair in all of its ramifications has remained silent. It is possible that the Maryland State Racing Commission has taken action to investigate the crime, but no announcement to this effect has been made. The poisoning of Sunny Man is a matter in which the Maryland State Racing Commis sion and every racing association operating in that state is directly concerned. It is an indi cation that a band of criminals is operating in Maryland and that the racing interests must take drastic measures to forestall any repetition of this affair, as well as to run down the per petrators of the outrage on Sunny Man. With the present prosperous condition of the American turf it is incumbent upon the various ruling bodies and individual racing associations to take every precaution in the protection of the sport. All race tracks where horses are quartered should be adequately po liced at all hours. No suspicious characters should 1* allowed on the grounds and trainers should execise every care in selection of their stable help. Whenever a sport becomes exceptionally prosperous it is natural that a certain proportion of undesirables should be attracted to it by the promise of quick rewards. These are the men who threaten the very foundations of the turf, and they should not be given any consideration by the ruling powers of the racing world. Racing is the greatest of outdoor sports, and 1 the work of a few unscrupulous individuals must not be allowed to bring it into disrepute. jThe Sunny Man case is a glaring instance of the lengths to which these criminals will go to accomplish their ends. If the perpetrators of this crime can be run down it is to be hoped that the courts of Maryland will impose the heaviest possible penalty upon them. They are worse than thieves because they inflicted suffering and death upon a helpless dumb animal, in addition to destroying property of great value. The victory of Maid at Arms in the Phnlico Oaks Monday is further confirmation of the high class of this Man o War filly that races for the Glen Riddle Farm Stable. Mother Goose, the filly that won the Belmont Park Futurity for Harry Payne Whitney last fall, has not appeared under colors so far this spring, but she will have her work cut out to lower the colors of this fleet daughter of the wonder horse. The band that finished behind Maid at Arms in the Pimlico Oaks was not a particularly brilliant one, perhaps, but it contained the best of the three year old fillies that have facet! the barrier during the present meeting. Yet the Man o War filly just played with them all the way. She was five lengths in front of her closest pursuer at the end of the mile and a sixteenth. It has been intimated that Samuel D. Riddle, her owner, has high hopes of duplicating the feat of Nellie Morse last year with this filly. The Fisher eclors, it will be recalled, were carried to victory in the Pimlico Oaks and then in the Preakness Stakes by Nellie Morse last year. With Sunny Man dead, Master Charlie and Stimulus lame and Quatrain definitely out of the Piml.co main feature, few will be so bold as to say that owner Riddle is not more or less justified in his optimism. Maid at Arms has done everything asked cf her this spring in such a way as to indicate a quality of speed of which her two year old form gave no inkling. If she races to early promise, she may make the colts hurry greatly to beat her in the big three year old stakes of the year. All of the handicappers who have had an opportunity to express their opinions in. a list of ratings thus far this year have agreed on Sarazen as the best of the handicap division. For the Excelsior Handicap, which will feature Saturdays Jamaica card, the son of High Time and Rush Box is asked to take 136 pounds by W. S. Vosburgh. In the Clark Handicap, which will feature ChurchUl Downs racing Saturday, the champion gelding is asked to carry 135 pounds. Sarazen has proved a good weight carrier, but there is a danger that he will be too heavily weighted in many of his coming engagements if the handicappers continue to add to his burdens. He is not a robust horse and it will be a sad mistake to force him into early retirement by weighting him down excessively. The practice of piling too much weight on the good horses for the purpose of giving platers a chance in a race where they do not belong is a menace to the turf. Some arrangement should be made whereby 130 pounds is made an inflexible maximum. The range between that notch and 90 pounds should be wide enough to bring any horses that belong in a handicap together. Those which cannot be brought to an equality with the top weight within such a range belong in races for cheaper horses.
