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s Here and There on the Turf Weights for Brookdale. Amendments to Brooklyn. How Lion Heart Raced. Good and Plentys Career. S Eight of the nominees to the Brookdale Handicap, to be run at Aqueduct on Saturday, started in the Brooklyn Handicap, and this is the amendments made in the handicap. Crusader has four pounds off from the weight of last Saturday, bringing his weight to 128 pounds; Espino has five pounds off, dropping his impost to 120. Peanuts is boosted seven pounds, bringing his weight to 119, while Chance Play takes up an additional two pounds, making his weight 123. Light Carbines weight of 104 Is a pound more than he carried last Saturday, and Our General has been raised from 100 pounds to 104. Dangerous has been dropped down from 110 to 107 pounds. Display, the other that raced last Saturday, is under the same weight, 112 pounds, that he -carried in the Brooklyn Handicap. The Brookdale .Handicap is over the same route as the Brooklyn Handicap, a mile and an eighth, and that lends to the interest in the handicap that has been made by Mr. Vosburgh. Of course, in the Brooklyn Handicap, Peanuts and Chance Play were out four lengths before Display, which raced third, but, as far as the first two are concerned, they finished so closely together that it does not seem possible that Peanuts can give Chance Play five pounds as he is required in the Brookdale Handicap. This applies with particular force to the son of Ambassador IV., when he has shown so repeatedly that he is unable to carry big weight successfully. But, of course, Peanuts had to take up some penalty over the 112 pounds he carried so brilliantly, and he may have improved over last year, when he was beaten each time his weight went over 116 1-2 pounds. With Crusader, whether or not he is raced in the Brookdale Handicap, the Brooklyn Handicap has to be thrown out in figuring his form. His race there, under 132 pounds, was altogether too bad to be considered, and he raced in a fashion to create the impression that weight had nothing to do with his performance. However, he has been dropped down to within four pounds of Mars, which did not start in the Brooklyn Handicap. Espino was another that did not run his race in the Brooklyn Handicap, and he has had five pounds taken off his impost, bringing him to a weight just a pound more than Peanuts and, on some races, it would seem he has been treated well by Mr. Vosburgh. As the weights stand for the Brookdale Handicap, it would seem now that Chance Play and Mars may readily be fighting it out, always provided that Crusader, does not run one of his brilliant races. If he does, he will win, just as he won the Suburban Handicap. If Peanuts should repeat his Brooklyn Handicap triumph, he will have done something he never accomplished before, and he will prove, after all, that he, is not altogether a weakling when it comes to carrying weight. In a recent discussion of Jolly- Roger in this column, and commenting on other steeplechasers that had taken up heavy imposts, the heaviest of them all was inadvertently overlooked. That was when Gus Hamilton rode Lion Heart to victory under 179 pounds in the running of the Aintree Steeplechase Handicap of 1897. At that time the Aintree Steeplechase was known as the Street Railway Handicap Steeplechase and the Woodbine course was the stiffest in the country, containing the "in and out" or "pig pen" as some dubbed it. It was a double in which most horses would jump in, put in a short stride, and jump out. Lion Heart knew the tricky obstacle so well that he would jump in so far that he bounced right out without the help of that short stride. Lion Heart raced for T. P. Phe-lan that year, and later for John Nixon, finally going to the late Mike Dwyer, who raced him in a selling steeplechase at Gravesend. He was started fourteen times in 1897, several of his races coming close together, and he was the winner of nine races, only finished worse than third on one occasion, when ridden by Owens. Gus Hamilton rode him in his Canadian races and horse and rider were an unbeatable pair. In addition to the Aintree Steeplechase victory, under 179 pounds, he won the Woodbine Steeplechase under 154; the Helter Skelter Steeplechase at Hamilton under 162 pounds, and an overnight handicap under the same . weight. He won the Inaugural Steeplechase at Gravesend under 168 pounds; the Bever- wyck Steeplechase at Saratoga carrying , 160, and an overnight handicap at Sara- toga under 159 pounds, in which every other starter fell. He was a close second to Royal Scarlet in the Westbury Steeplechase, under a burden of 170 pounds and was second at Gravesend under 169 pounds, as well as finishing a close third in another steeplechase in which he took up 170 pounds, and on another occasion when he shouldered 167 pounds. Good and Plenty is generally considered as probably the greatest jumper seen in this country, but it would have been a rare good race if Good and Plenty and Lion Heart had been out in the same year. In the days of the pink coat races with gentlemen riders there were exceedingly heavy weights carried on occasions. W. C. Hayes, riding his own horse, Trillion, in 1897, won over the two and a half miles course at Fort Erie under a burden of 182 pounds. Thorncliffe, which ran second, carried a like weight, with Clark carrying 175 pounds third, and Prince Charlie under 183 pounds fourth of the quartet that raced. Good and Plenty, the wonder jumper that raced under the green jacket of Thomas Hitchcock from 1904 until 1907, ran in eighteen steeplechases, of which he won fourteen and was second in the : other four. It is small wonder that such a horse should be rated by many as the greatest steeplechaser ever seen in this country, though there were others that carried heavier weight. Probably there never was a more consistent performer in any country. Good and Plenty was not raced until he was a four-year-old and in his maiden race on July 14, 1904, he finished second. The good son of Rossington Famine won eight successive victories through the field, not being again- beaten. as a four-year-old. His top Weight was 163 pounds. He was raced once on the flat that year and was beaten. As a five-year-old in 1905, Good and Plenty was only started twice, winning the Whitney Memorial Steeplechase under 156 pounds and the New York Steeplechase under Continued on twentieth page. HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF s Continued from second page 146 pounds. He won three races through the field in 1906, and was beaten in a race on the flat. That year he repeated in the Whitney Memorial Steeplechase under 163 pounds and he won the Grand National Steeplechase, carrying 170 pounds, his other victory being under an impost of 163 pounds. Then, as a seven-year-old, the last year this wonderful gelding was raced, his campaigning was beginning to tell on him and he only won one steeplechase, finishing second to T. S. Martin in the Whitney Memorial Steeplechase, under 163 pounds and second to the lightly weighted El Cuchillo in the Empire State Steeplechase, in which he had to take up 172 pounds. His other defeat was when Coligny beat him at a difference of ten pounds. Thus, it will be seen that after his first start as a four-year-old in which he finished second, Good and Plenty did not lose a race until as a seven-year-old. He was second in three of his starts out of four, winning his other race. The greatest weight Good and Plenty carried to victory was 170 pounds in the Grand National Steeplechase of 1906. The greatest weight he was started under was 172 pounds in the Empire State Steeplechase in which he was beaten by El Cuchillo, carrying the feather of 137 pounds. That is the sort of a horse that topped them all while he was in training.
