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Here and There on the Turf Aurora Racing Today. Madden Makes a Sale. Reasons for Success. Nominating in Futures. Captain Hals Score. Today marks the inauguration of racing in Illinois for the year 1925. The sport will b? inaugurated at Aurora to continue for twenty-one days. There were misrvings earlier in the spring whether or not a meeting at Aurora would be possible because of differences be tween the leasees and owners of the track. However, an amicable understanding was arrived at and the meeting beginning today will be conducted under the auspices of the newly organized Exposition Park Jockey Club. The best officials available were obtained to preside over the racing and the liberal purse of ferings have attracted not only a goodly num. ber of horses, but a better class of racers than were seen at Aurora last year. As nearly all these horses have been in training for some time, having been racing in Kentucky, Ohio and elsewhere, they are in prime condition and should furnish interesting sport. A new style of wagering will be used at Exposition Park. It is patterned after the method employed at Miami and BDwie. There is every reason to believe that it will prove popular with all who are speculatively inclined. Excellent train service has been arrang°d to and from Chicago and the outlook is indeed bright for the most sue cessful meeting ever held at Aurora. John E. Madden, the most successful Ameri can breeder of thoroughbred horses for the market, has made an important sale. He has disposed of the colt Marche Militaire to A. C. Bostwick at a reported price of 0,000. This good colt is a son of Light Brigade and Mar garet Hampson. that was sold for ,300 as a yearling at the August sales of the Fasig Tipton Company. Thus colt has won two of his three starts and his last performance on Monday was one to suggest that he may be a bargain at 0,000. John E. Madden has long enjoyed the reputation of being a wonderfully successful salesman as well as a breeder. He has been able to obtain a big price for the produce of Hamburg Place, but it must also be remembered that no breeder has sold a greater number of champions. The champion in this present year of turf bounty is cheap at almost any price and it is this reputation that enables Mr. Madden to obtain good prices. For every ordinary or bad horse that Mr. Madden has been able to obtain a big price, he has sold a dozen that were bargains, even though the price appeared to be a big one at the time of the sale. Madden bred and sold Sir Barton. Grey La» is an~ther of his real champions that raced for the Rancocas Stable Zev is still another that was bred and sold by Mr. Madden and he wai the breeder of Flying Ebony, the colt that won the Kentucky Drby this year for Gifford A. Ccchran. These are only a few that come to mind at this time, but there are many others, as the records will disclose, so that after all, whle Mr. Madden has for the most part obtained excel lent prices frr his thoroughbreds, there is no breeder that has given better values. Marche Militaire has shown enough already to suggest that he may be anothr of tlie Madden cham pions. He is just at the beginning of his racing career and he has rr::ii;y rich engage ments before him that will make him cheap at 0,000, thould he prove the c It that many good judges expect him to be. Much of the value of the thoroughbred lies in the engagements to which it is eligible and, with the constantly growing turf values, the breeder that fails to nominate liberally in the futures is accepting a big handicap when he sends his foals or his yearlings to the market. It is false economy, for the best colt without an opportunity to start in the best rac;s has his values greatly reduced. Time was when frequently the best of the year was outstripped in the matter of money earnings by an inferior only for the reason that he had not been made eligible to the big futures. Fortunately in the present day the breeders have a keener appreciation of the value of engagements for the produce of their studs and there are fewer and fewer cf these omissions in nominating than was the case some years ago. The nominating fee in all of the futures is a nominal one, usually 0. This means som-thing with a big crop, but one good sale will carry most of that crop and there is always the danger that unless the entire produce is named for the rich races the best may be cmittrd. To have the racing opportunity is essential to the crowning of a champion and cham pions have frequently come from strange mat ings, just as some of the most carefully thought out matings have failed to produce the desired results. Tho successful breeders have never mated i their horses in a haphazard fashion and they have had a full appreciation of the value of the futures when it comes to fixing the value of the produce. With two days at Belmont Park devoted to overnight purses, the next big day is Saturday, when the Suburban Handicap and the Corinthian Steeplechase, also a handicap, are down for decision. But the fact that Thursday and Friday are devoted to overnight races does not mean that the racing will be other than up to the standard of the Westchtster Racing Associa tion. Some of the best racing of the year has come out of the overnight purees and Belmont Park was never before more bountifully sup plied with horses cf good class r-ady to race. The Suburban Handicap is particularly rich in promise and a study of the weights holds out great promise for a worthy renewal of the famous eld mile and a quarter race. Changing over from J. Heupel to Mack Gar ner s°ms to have been at least a lucky move for Captain IJaJ. He was the winner of the Inaugural Handicap at the Latonia opening and it was the first time this year that he has scored and also the first time that he has not been ridden by Heupel. And it was a great finish when the good three year -Id just Btuck | it out to beat the five year old Hopeless, to which he was conceding two years and three pounds in weight. Heupel made mistakes in the riding of Captain Hal in bjth the Kentucky Derby and the Grainger Memorial Handicap, but it might be said on behalf of the rider that each of these races was over a mile and a quarter distance, while the Inaugural Handicap at Latonia was only a mile and a sixteenth. The shorter distance is much more in favor I of the son of Black Toney and Wavering on ! all that has been shown and it appears doubtful if he will beat a high class horse over a greater i distance. No horse in Kentucky had been , more carefully trained than was Captain Hal, leading up to his engagement in the Kentucky Derby. He was probably as fit as he could be made and he gave up his best, but the journey was too far. The same proved tho case in the Grainger Memorial and Tuesday he just lasted » mile and a sixteenth to finish the winner. As for Heupel, his offense in the Kentucky Derby was in forcing Flying Ebony, the winner, out in the stretch. He was guilty of a like offense when he was beaten a head by J King Nadi. Races have demonstrated that a mile and a quarter is a bit too far for Captain ! Hal, but that does not entirely excuse the two J rides of Heupel at Churchill Downs.
