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t « Here and There on the Turf Three -Year-Old Chances. Many Alluring Values. Prospects at Jamaica. New Stand at Laurel. Verily this is a time of plenty for the American three-year-olds. Beginning early in May there will come races of a value never heard of hefore and a champion that would be able to meet all his engagements could pile up an unheard of winning record before the end of June. The first of these great opportunities for the three-year-olds is in the Preak-ness Stakes, of the Maryland Jockey Club, at Pimlico, and it is followed by the Kentucky Derby of the Churchill Downs Jockey Club, at the Louisville racing ground. These are races with 150,000 added each. Then there comes the wonderful opportunities offered by the Westchester Racing Association at Belmont Park, with its Belmont Stakes, of an estimated value of 0,000, and the 5,000 Withers Stakes. There is the Fairmount Derby at Collinsville, near St. Louis, with its added money of 5,000, and the American Derby at Arlington Heights, near Chicago, is of similar value. Later comes the Latonia Derby, also with 5,000 added, and there arc other chances, but these are the high lights. And it is fitting that the Preakness Stakes should be at a mile and three-sixteenths, and the Kentucky Derby at a mile and a quarter. The date of the running of these great races in May is 1 bo early that such a route is as far as 1 a three-year-old should be asked to run I and it is just as adequate a test as a 1 mile and a half later in the year. The Belmont Stakes has been made a mile and a half this year, and it is a worthy change in distance, bringing it to the real Derby distance, though as a matter of fact both the distance and the name are English, and have no particular bearing on the racing in this country. In arranging the running dates for these races, as far as has been possible, conflict has been avoided until it would be possible for a three-year-old to lake ; each one of the engagemeuts. This 5 would mean campaigning for more than 1 50,000 merely in the added sums that are mentioned. There is always a chance • that another Man o War may como along and there is always a chance that he will be ready for the earliest of these races, and still at the top of the class when the ■ last one of them is run. These are reasons for the yearling market and they are incentives to breeding that have a tremendous value in the industry of thoroughbred production. While the Metropolitan Jockey Club 1 has declared against the new Widener r scratch regulation, there is one good rule i that will be observed. That rule prohibits the entering of the same horse in 1 two overnight races on the same day. That was a practice that was a real 1 j [ j I i ! j 1 1 I 1 ; 5 1 • ■ nuisance in New York for a long time, and it is well that it has been stopped, for various reasons. The nominations made to the various Jamaica stakes promise that the racing will be up to the best traditions of the course. There are fifty-eight in the eligible list for the Paumonok Handicap, the opening day feature, and it would be hard to find a better lot of sprintors for this three-quarters test. Samuel C. Hildreth has saddled the winner for the Rancocas Stable in three of its runnings, .and he promises to make another strong bid on April 23, the opening day this year. The Hildreth nominations are Sweepster, Mowlee, Nassak, Black Curl, Jumbo and Ariel, surely a remarkable band of sprinters. From that strong band there j j ! is sure to come one and probably two j starters. Then there is Happy Argo that j j Max Hirsch trained so skillfully for I j j Bernard Baruchs Kershaw Stable last i year, while he also has Mrs. Herbert I | • Pulitzers imported Foundation Stone as j i another eligible. i | Mrs. Vanderbilt is represented by Oh I i Say and Byrd, a pair that she purchased j j from H. P. Whitney. Mr. Whitney him-j ■ j self has no fewer than seven that have I I been named by James Rowe. These are , j The Tartar, Groucher, Bye and Bye, j ! j Honker, Pollywog, Twitter and Victorian, 1 I all three-year-olds. Other good ones found in the list are Ramoneur, Nusakan, Leonard B., Sar-maticus, Old Dutch, Son of John, Ingrid, j I Finite, Gerard, Distraction and Nixie, as well as a number of others of real sprinting speed. Then in the Wood Memorial, the mile! ! and seventy yards dash for three-year- • j ! olds, to which 0,000 is added, there I j can be found the names of most of the I i j I good ones that are named for the stake races of the year. Other high spots for : the Jamaicameeting, that promise ex-1 I ceedingly well from the nominations that have been made, are the Long Beach, Kings County, Excelsior and Southampton ■ Handicaps, while of course the stakes I for two-year-olds, and there are several of them, have all filled exceedingly well. James F. OHara set some pace for the Maryland turf when the new stands, club • house and paddock were constructed for Bowie, and it spurred the other associations to improvements, but the really big change will be found at Laurel in the ; fall. The Maryland State Fair Association is building an entirely new stand, and it promises to be another model in i size, comfort and convenience. While the Laurel meeting is not to come until next October, enough work has been done at this time to assure that all will be in readiness long before that i time. With all spring and summer, as well as much of the fall in which to do the work, there will be no excuse for anything but a complete job, and that is what is intended. When H. D. Brown built that Laurel I course, he built well, and at the time the I stand was commodious for a racing crowd, but the racing crowds in Maryland - have grown beyond all expectations 5 and beyond the requirements of the early . days of Laurel. That was what made the building of a new stand imperative, just ■ as it was imperative at Bowie, and this time Laurel will build for the future. Pimlico and Havre de Grace have also found that expansion from time to time - has been necessary to keep up with the I public demand. This year will see the first of the progeny of Zev at the races, and their progress . will be watched with a great deal | of interest. In the naming of these two-year-olds, - the young sire is honored by having them begin with the first letter r of his name. There is a Zest, a black f son of Humbug; Zevelyn, a black daughter of Banda; Zalamea, a brown j daughter of Madura and Zevana, a bay daughter of the useful mare Adana. Zev has stamped most of his sons and j daughters in a fashion that would tell 1 of his potency, and while the fillies predominate, there are hopes that his first « year in racing will prove an excellent t one.
