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Here and There on the Turf Close at Aurora. Plans for Sarazen. Fort Erie Racing. Claims and Engagements. With tb* racing at Aurora of Saturday, that twenty seven days meeting was brought to a successful close. It was a meeting that gave further proof of the popularity of racing in Chicago and it speaks volumes for the racing that is to come there early in July. From the beginning the attendance at Aurora has been exceedingly large ami it was racing that whetted the appetites of the faithful for what is to come. Racing has now become firmly established at this Illinois course and with the continued success that comes to the Fairmount Jockey Hub at CoUinsville, Illinois is coming back to the sport brilliantly. Then with Chicago, which will naturally be greater than either of the other ventures, the future seems to be exceed ingly bright. The Fairmount Jockey Club meeting still has thirteen days to run to fill its complement of dates and it has constantly been growing in popularity. The big Derby decided on Saturday gave this meeting more importance than ever before and now that it has been begun as an American fixture it will be carried on and jxxssibly increase in value as the racing continues in the Illinois town that closely adjoins St. Louis. i It was not surprising that trainer Max Hirsch did not saddle Mrs. Vanderbilts Saraien for the Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct on Sat urday. The swift running son of High Time and Rush Box is anything but a rugged horse and on other occasions Hirsch discovered that his races must not come close together. Sara zen ran a smashing race in the Brooklyn Han dicap, even though l eaten, but it was a race that must have taken strength out of him. Hi at was reason enough for his being an ab sentec from the Queens County Handicap. Saraien is engaged in both the Brookdale Handicap, at a mile and an eighth, and the Carter Handicap, at seven eighths, at the pres ent meeting. The Brookdale Handicap is to l e run June 2i and the Carter Handicap July .Y It is not expected that Hirsch will try for the Brookdale and he may even dodge the later stake, though seven eighths naturally would not be anything like Ikj severity of I mile and an eighth. Sarazen is engaged at the Empire City Asso citaion meeting at the Yonkers track in the Empire City Handicap, at a mile and a quarter Mount Vernon Handicap, at a mile and seventy yards; the Yonkers Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth, and the Fleetwing Handicap, over the three quarters. These are opportunities enough for the month of July and it is doubt ful if he will meet them all, for he also ha.-several important engagements at Saratoga Springs in August. The erratic champion had shown evidences this year of being as good as ever, but he still remains a horse that must he humored and carefully studied to bring about the best results. Saturday began another important racing week when the seven days meeting at Fort Erie began. This is one of the truly important Canadian race meetings and the book for the present meeting is an attractive one. It ja a meeting that annually attracts some of the best horses in training and a meeting that invariably abounds in racing of a good order. With the horses on hand for this renewal it i.» promised that all of the best traditions of the border tjack will be gloriously upheld. Some time ago it was set forth in this column that it would be well if all the engagements of any horse taken from a claiming race should go with the horse so claimed. It was argued that the claimant was at a distinct disadvantage if he was prohibited from starting the horse so claimed just because the original nominator refused to turn over these engagements. John E. Madden, than whom there is no more careful student of racing, would have the same amendment for a different reason. He would have a regulation that would compel the man making the claim take over the engagements of the horse so claimed. In support of this Mr. Madden says, with good reason, that for one horse that b claimed and the engagements withheld by the nominator there are probably one hundred where the claimant refuses to take over the engagements. This is all easily understood. Too often a foal or a yearling is saddled with |3,0XK or ,000 worth of forfeits by reason of engagements before his real worth has been discov ered. It is found that he is utterly unfit for the stakes in which he has been engaged and in due course of time he appears in a claiming race. He is entered at a fair value and he is claimed. Then the claimant refuses to take over the engagements. He has not made the nominations and he whisks the horse away to some obscure track where he will be campaigned. It is true that the forfeits follow the horse, but too many of the horses claimed in this fashion go to men who are little known to racing and when the claimed horse is shipped away he is practically lost, so far as TV Jockey Club is concerned. The man with the horse is really responsible for the forfeits, under the rules, but it remains an obligation of the nominator, should the claimant fail to settle the obligation. Thus it is that the nominator, though he has lost his horse, is still responsible for the forfeits in stakes in which he i6 unable to start. Invariably the sportsman or breeder who makes future entries is a man of importance on the turf and invariably he makes good his obligations. Many of those who recruit a stable from claiming races do not have the same respect for the laws of the sport and it is much harder to make a collection from a man of this type. Compelling the claimant to assume the for-fei.s on the horse claimed would have no weight unless there was a way in which he cculd be made to pay these obligations, no master where that horse is raced. That could only be brought about by a general court of the turf that would take in all sections where horses are raced. That has been suggested on other occasions and this is one other excellent reason for such a court. With every racin? section having representation in such a court it would be well nigh impossible for anyone to dodge any of his responsibilities and impossible for anyone to transgress the rules of the sport successfully. Just now the big racing sections take in New York, Kentucky, Maryland and Illinois, also the Canadian Racing Associations takes care of the sport pretty well in Canada. Then there is the racing in the far West and in Ohio. All of this territory could be represented by a central court of last resort and such a court would do great good for racing. It would bring new respect for the various rules of rac ing and would be so far reaching in its powers as to make it impossible for the wrongdoer to hide away, no matter where he decided to race his horses. Racing rules everywhere are essentially the same, but just so long as there are various governing bodies in the different sections it is impossible to give the prohibitions the force that would be exercised with greater unity of purpose. The forfeit list ■ only one of many regula tions that fails of proper enforcement by reason of the lack of unity of purpose in the big sections and this court of last resort could not fail to correct many of the irregularities that come to notice from time to time. Great hopes are still held out that the dinner, which is to follow the running of the Saratoga Special at Saratoga in August, will rlo some thing towards bringing the various sections into a closer working agreement, but what is needc! j above all at this time is a central court of last resort that will take in all the racing on this continent. _,*
