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I NEW YORKS RACING SEASON ♦ Outlook Exceedingly Bright for Racing on Metropolitan Tracks. ♦ Chance Shot and Other Stars Prospertlr* Candidates for Paonmnok, Jamaica Tracks Opening Feature. • NEW YORK, N. Y., April 6.— The racing season of 1927 on Jockey Club courses bids fair to open most auspiciously. A year ago the outlook for first class sport in the various fixtures for three-year-olds and over* was not promising. The number of fair performers four years old or older then in training might be counted on one hand, and it would have been a disappointing season in respect to stakes like the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Saratoga Cup and the many good handicaps that feature the year, but for the participation in these races of the three-year-olds. It was the unusual number of three-year-olds of quality — a few of them real good colts — that made the handicap and cup races of 1926 worthy of the traditions that have developed in connection with their running. Happily, the coming racing season finds no such condition existing. The three-year-olds of last year, now lusty four-year-olds, are ready to withstand the onslaughts of the big band of this years three-year-olds, whose prowess was indeated in their juvenile years. As a result, spectacular sport may be looked for from the opening of tha season, which is now only a few weeks distant at Jamaica. There was a time when the first day of the meeting at Jamaica had the Excelsior Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth, for its feature. The change to the Paumonok, at three-quarters of a mile, was helpful to horsemen and equally acceptable to the public. The shorter race gave trainers an opportunity to bring their charges to their engagements over a longer route by a more gradual process. It does not require as much work to fit a horse to run three-quarters as It does a mile or over, and it has all worked to the general good of the Metropolitan Jockey Club. Bigger and, as a rule, higher class fields, have gone to the post for the Paumonok since the change. PROPER EARLY TEST. Trainers of first-class three-year-olds with the Belmont, Preakness, Kentucky l erby and other early engagements over a longer distance, have welcomed the Jamaica sprinting fixture as an opportunity to give their charges a race before engaging in the more crucial tests that come later. And it must not be forgotten that three-year-olds have a way of taking the measure of the older horses in such races as the Paumonok. The manner in which St. James defeated Zev in this race will not soon be forgotten. It was this brilliant performance, following the winning of the Futurity the previous year, that brought St. James into such high favor when he went to the stud. A perusal of the entries for the Paumonok of 1927 justifies the belief that It will be a contest fully up to the standard of the stake, which was named in honor of the well-known Brooklyn social club, of which the late Walter C. Edwards, for many years active in the Jamaica management, was a member. The pick of the three-year-olds have been nominated for this years contest. So have the fastest of the four-year-olds and upwards. Mr. Vosburgh may be depended upon to bring them together on even terms. Most formidable among the four-year-olds is Chance Play. This big son of Fair Play has been the champion hard-luck horse of the turf in recent years. He had a world of bad luck in the Futurity of 1926, and a hoodoo pursued him in 1927 when sickness and accident kept him away from the post for most of his engagements. No horse in training can outrun Chance Play when he is himself, and there are good judges who believe him capable of carrying his speed up to a mile and a quarter at least. His face with Crusader in the Dwyer was brilliant in the extreme, and there will always be regret that the big colt, which has never been blessed with a sturdy constitution, was put out of commission by an injury to a hind leg while on his way to Saratoga. However, that is all past, and Chance Play, having wintered well, may be all the better four-year-old for the moderate campaign he had at three. RICHMOND* IN THE FIELD. But there are other Richmonds in the field to test the qualities of Chance Play and his kind. The Paumonok will no doubt mark the debut of that remarkable gelding, Sara-xen, for the season of 1927. It would not be surprising if Mrs. Vanderbilts champion should race kindly at the opening of the season. If he does, the best of them will have to look to their laurels. There Is the likelihood that the Paumonok will mark the reappearance of the giant Silver Fox. This gray ghost of the Rancocas Stable has been galloping soundly this spring, and when seen a month ago at Jobstown was in fine fettle. Another speed merchant among the older division that must not bo overlooked in considering the Paumonok, is Croyden, from the Whitney Stable, whose races last fall were so remarkable. Other speedy four-year-olds and older in the Paumonok include Vespasian, whose record at the winter tracks has been first class ; Copiapo, the fleet Argentinian, who will have the benefit of an American preparation for the campaign of 1927; Color Sergeant, who has been pronounced one of the fastest horses in training by James Rowe ; Navigator, Happy Argo, Powhatan, Senalado, Cartoonist, Devonshire, Claptrap, Amberja k and Sarmaticus. The list of three-year-olds eligible for the test is a formidable one, including as it does General Lee. Filemaker, I raconis, Pantella, Pandera, Whiskery. Byrd, Witchmount, Bla. k Curl, Sankari, Cheops, Sweepster, Air Service, Peter Peter, Adios, Lodina. Saxon, Nim-ba. Circlet, Charade, Ramoneiir and Premitr. The Paumonok could be decided tomorrow, insofar as the Jamaica course is concerned. President E. P. Kilroe has been a frequent visitor and he and Superintendent Thomas Meagher have been hard at work for some time preparing for the opening. The order of the running of the various stakes will be decided in a few days by Racing Secretary Henry Pebler, who has completed the overnight program and is sure that his efforts will be rewarded by big fields and first-class racing.
