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Here and There L is on the Turf Is c —————— —-————-izri Opening at Bowie. * is Winter Racers Defeated. * Kentucky Meetings. Passing of Benning. j ■— — — — — — s It was a bit unfortunate that the weather was cold and disagreeable for the opening of t the Maryland racing season at Bowie on Thurs- r day. This had its effect on the attendance, , though any who had not attended other open- c ings under more favorable weather conditions would have considered the crowd an immense one. It was not as large a crowd as has been out for the opening of some recent meetings, but it was a crowd that told of the abiding interest in the turf in Maryland. And it was ] a program that was worthy of the enthusiasm j that was shown. With the coming of bright warm spring days which can hardly be far away at this time, Bowie will come into • its own. The horses are on hand to furnish better entf-rtainment than ever before and the book of the meeting 1 is one that cannot fail to bring about great sport. i s It is interesting to note that for the first day of the spring racing season the horses that were not raced at winter tracks had decidedly | the best of the argument. j In the opening dash, for maiden two-year-olds, Miniator and Master William, which fin- , ished first and second, were starting for the I first time. In the second race Care Free, The , Roll Call and Joella J. each raced at New Orleans. In the third Timmara and Rapture, the two that beat Harvey Stedman home, were I starting for the first time since last year. Noah , and Senator Norris both beat the good sprinter Tester, which had campaigned at New Orleans. . Then in the Inaugural Handicap, Reparation, the winner, was making his first start since I racing at Belmont Park last fall and he simply cantered home in front of Lounger, one of the best that was raced at New Orleans and Cud-geller, which beat as good a colt as Harass for r third money, was making his first appearance 1 6ince last fall. Faenza beat a couple of winter r performers when he led Blue Hill and Levoy home and it was his first start of the year. . Then in the last race six of the seven that I started raced through the winter months, so 5 that it is small wonder that they carried off £ the honors. Summing it all up, Care Free and Rupee-were r- the only winners of the day that had been campaigned through the winter months. All 1 of this would indicate that the idlers have comeback . to the races fit and ready. It is also to 0 be expected that they will have a better chanc-to .. improve than the horses that have been drilled until it is natural to expect them to stale off a bit. Racing in Kentucky is not to begin until April 24, when the sport in Maryland has pro grossed well towards the close of the spring racing season there. It is Lexington that offers the first opportunity for the thoroughbreds. as has been the usual custom, and the big opening special is to be the Kentucky Oaks. There will be a meeting of ten days at the Lexington track, bringing that meeting to a conclusion May 5 and the Churchill Down* meeting is to begin May 8, with the famous Kentucky Derby down for decision on May 15. In this connection the Lexington meeting has an added importance in the opportunity it affords Derby candidates to be tightened up for that big stake race. The best of the races offered to attract Derby timber is the Blue Grass Stakes and the fact that it is run the closing day, May 5, makes it greatly appre ciated by those with candidates. While it is a fact that no winner of the Blue Grass Stakes has won the Kentucky Derby, the fact remains that it has frequently attracted many of the most prominent of the eligibles and it never fails to bring about an excellent contest. Saturday begins the meeting of the West Virginia Jockey Club at Huntington and that means the beginning of the Ohio circuit, for this racing ground properly belongs in that circuit. While this is something of a second circuit, it has come to importance and the plans for 1926 contemplate better racing than : has been the Ohio rule. The first Illinois meeting is scheduled for Aurora to begin May 20, which will inaugurate a long time of racing for Chicago and St. Louis, where it is the Fairmount Jockey Club at Collinsville, 111., that is the racing ground. These are some of the race meetings that promise to make 1926 the most notable of all American turf years. With the passage of the old Benning course of the Washington Jockey Club there goes into the discard a training ground that has been 1 decidedly popular with many trainers. Then there were some who were of the opinion that, while it was of going that would muscle up a horse, it was not exactly suited to sharpen up his speed. But it makes no difference now, for Benning is through as a training ground for the thoroughbreds and its passage is truly regretted. Time was when it was the Washington Jockey Club that opened the early spring racing for the East and closed the same season late in the fall, as does the Bowie track in Maryland at this time. The Washington Jockey Club had real importance in the turf scheme of the country and the old course was. the scene of many a notable race. It was at Bowie that Race King became so thoroughly scanned that when he was shipped to Belmont Park in 1905 he was able to run a dead heat with the mighty Sysonby in the running of the Metropolitan Handicap. And Race King is only one of many that came away from a Bennings seasoning able to beat horses of better class by icason of that season ing. And when it is remembered that Benning and the Washington Jockey Club was "put out of business" by a bill that carried the title, "A bill to provide for the widening of the Banning road." That was the bill that carried a joker in its concluding paragraph that es caped the notice of the champions of the turf and when it was enacted into law Benning was all through as a racing ground. There was some attempt to give other meetings in the District of Columbia, but racing was virtually banished with the passing of a measure that by title merely proposed the widening of a highway. Maryland has ably taken the place of the District of Columbia in the early spring and late fall by its racing at Bowie, but it is always to be deplored that racing was banished from the national capital.
