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Here and There on the Turf Fators Punishment The Eecall Flag Belmont Park Auction New York Steeplechasing When the Jamaica stewards punished L Fator for failing to persevere with the Ran cocas Stables Sankari in the second race of Thursday the ruling to say the least was a peculiar one Sankari a twoyearold had just completed fiveeighths at racing speed when Fator mistook a fake start for the start He took his colt back to the post as leisurely as possible but to have asked hiii to run at racing speed again on the heels of what he had done would have been taking a chance of doing the colt serious harm Frequently when a horse runs away before the start of a race the jockey will simply take him back to the post and when the start conies he will pull up and jog after the other horses It cannot be remembered at this time when any rider was punished for that most natural and humane treatment of a horse that has been exhausted by the runaway runawayWith With Sankari there seemed more reason for pulling the colt up as Fator did and for which lie was punished Sankari had been under the whip in his fast run fiveeighths that Fator mistakenly considered the start He was run ¬ ning under hard riding and consequently more was taken out of him than if had he simply been running away Then the fact of his be ¬ ing a twoyearold was additional reason for just what happened happenedFator Fator offended in other ways on Thursday in a fashion to merit disciplining but the stewards announced that the punishment was for not persevering with the colt That whole race was a most unfortunate affair and it is remarkable that riders of the experience of Laverne Fator Linus McAtee and Eddie Barnes should have run their mounts right back with the recall flag plainly signaling that it was not a start startSo So seldom is the recall flag brought into use in these days of racing that there were many on the course that did not know just where to look for it but the jockeys themselves surely know just what the flag means and they know just where it is located locatedThis This big white flag was held aloft and car ¬ ried across the track in front of the horses as they left the barrier to that false start All but the three riders mentioned pulled up their mounts before they had run far though some of them had passed the flag before that could be accomplished The man with this advance or recall flag is always far enough away from the starting post so that there should be no reason for riders failing to see it when it is held aloft showing that it is a false start and not a real start startTime Time was when it was the custom to hold this flag aloft and only drop it when a start was effected Now the method is only to raise the flag when the horses leave the bar ¬ rier to a false start One scheme seems to be about as good as the other and the blame for the unfortunate occurrence at Jamaica could couldnot not be blamed on Mars Cassidy or his crew There is considerable interest manifested in the sale of horses in training that is to be conducted in the Belmont Park paddock on Saturday The horses constitute stock from the estate of the late H K Knapp as well 89 several that have been consigned by Gif ford A Cochran and some from the stable of Toseph E Widener Several of the offerings have been seen under racing colors and for the most part the others are ready to go to the post and doubt ¬ less such ready made horses will at track ready buyers The steeplechase season for New York began with the running of the International Handicap at Belmont Park Friday With eleven named through the entry box for this stake race it would seem that while many of the good horses have been shipped to Woodbine Park for the Canadian racing there are still enough left on Long Island to make that branch of the sport thoroughly attractive attractiveFollowing Following the Belmont Park meeting there will be Steeplechasing at Aqueduct so that t means the jumpers will have forty days for racing through the field This should keep many of them employed and it may be prom ¬ ised that if the turfmen who campaign cross ¬ country horses show the proper interest in making entries races will be found for the horses The Empire City Association follows the racing at Aqueduct and there is no stee ¬ plechase field at the Yonkers track but in August the Steeplechasing season is on again at Saratoga Springs for that long meeting and the short respite during the Empire City meet ¬ ing will probably be welcome to the owners An announcement has been made of the dates for the Maple Heights meeting This meeting is to open July 12 and it will be con ¬ tinued until July 28 The plans for this fif ¬ teen day meeting are decidedly elaborate and the big event will be the Ohio Derby at a mile and an eighth This Derby will have an idded money value of 10000 and there are promised liberal overnight purses that should attract a better quality of horses than have ever before raced at Maple Heights
