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Here and There on the Turf Victory for Racing. Attacks on Miami. Oaks a Kentucky Test. Appleton Chase Saturday. One more effort to harrass the racing at Miami has met with failure. The bill that sought to stamp out racing in the state of Florida has been killed in the Senate. It is i unfortunate that to a gr?at extent the attacks I against the Miami Jockey Club come only as j a penalty for the success that attended the inaugural me?ting. These attacks for the most part are supported, and in fact instituted, not on moral grounds, but by those who hope to profit if racing should b? abolished. They are attacks by the men who from the beginning predicted failure for the Miami Jockey Club and by some men who have other interests in | : racing elsewhere. This is on-" of the penalities! | for the tremendous success that attended the initial race meeting in southern Florida. There n?ver was a better conducted meeting than that of the Miami Jockey Club and there never was a meeting that was more deserving of the marvelous support that was accorded by the public. Miamians. by their magnificent support of the racing, demonstrated that they were heartily for the sport. Then at the con elusion of the meeting the business men. through their Chamber of Commerce, end-rsed the Miami Jockey Club for its clean meeting and commended it for the real good that was done Miami by reason of the racing. If ever there was a question that should properly be one of local option it is racing, and Miami is overwhelmingly for racing. It is devoutly to be hoped that the law makers of Florida will continue along the lines they have followed in these attacks again-t the Miami Jockey Club. They are to be commended for what they have already done La relation to these vicious attacks and su?h racing as was conducted by the Miami Jockey Club from January 15 to March 15 needs t.o champion. The days have gone by when apol ugies must be made for racing. It is :he greatest of all sports and year after year it his been steadily growing in popular favor. It is despicable to have those whose only interests are racing interest champion attacks against the sport frcm which they have obtained so much. These are the men who work j a greater harm than those outside the sport. It is internal strife that is the hardest to combat and it has been internal strife more than anything else that has from time to time brought racing into bad ways. When the plans of the Miami Jcckey Club were first announced there were many men, comparative ly big on the turf, who ridiculed the idea of its b"ing possible to conduct a race meeting in Florida. Wagers were offered that the track would never have opened, or if the gates were opened, the meeting would not continue a week. They did all in their power to harm the project when they should have been offering aid to any club that propos?d such a bene ficial broadening of the turf. Then when the Miami Jockey Club more than made good its every promise, when the success warranted additional liberality in the matter of purses, these same parasites of the turf continued their fight against the new racing ground. They were not sportsmen enough to admit defeat and take that defeat as every sportsman should tak defeat, but they continued to endeavor to place every ob stacle in the way of the meeting. The racing at Miami undoubtedly hurt the racing in Havana seriously, but it only hurt Havana for the reason that it offered a better brand of racing and infinitely more liberal purses. It was racing that attracted and held a better patronage and racing that was better from every angle. Tnere is only one legitimate manner to compete with such a meeting. That way will be to offer the inducements that will bring the racing in Cuba to a point where it would make a legitimate bid for the patronage To seek a passage of a law that would wipe out the racing in Florida is a befouling of iite sport that is not excusable. It is not known positively that the Havana J interests have done this thing. But it i-known that they were advised to take such a course, when it became apparent that Miaiji had a tremendous importance in winter re ing. This is not directed at Havana but at those who were known to have worked iusi li ously and constantly against the Mjaini Jocki v Club. With the recent victories that have come over the enemies of racing in Fljrida it would seem that the sport is more firmly entrench,* J in that state than ever before. Three year old fillies will meet in an im I portant race at Churchil Downs Saturday with the running of the Kentucky Oaks. This is a race with 0,000 added over a mile and an eighth distance and it is of equal antiquity with the Kentucky Derby, being first run in 1875. At this time its renewal promises to be strictly a Kentucky affair, for in the list of twelve probable starters no eastern stable is repre sented. It was not that the Oaks did not at [ track nominations from New York, but the ! New Yorkers would not be en hand for the j running of the race. Among those with eligi | bles in the East are William Woodward, W. R. !coe. Marshall Held, Walter M. Jeffords, Willis Sharpe K lmer. II. W. Maxwell. Rancocas I Stable, Walter J. Salmon and H. P. Whitney. | But without any from the Fast the fiel ] should be a representative one and among those that are considered as almost sure starters are Lit I tie Visitor, Kitty Pat, Rothermel, Sweep Park. I Bigncn a, Miranda. Sola Mia, Deeming, Cream Puff, Cross Village, Riviera and Helen Carter I From such a list there should come a good race. One of the most important of spring crosscountry events is down for decision Saturday at Belmont Park in the Charles L. Appleton Memorial. This race has a guaranteed value of 0,000. as well as a challenge cup that is presented by the Greentrce Stable. There are forty five nominations for this coming renewal and they comprise the best in the country- The steeplechasing thus far this year has b?en thoroughly interesting and much credit is due Joseph E. Davis and his associates who revived that interest in the scheme whereby several ready made jumpers were brought to this country. The coming of these hcrscs induced the buying of others until now ihe turf is liberally supplied with steeplechase material. With the coming of these horses associations have done their part in affording the jumpers better and more frequent opportunity and altogether the cross country racing is coming back to its proper importance,
