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Here and There on the Turf Big Season Is Opened. As to Minimum Weight. Jopagan and the Preakness. Pimlico Stake Closing. • The big srason is on. The Southern Maryland Agricultural Association has begun its meeting at the Bowie course and it marks the beginning of almost uninten-upted sport until the late November dates. There will come a day or two of lapse, when the horsemen move from one course to another, but it is to all intent and purpose continuous racing. Then, when Maryland is through and, in fact, a few days before the closing, the winter seasons are again opened until now the American racing schedule virtually provides for the racing of horses from January 1 until December 31. And, year after year, the turf grows in popularity. It is a sport that never grows stale and always offers new thrills. It shows with such force with the opening of each season and the magnificent gathering at the Bowie course today told of the hold racing has on the public. Long since the clubhouse and stands at Bowie have been really inadequate to comfortably take care of the immense crowds that patronize the racing, and James F. OHara and his associates find it more imperative each year that the capacity be enlarged. Plans are under consideration for an enlargement demanded by the sport and it is probable that possibly before the November meeting there will be more spacious accommodations. When Bowie was built, and when it raced one fall in opposition to the sport at the Laurel course, it was considered that the stands were ample for the crowds. They served, but not for long and then there came material additions in accommodation. Now even the enlarged stands are inadequate and there must be other changes. This tells of the growth of the turf in Maryland and it is a growth that is seen in various other sections. Racing that is worthy will always prosper and racing that is worthy will always have the appeal that has brought the Maryland circuit to the forefront of the American turf. The regulation that fixes 100 pounds as the minimum weight to be carried in all races except handicaps in Maryland, is by no means popular with many of the horsemen who have little apprentice riders that can readily ride at 90 pounds, or even under that poundage. An argument that is used is that it stifles the incentive to develop the light weights and for that reason it is not a good rule. It is pointed out that many of the youngsters that are under development have to take up considerable lead to make 100 pounds and that it will result in the making of fewer riders. There is reason for the "kick" that has been registered, but there are so many good reasons for the rule that the objections must not be given too tericus consideration. It is natural that any youngster that is picked up as a likely jockey prospect must be light. He ha« no chance, no matter what his skill, unless he is able to make the light weights at the beginning. If he is to go on to any degree of fame he must remain light. That is all admitted but. with as low a weight as 100 pounds, it is not potable that the lead pad need be particularly cumbersome to bring this light youngster up to 100 pounds. Hardly one in a hundred of these light pros pects but outgrews even 100 pounds in a couple of seasons of racing and the lightest of them all is close enough to the 100 to make the lead pad of no particular moment, provided the trainer knows how to saddle a horse and, alas, there are many or them who enjoy licenses and dont know how to adjust a lead pad and a saddle on a horse. On the other side, in defense of the 100 pound minimum, it can be pointed out that with such a minimum it will afford so many more riders a chance to perform, and most of them would have to carry overweight at 100 pounds. Beginning at 100 pounds as the minimum the way is opened for the framing of races that will bring weights up until riders of more ability than thess paperweights will find employment. Time and again there has been the misguided cry of raising the scale of weights, which, of course, means nothing, for the racing secretary is always able to juggle the scale by the writing of conditions until the weights remain puny. The minimum is one bar on racing secretaries and it shows a commendable desire on the part of the commission to bring the weights up to where races mean something more of a test for the horses and at the same time give employment to better riders who are barred under the light imposts. There is a colt in Maryland that may keep the best of them busy in the running of the 0,000 Preakness of the Maryland Jockey Club, which is to be decided at the old Pimlico course on May 9. This fellow is Jopagan, which races for Al Weston, than whom there is no more popular sportsman in Maryland. Last fall, at Pimlico, he was just beaten by William DuPonts filly Fair Star in the Pimlico Futurity and, with a bit better racing luck, he would have been the winner. This spring Jopagan has been training brilliantly for Weston and it is doubtful if there is a candidate for the big May prize that is better advanced. He is a fine upstanding colt and, while some fault might be found in the fact that he is a bit leggy, he is well made and he has excellent action. He is likewise game, as was shown by his two-year-old racing and, barring accident, he should come up io the Preakness a better colt than he was last year. Nominations for the Preakness, as well as various other stakes of the Maryland Jockey Club, are to close Monday and when they are announced an estimate will be possible of the probable field for the prize, but Jopagan belongs in the first division of the three year-olds and, while Weston could never be accused of being boastful, he has quiet confidence in his champion that does not fear any of the possible opponents in the big prize. There are nine of these Maryland Jockey Club stakes to be closed Monday and they surely comprise a wonderful list for the meeting which continues from May 2 until May 14. Besides the nine that are to be closed, the richest of which is the 0,0000 Preakness, there is the 5,000 Dixie Handicap which closed January 3, and for which the weights were announced in February by Frank J. Bryan, the clubs handicapper. This stake list provides for the distribution of 16,000 in the short meeting, while the overnight offerings will range in valu? from ,300 to ,000, so that the distribution for twelve days of sport aggregates 20,000. This shows something of the importance of the Pimlico meetings and the manner in which the turf of Maryland has grown. It would seem that each time Joseph E. Wideners Osmand shows anything worthwhile in his Kentucky Derby training that Royal Julian, the Kentucky aspirant for the classic, comes out and goes him one better. Royal Julian is now credited with a mile in 1 Ao1:,, which, as a matter of fact, is an exceedingly good move. The fractional time is a bit uneven but altogether, it was a more impressive move on paper than that of the Widener gelding. What is of more interest than the actual time, is that two such candi dates are going steadily and well for the big prize.
