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Here and There on the Turf j -= - | Bowie Meeting Ends. Marylands Other Meetings. Reparation Breaks Down. Harford Handicap Weights. With the racing of Tuesday there comes to a conclusion the first of the Maryland meetings. The racing furnished at the Bowie course, by the Southern Maryland Association, was excellent and there were no outward hap penings to mar the meeting. It was a meeting I that was remarkable for the number of close I finishes and right through, from the first day to the last, there was an interest that has ever been peculiar to Bowie. The crowds were uniformly large and racing has never had a heartier welcome for a spring opening. Wednesday brings on the Havre de Grace ! meeting of the Harford Association and all the preparations for that meeting assure that every measure of success that was enjoyed by Bowie will follow along to that delightful course on the bank of the Susquehanna River. While a good one came back to the races at the Bowie meeting, th°re will be still others that will make a 1926 debut at Havre de jrac? it is a meeting that will uncover a number of new two year olds. Several of the! big stables that did not have any horses ready for the Bowie meeting will be on hand early at Havre de Grace, while there are others that always delay the beginning of a campaign until that meeting. For a considerable time many horses have been training over the Havre de Grace track in preparation for the meeting, while for sev era! days other stables have be?n shipping in to this track. There ha been a general exodus from Bowie and long since there has been an abundance of fit horses ready for the opening. With the conclusion of the meeting at Havre de Grace there remains the spring j | meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club at the i famous old Pinilico course before the big j spring racing season in Maryland comes to a conclusion. The book for the Pimlico meeting has been 1 issued and it provides for the distribution of 23,200 in added money during the eleven 1 days of racing that is to begin May 1 and I continue until May 13. This will be the first meeting since the untimely death of William P. Riggs. who for years so ably directed ■I the business of the Maryland Jockey Club and that loss will be brought home forcefully in 1 the first meeting, but in the naming of his brother. Francis G. Riggs, the Maryland Jockey Club made a wise choic? and hb long asiocia tion with his talented brother, makes "Frank" Riggs better fitted than any other man to 5 carry on the Riggs policies. For the opening day the Pimlico features are the Nursery Stakes for two-year-olds and the Green Spring Valley Steeplechase. The p following day, Saturday, there will come the p decision of the 5,000 Dixie Handicap, at a 1 mile and three sixteenths, to which the best * of the handicap horses are eligible. The Preakness Stakes, for three year olds, :, with 0,000 added, is down for decision on i Monday, May 10, and in choosing that date e for its running it becomes [possible for eligible- s to keep both that engagement and also start t in the Kentucky Derby, at Churchill Downs, i, in Louisville, on May 15. Sir Barton has the e distinction of being the only three year old to o win both great race-, though there have l een n many who made the attempt. Then there are various other rich races on n I I ! j | i j 1 1 I ■I 1 5 p p a 1 * :, i e s t i, e o n n the list that always makes the racing at Pirn- b iico of tremendous importance. ■ n It is greatly to be regretted that such a good fi hors? as Joseph E. Davis Reparation should r; have gone so seriously amiss in the running of the Prince Georges Handicap at Bowie on Saturday. This sterling son of Trojan and r Humility had won the Inaugural Handicap on w the opening day in a canter and he would is i; probably have been the winner of the Prince I Georges Handicap but for his breakdown in the stretch. Johnny Maiben, who rod? the r handsome chestnut in both races said that d when Reparation gave way in the s. retch he d was just beginning to run and that up to e that point he had been under restraint. a But while there was general regret at the t breaking down of this honest campaigner there ii is was cause for congratulation in the second I showing of T. W. OBriens Timmara, the colt with which Mr. OBrien has hopes of winning t the Kentucky Derby. c It was the second start at the meeting of t the slashing big son of Westy Hogan and fc Plureen. and he took care of the fast sprinters that op; osed him with ridiculous ease. Harvey never rode a more confident race when he was content to keep Timmara alongside of Cinema and when he permitted the big brown to run in the stretch he came away without any apparent effort. Of course there is wide difference between five and a half furlongs at Bowie and a mile and a quarter at Churchill Downs. There is also a wide difference be-i tween Cinema and Carlaris, Pompey, Haste, r Canter and many other aspirants to the Ken- tucky Derby, but the fact remains that Tim- | 1 mara has done what has be?n required of him this spring in real race horse fashion, and in : 1 3 a manner to prove conclusively that he is fit 4 5 . and ready for much more than five and a r half furlongs. 7 There is much interest in the weights for , 1 I the Harford Handicap which i is the opening feature of the Havre de Grace meeting, which j 2 begins Wednesday. This is a three quarter I] ; sprint for three-year-olds and over to which j 4 4 0,000 is added and it always brings out a I ; notable field. For the race of Wednesday, Sarazen holds ] 6 the post of honor at the top with 132 pound*] 7 as his impost. Then comes Single Foot under 124 and H. P. Whitneys Noah is third under1 1 Joy Smoke is required to take up 119 and 1 ; Bedwells Senator Norris is in under 116 4 pound". Canter heads the three year olds with 112 as his burden and many a good one in the older division is found on down the list. I Of the top weights Noah has shown the most this year. His races at Bowie indicate that Fred Hopkins has brought him back to the races better than ever before and he will have the advantage of a certain amount of seasoning that came with those Bowie races, Senator Norris is at himself and ready for any question and it is a sure thing that Single Foot will improve over the Havre de Grace track, But some of the eligible* that have not yet I b ■ n fi r; r w is i; I r d d e a t ii is I t c t fc been to the races are of a class to keep the , I best of seasoned horses exceedingly busy and | not a few of them have been training in a . fashion to indicate entire readiness for the race. And as the Maryland season moves on a l realization comes that before many days racing , j will be back in New York, when the curtain 1 raised at the Terminal course by the United I I Hunts Association on April 24. That same date brings the opening of the . Kentucky racing season at Lexington for ten 1 days of sport. This Iiexington meeting will 1 doubtless attract many of th- Kentucky Derby elipbles and the Blue Grass Stakes will offer r an excellent trial for the big race, just as , • the Chesapeake Stakes at Havre de Grace I a trial for the Preakness Stakes and eastern i Kentucky Derby candidates. Racing for 1926 is swinging along in a way to make c?rtain the biggest year of the Ameri can turf and. with the break of the long win ter, much may be expected of the thorough breds. »
