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Here and There on the Turf Havre de Grace Racing. McLennan s Distance Races. Garlaris for Saratoga. The Jumping Season. Havre de Grace has had its big opening The raring has moved over from Bowie and, with the opening of the meeting of the Harford Association it is generally considered that the new racing season is well on its way. A; Bowie the sport was fittingly begun and the promise for Havre de Grace could hardly be better. The backward spring has interfered to such an extent with training operations that many of the good horses are not yet up to their best racing form, but they are on the grounds and. with most of them, it is only a question of tightening up. There will be every opportunity for this at Havre de Grace and it is safe to promise that day by day the racing will improve. At Bowie there was a decided handicap by-reason of the backward weather and. of course, it will be felt at the new meeting for a time, but it is almost impossible for the cold weather to hang on much longer and with warm sunshine and favorable track conditions it will be found that -the thoroughbreds will make rapid strides to racing condition. It is at the Havre de Grace meeting that many a new two year old of high speed will appear und?r colors for the first time and the same meeting will give the three year old as pirants to high honors racing opportunity that will go far in fitting them for the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby, to say noth ing of the various other big races that follow these 150,000 stake races. It is a meeting that may mark the return of American Flag, the champion three-year-old of 1925, to the turf. He is on the grounds and it is only necessary for George Conway to bring him to racing condition, for there is not a more robust thor • ughbred to be found anywhere. American Hag has not raced since the middle of last year and he has filled up a bit in his long idleness. Conway is essentially careful and it is a sure thing that he will not hurry American Hag. That is the reason for saying :hat it is only possible he will be raced at Havre de Grace, but he is training there and will surely be ready when called upon for possibly the Metropolitan Handicap or an earlier start in New York. Joseph McLennan, who has always had i full measure of success in filling programs that furnish adequate tests for the horses, has an excellent rule at the Havre de Grace meeting. It was framed to induce trainers to start horses in considerable distance races and has boen used with satisfactory results on other occasions. This rule provides that in the case of horses entered in purse or claiming races at a distance of a mile or more, allowances are offered for horses that have never won at a mile or 9 greater distance. These allowances give three-year olds a three pounds advantage, while the four-year -olds and over are allowed five pounds. While it is unusual to have the older horses receive the greater allowance, it belongs in such races for the reason that horses that have passed their third year without having won over the mile distance surely would seem to have less chance to win over that distance than the younger horses that naturally would have had few op port unities. But what is of most importance is that it induce* the starting of horses in distances ihat are better calculated to furnish an adequate test of stamina. It is assured that whether or not W. T. Andersons Carlaris wins the Kentucky Derby, or any other of the big Kentucky race, he will be seen in action in New York. This good three year-old has been engaged in the Saratoga stakes, and by August he will find plenty of competition for the three year-old championship should the most prominent of the aspirants not make the post for the Kentucky Derby on May 15. It is well that this good colt is to race at Saratoga Springs, for that delightful racing point has ever been the testing ground for the best both East and West. With the increased! lacing opportunity he good ones have other sections that are alluring, but Saratoga, by reason of the sporting importance of its races, will always attract the notables. The Illinois Jockey Club has promised its meeting from July 3 until August 7, but that is not much of a conflict with Saratoga Springs The racing at Collinsville, where the Fairmour.t Jockey Club conducts its meeting, is completed before August 1, and there does not come any other conflict of much moment, so that there is every- reason for the best horses of every age division spending August at the New York track. The fact that Havre de Grace will have no stecplechasing at its meeting is to be regrettetl for all the steeplechasing that is possible is greatly desired. The Maryland Jockey Club, at Pimlico, has always catered to this spec tacular style of racing with excellent results, and it would be well if the cross-country horses had an opportunity before going to the Haiti more course, but there was good and ample reason for levelling the course at Havre d" Grace. In the first place the field was never adapted to jumpers. The turf has always been too soft and another reason was that the meeting comes at a time when it is a bit hard to fill the races. There were not steeplechasers enough ready to adequately carry on that manner of racing and there was always no end of trouble in filling these races. That is explained, for the reason that th" cross-country racing in America is all upside down. The real season for racing through the field is the fall, winter and spring, while in this country the jumpers do not have any adequate chance until hot weather comes. John McKntee Bowman proposes a bit of a change with his promise to have steeple chasing at his Havana course next winter and it would be a popular and welcome addition to the Cuban racing, but it would be weJJ if the steeplechase circuit could be so ar ranged that the best races would not come when the turf is baked hard by a summer sun, as it is for the cross country racing at Saratoga. There should be more steeplechasing early in the spring and late in the fall, if not al! through the winter months.
