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Here and There on the Turf The Preakness Will History Repeat Bradley s Strong Bid Opening at Churchill This afternoon at Pimlico the first of the great threeyearold stake races will be de ¬ cided Several of the horses which now ap ¬ pear to be the best in their age division will be missed when the Preakness Stakes field lines up at the barrier but there will be enough good thoroughbreds in the race to as pure a thrilling contest contestLast Last year the late William Duke sent the cripple Coventry to the post in the Preakness Stakes for Gifford A Cochran and saw the iinconsidered colt race to victory The follow ¬ ing week he saddled Flying Ebony for the Kentucky Derby and again the New York owners colors flashed past the judges stand in the lead This was a particularly notable double because of the fact that a week be ¬ fore the running of the Preakness Stakes the more mention of the Cochran candidates as dangerous contenders for cither race would have evoked nothing but laughter This year E R Bradley will make an effort to duplicate the Cochran double He has sent Bagen ¬ baggage east to win the Preakness Stakes Mr Bradley was never more confident of win ¬ ning the Kentucky Derby than he is this year That of course is his primary object but if he wins the Prcakness Stakes as well so much the better The Preakness Stakes because it is the first of the big threeyearold stake races to be decided seldom attracts all of the best horses of the division Although it is on a par with the Kentucky Derby in value it lacks some of the historical glamor of the Kentucky race raceAnd And yet the Pimlico event has been steadily growing in importance during the last few years until now its only rival in the East in importance is the Belmont Stakes The Bel inont Stakes never attracts as large a field as the Preakness Stakes or the Kentucky Derby because of the fact that it is run later in the year after the process of elimination is well advanced By that time the unworthy three yearolds with few exceptions have found their level and are racing with the platers Those which remain in the running of big races have proved their mettle and high class classThe The Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby important as they are often serve as trying out contests for the Belmont Stakes Those which prove worthy in the Pimlico and Churchill Downs events are sometimes seen under colors in the Belmont Stakes StakesThis This year the Preakness Stakes field prom ¬ ises to contain several horses of undoubted high class Bagenbaggage has proved himself by his victory in the Louisiana Derby Canter although he has scarcely shown anything so far this season to match his form of last fall is still considered a strong candidate for the threeyearold honors But there is no horse in the probable Preak ss Stakes field with the possible exception of Canter which is seriously expected to press Pompey or Bubbling Over next Saturday at Churchill Down Favoritism in the big race today is likely to be shared by Canter and Bagcnbaggage The Westerner appears to have something on the Griffith colt in condi ¬ tion if not in speed however and a Kentucky victory in Marylands richest race is well within the range of probability probabilityThe The Pimlico meeting will come to a con ¬ clusion next Thursday With that day racing on the Maryland circuit will end until the Havre de Grace course throws opens its gates in September The horses that have been furnishing the sport during the Maryland spring racing season will scatter widely Prob ¬ ably a number of them will go to Canada for z summer campaign but many are booked for Fairmount Park Of course the New York stables which Lave been campaigning at Havre de Grace and Pimlico will return to the metrop ¬ olis Maryland racing has never been awarded a more prosperous spring campaign than this year The crowds have taxed the capacity of he plants on many occasions and the number of horses available for the racing at Bowie and Havre de Grace was well about the average of previous years The opening of the Churchill Downs meeting on Saturday gave another demonstration of the vastly increased interest in racing in Ken ¬ tucky which was first shown at Lexington The cleanup of the sport undertaken by the Kentucky State Racing Commission during the winter had a salutory effect upon sentiment toward racing and vih confidence fully re ¬ stored the Blue Grass turf promises to reach new high levels during ire present meeting meetingCol Col Matt J Winn general manager of the Kentucky Jockey Club has made arrangements to accommodate a greater crowd at Churchill Downs next Saturday than has ever possibly seen a Kentucky Derby renewal There is every indication that the size of the crowd will fully justify the preparations
