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Here and There on the Turf Weights for Empire City. Peanuts Moves Up. Progress of the Tnrf. French Three-Year-Old Crop. e With, no chance for Crusader to start in the Empire City Handicap, Robert L. Gerrys Peanuts, winner of both the Brooklyn Handicap and the Brookdale Handicap, will become the top weight, with 124 pounds as his impost. This is a weight that should meet the views of those who found fault with the Vosburgh handicaps in the two other races that brought about such stirring finishes. Peanuts was the winner of the Brooklyn Handicap under 112 pounds, and he followed that by taking the Brookdale Handicap when carrying 119 pounds. In the running of the Brooklyn Handicap the finish suggested that he would have been beaten with 113 pounds in the saddle by Chance Play, which carried 121 pounds on that occasion. Then, when he won the Brookdale Handicap a week later, under seven pounds more weight, from Display, Espino, Light Carbine and Chance Play, the handicap resulted in one of the most thrilling finishes of the year. It may be that Peanuts will do nothing that he is not required to accomplish, and that he will always make the finishes close, but on each occasion they were dangerously close. He has surely advanced a bit in handicap rating, when two victories take him from 112 pounds to 124. At his weight he is just two pounds above James Butlers Sting, which had been on the shelf in the early part of this year. Some time ago, when Sting went amiss, it was decided to reserve him for the Empire City meeting, where Mr. Butler always likes to put his best foot forward, and it may be that Sting will be ready for the racing. This horse is now a six-year-old and, if he should come back to his four-year-old form, he would indeed be in the first flight of handicap performers.- Display is moved up to 115 pounds from the 112 he carried so well in the Brookdale Handicap, and the mile and a quarter will suit him better than did the mile and an eighth. These are potential candidates for the opening feature of the Yonkers meeting, though there are several others that may be depended upon to make the renewal a worthy one. Since May 9, when Harry Payne Whitneys Bostonian was the winner of the 0,000 Preakness Stakes of the Maryland Jockey Club at the old Pimlico course, there have been five other big chances for three-year-olds at a greater distance than a mile, and these five stakes have 1 1 netted an aggregate of 41,410 to the six different winners. That tells of the importance of racing and the importance of breeding in this country when, before the end of June, there have been six big races for the three-year-olds over a greater distance than a mile for such a total. And, of course, it must be remembered that only takes in the various Derbys and races of a like character. The score now stands: Preakness, mile and three-sixteenths, Harry Payne Whitneys Bostonian, 3,100; Kentucky Derby, mile and a quarter, Harry Payne Whitneys Whiskery, 1,000; Fairmount Derby, mile and a quarter, Edward R. Bradleys Buddy Bauer, 4,400; Belmont Stakes, mile and a half, Joseph E. Wi-deners Chance Shot, 0,910; American Derby, mile and a half, Johnson N. Camdens Hydromel, 7,750; Latonia Derby, mile and a half, H. P. Headleys Handy Mandy, 4,250. And these are only some of the rich three-year-old opportunities of the year. There have been the Pimlico Oaks; the Kentucky Oaks and the Coaching Club American Oaks that have engaged the fillies profitably. Then there was the Withers Stakes, which also went to Chance Shot, but it was not considered here for the reason that each of these races had some semblance to a Derby in the distance that was run. Without discussing the ability of the various victories, it must be agreed that the awards are lavish indeed, when some of the winners are taken into consideration, and it tells of the tremendous growth of the turf. It is easily remembered when a good horse might go through a racing season without earning as much as Chance Shot did in the Belmont Stakes, as Bostonian did in the Preakness Stakes, or Whiskery did in the Kentucky Derby. Time was when it was a sensation for any horse to earn as much as 00,000 in years of useful endeavor and the statistics in racing for 1926 show that now there are forty-four American horses that have earned in excess of that amount, while four of them have earned in excess of 00,000 with Zev topping the list with earnings of more than 00,000. .These are some of the interesting figures of the tremendous growth of the turf in this country. When Major Daingerfield topped the list of winners for 1902, his earnings were only 7,685; but the real low was reached in 1912 when there was no racing over the big courses in New York. That year Star Charter was the best winner for the year, and he earned only 4,655. In 1911, another year when the New York courses remained closed, Worth, a two-year-old, was the best winner with a total of 6,645. Old Rosebud, when a two-year-old in 1913, only had to earn 9,057 to lead all the others. In 1915 old Borrow topped them all with 0,195. These are facts that tell of lean racing years and they serve to bring a fuller appreciation of Zev earning 72,008 in 1923, Crusader earning 66,033 last year, and Pompey earning 21,630 as a two-year-old in 1925. Incidentally, Broomstick, one of the greatest of Americas race horses as he is one of Americas greatest sires, only earned 4,570 and in thirty-nine races he was only worse than third on nine occasions winning fourteen races, being second in eleven and third in five. This year Bostonian, one of his sons, took 3,100 in the Preakness Stakes, and Whiskery, a grandson of his, earned 1,000 in one race when he was first home in the running of the Kentucky Derby. Hyromel is also of the same blood on his dams side, Honey Dew being a daughter of Ben Brush, the sire of Broomstick. While it is the consensus of opinion that American three-year-olds are of an ordinary class this year, it does not seem peculiar to this country alone. In France the good judges have declared their crop away below the average and the defeat of Mon Talisman in the Grand Prix, by Fiterari on Sunday gave them further reason for thtit contention. No excuse was offered for the defeat of the winner of the Prix du Jockey Club French Derby, though the weather was raw and cold and a rain fell steadily all day. When Mon Talisman had won the earlier race he was rated as the champion three-year-old of France, but in the Grand Prix de Paris his courage was called into question and he failed.
