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Here and There on the Turf Preakness Importance. Training Casualties. Policing the Tracks. Two Jockey Contracts. Friday at PimLeo most of tbe leading three year olds that have stood the rigors of training this spring, will face the barrier in the 0,000 Preakness Stakes. Quatrain, the Kentucky Derby future choice, and some of the other colts that have been in training in the West, will not be sent East for tho Preakness Stakes, but it is already certain that the Maryland Jockey Oub feature will attract a thoroughly worthy field. The Preakness Stakes has attained high importance during recent years, an import ance which is only partially due to it« liberal en dowment. It is the first of the big three-year old stake rac? to be decided each year and its winner attains a high standing at once among the big money winners of the year. Winners of the Preakness Stakes of late years have not carried on particularly well through the remainder of the racing season. Whether the rushing of their preparation for this race had anything to do with this condition or not is a question, but the fact remains that s-ince the victories of Sir Barton in 1919 and Man o War in 1920, the winners of this stake race have failed to race back to their Preakness Stakes form in later starts. In 1921 the ill fated Broomspun won the Preakness Stakes for Harry Payne Whitney. A short time afterward he met with a mishap and was dostroyed. In 1922 Pillory carried the colors of R. T. Wilson to victory in the big race. He became the greatest money winner of the year by winning the Belmont Stakes later on, but that was the only victory for the Wil«on colt after his success in the Preakness Stakes. Then in 1923 W. J. Salmons Vigil won the race. He failed to score another victory during the rest of the year. And Nellie Morse which won the big event for H. C. Fisher last year, did not take another race through the remainder of the racing season. The action of president Joseph E. Widener of th Westchester Racing Association in ar ranging for a force of guards to protect the 1 grounds and stables at Belmont Park at all hours is to be commended. Daily Racing | Form has repeatedly stressed the importance of an adequate policing of the tracks at night. j not only to safeguard the properties of the i associations, but to protect the thoroughbred i tenants cf the stables from the work of prowlers and unscrupulous hangers-on. President Widener in taking the initiative, in this matter has given the movement to police the tracks a great impetus. Although . ! the other associations in The Jockey Club ! circuit have not a« yet defin tcly adopted the Widener program, it is intimated that they ! intend to do so. This policy should be extended not only to all New York tracks, but to all tracks in the country. Such incidents as the alleged poisoning of Sunny Man at Havre de Grace and a reported | case of "night riding" earlier in the Maryland 1 racing season serve to emphasize the necessity for such precautions. j It is better to do as the Westchester Racing I Association has done and take measures to prevent such incidents in advance, rath-r than wait for such things to happen before considering remedies for dangerous conditions. The number of casualties among the three-year-olds training for the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby this spring has been 1 unusually high. Ponaibly the number of horses in this age division which have gone wrong j i i . ! ! ! | 1 j I 1 during their preparation has been no higher i j than usual, but the mishaps have struck the1 1 stars of the division almost exclusively. Natur j I ally they have attracted mere attention thnn i J would have been the case if less important horses were affected. In 1924 Wise Counsellor, Sarazen and St. James, the winter choices for the Derby, all went wrong before the running of the big ! race. Sarazen and Wise Counsellor later proved their high class in actual racing vfcan ! they had recovered from their injuries, but | they had missed their opportunities in the early richest races for horses of their age. This year Master Charlie, Stimulus. Sumpter I and Mark Master are among the Derby candidates that have gone wrong in training. ! I Master Charlie was tbe most highly considered of all, but Stimulus had many friends as well. Robert Odom thought well of Sumpters chances and Mark Master was training in a j way that led his supporters to expect much of j him. I Quatrain, the present favorite, for a time threatened to go wrong also as a result of an injury to a frog, but he has recovered completely from this difficulty and promises to go to the post a thoroughly sound horse. If he goes to the poet and wins the Ken.ucky Derby he will be the second Louisiana Derby , , i j 1 j I i J ! ! | I ! I j j I , , winner in successive years to score in the Blue Grass feature. Black Gold, after winning the Jefferson Park three year-old event last year at New Orleans, went on to Churchill Downs to take the Kentucky Derby. Two important jockey contracts wer? reported as arranged Tuesday. Clarrnce Kum mer, generally recoeniied as second only to Earl Sande in riding ability, assigned second call upon his services to the stable of Gifford A. Cochran, end Albert Johnson, essaying a comeback after a considerable period of idleness, affiliated himself with the Glen Riddle1 Farm establishment. Kummer is reported to be receiving 5,000 for second cal from the Cochran establishment. wh?reas the Log Cabin Stable of W. A. Harri-man has first call and is paying him only .2,000. This is a peculiar situation, but is probably due to the fact that the shortage of good riders in the face of a greatly increased demand just now becoming strongly evident, i has resulted in making Kummers value in- create materially since he came to terms with i the Harriman stable. In any case Kummer will have a busy sea-, son, as the Harriman stable, through the acquisition of the racing stable of the late August Belmont, ha3 grown almost overnight from a small establishment to a decidedly impressive one. The Cochran horses are now in charge of William Duke, who resigned his position as trainer for the fabulously wealthy Aga Khan in France to assume his present duties. He has ambitious plans fcr the stable and expects to have plenty of use for a capable rider. Albert Johnson has been showing excellent form in Maryland since his return to the saddle some days ago and it is natural that his services should be sought after by stables not already well equipped with riding material. Johnson, wh;n he is paying strict attention to business and taking his saddle work seriously, is worthy to rank among the best jockeys in the country. In the past he has been inclined to take his responsibilities to himself and his employers too lightly at times and has consequently failed to hold his own with r.ders much his inferior in natural ability. •
