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$ a - Here and There ! on the Turf y More on Stall Gates. Honoring the Veterans. r i Havre de Grace Prospects. , Misstep and the Derby. ■ 1 g s Anything pertaining to the various new t starling devices is of interest to the turf at this time, and the stall gates have been variously discussed. There are , .. many different devices, but each one of them is one or another adaptation of the stall proposition. The idea of the stalls, of course, is to keep the horses straight t i and, at the same time, prevent them from i ] interfering with or injuring one another • 1 while at the barrier. That, of course, is an excellent feature » in any starting barrier. Anything that t l will make for safety for both horses and 1 riders is commendable and greatly to be 3 . desired. But tbese devices must be fool- - « proof and they must bo of a character r 1 that will make them adaptable to all 1 I sorts of horses. That is to say they must t be so constructed that any horse may r readily be broken to enter the stalls and 1 l stand quietly. I After all of this has been accomplished 1 I in the stall gate, there will always remain - one serious objection lo the new devices. - They, of necessity, can only be s operated with a standing start. It will be impossible, with any of the new gates s that have been used or invented thus far, •, to walk the horses up to the starting point and send them away while they are still in motion. The standing start has been in use e for some time in New York and in some e other racing sections, and no matter how many starters or trainers may favor such h a method of sending the horses away, it it must be agreed that to start horses from n a stand places an altogether dangerous s strain on the horses. It is a severe e strain on tendons to have a horse jump p away at speed from a standing start. He e is apt to have the track cup out from n under him, as it did with Brooms in the e running of the Futurity at Belmont Park k last September, when Maiben was shot over his mounts head. It is apt to crip-. - pie a horse in many ways and for that reason, if for no other, the standing start rt should not be used. That seems to be the most serious objection to the general adoption of any y stall starting gate. Of course, good d starting, with as little delay at the post it as possible, is greatly to be desired, but it the thoroughbred himself must not be e sacrificed to bring about that result. . Joseph McLennan, who has done much for the advancement of the turf, has is made another suggestion of merit. Mr. r. McLennan would reward the veteran m trainers of long and honorable service, e, with a perpetual license in the form of of an ornate button that would be recognized g- by all the various racing associations. a- There is much to commend in this is suggestion. Fortunately, the turf has as many of these grand old trainers who io have been an honor to racing for a generation n- at least, and there never has been 2U - ! y r i , ■ 1 t , .. t i i ] • 1 » t l 1 3 . - « r 1 1 I t r 1 l I 1 I - - s s •, e e h it it n s e p e n e k - rt y d it it be e . is r. m e, of of g- a- is has as io n- 2U any official reward for that long service. * They are shown no more consideration than are the men who have little or no knowledge of horses and have a false idea of the dignity of their profession. The issuing of licenses to trainers has aj always been wrong, for the reason that it is not required that the applicant be thoroughly qualified to train horses. Ef- I forts have been made to have that corrected by the appointment of an examining board before which applicants must appear, but these efforts have been unavailing. Now it would be becoming if fi the men of long and honorable service r should be so honored : that would be 1 little enough to set them above those who really have little standing in their chosen has ,1: tl vocation. sc When a man has served faithfully in ■ as ei many walks of life he is granted a serv- ice stripe and. in time, he is pensioned w as a reward for that service. There is !! it an incentive for honesty of purpose and t long faithful service. ol its This suggestion, coming from a man of the long experience of Joe McLennan, is worthy of serious and careful con- u up sideration. It is not a question of the 0 of fees obtained from the issuing of licenses Ci . h — that is of small moment when it is con- _ a sidered the few men who would be en- rr titled to the honor proposed— but, with a be y to badge of faithful honest service, there 0 would be a shining example for the Cl younger trainers. lt The turf is blessed with some of these veterans who, year after year, have maintained a spotless reputation in the ■ sport. They are bulwarks of the sport A and they do big things to keep racing the a greatest of all sports. These men are o known for what they have done bv stu- I: is dents of racing, but they are without any he u distinguishing mark of honor. They have n a earned that honor and richly deserve it. e They should be rewarded, and such a re- C ward would be something for which the J young trainer would strive. The book for the Havre de Grace meet- l to l ing, which follows the present meeting at ;, Bowie, has been issued by Joseph Mc- o of Lennan. The book, as usual, is an ex- [" in cellent one, with a wide variety of con- r ditions to suit the horses and please the public. The opening feature will be the $ 10,000 l added Harford Handicap. This is a dash _ of three-quarters that has invariably brought out a notable field of sprinters, and the entries are to close Saturday, There are three other 0,000 added races to be decided during the thirteen days of racing. These are the Philadelphia Handicap, at a mile and a six- teenth, for three-year-olds and over; the Aberdeen Stakes, at four and a half fur- longs, for the two-year-olds, and the Chesapeake Stakes, at a mile and a six-1 teenth, for the three-year-olds, This last named race is to be decided April 30, and it is looked upon as an ex-g cellent public trial for both the Preak-e ness Stakes of the Maryland Jockey Club, to be decided at Pimlico May 11, and the Kentucky Derby, to be run at Churchill Downs in Louisville on May 19. Fre-v quently, candidates for one or both of these races are shown in the Chesapeake Stakes, and the indications are that the coming renewal will be no exception to that practice. In the meantime the stables at Havre de Grace arc rapidly filling up, and that meeting will mark the beginning of the 1928 campaign for man; of the best of • the thoroughbreds. The Glen Riddle Farm horses of Samuel D. Riddle are al- t ready on the grounds, and these include Crusader, which has wintered exceed-it ingly well. He is expected to take his I place at the top of the handicap division. There are several Man o War two-year-- olds in the stables of which great things are expected. Then there are the horses of Walter M. Jeffords, with Edith Cavell as one of the n stars. Many others of the big racing j establishments are on hand and each 1 day others are putting in an appearance, several of them being shipped in from 1 Long Island training grounds. Kentuckians now have high hopes for r Misstep, the Le Mar Stock Farm candi- . date for the Kentucky Derby. This colt t made his reputation last year in the Mid- die West, but it was an excellent repu- tation and his training for the big races s suggests that he will carry that form into o his three-year-old season. So much has been said of Reigh Count t and some of the eastern aspirants for the Kentucky Derby that others of the e 1 r . t s o t e — — worthy eli.ibles have been almost forgotten, and it is interesting when one comes along like Misstep to attract at- tention. Owing to the inability of the manufac-- turer to have a Jarvis starting gate ready for use at the Bowie meeting, it will not be given a trial there this spring. But, in i the meantime, others of the associations are being importuned to give one or an-e • other of the stall starting devices a trial | and this will doubtless be brought about.
