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Here and There on the Turf Rating the Three-Year-Olds. Hunt Racing Importance. How Meetings Have Grown. Progress of Reigh Count. s — t Before the close of the Havre de Grace meeting it is probable there will be an altogether new line on various three-year-olds of the year. The stakes of the meeting have enough of the promising prospects engaged to warrant such a prediction and training reports indicate that most of them are further advanced in training than is usual at this lime of the year. There Mas nothing in the Bowie racing that had any bearing on the three-year-old outlook for 1928 unless it should be to demonstrate that Jack Higgins, winner of the Louisiana Derby, hardly measures up to the top class. Some stretch of the imagination only could give him a remote chance to duplicate the triumphs of Black Gold in 1924, when he came north to win the Kentucky Derby after having won the big southern race at Jefferson Park. Jack Higgins is probably hardly better than a useful plater, and it is in such company that he may shine, if he is to shine. Jefferson Livingstons Burning Glass was the winner of his only race and he was a maiden when Bob Smith sent him to the post, but that one victory could hardly place him among the worthy eligi-bles to the big spring stake races. Smith brought his horses to the races in excellent condition, and that condition doubtless had almost all to do with the success of this colt. Of course he may move up further, but the Bowie victory was not enough over which to become excited. This colt is an eligible to the Chesapeake Stakes, to bo run April 30, and should he go to the post in that race, there will be afforded a much more accurate line on his ability. But the Havre de Grace meeting will mark the first appearance of several new three-year-olds that, on the strength of their two-year-old accomplishments, 1 should cut an important figure this year. Horses change in form more in moving [ up from two- to three-year-olds than at any other stage of their career. For that reason it is hazardous to pick a three-year-old champion on two-year-old form, so that the first appearance of any crop is of vast importance. While the Chesapeake Stakes at Havre de Grace will offer some index to the I form of the good three-year-olds, there I is another race at Jamaica, two days earlier, that also has importance. This * is the Wood Memorial Stakes, at a mile 3 and seventy yards. Like the Mary Ian g stakes, the Wood 1 Memorial Stakes promises to bring out t many of the most talked of three-year-olds and it has the further distinction of f notable nominations from the Rancocas s Stable, the horses of which were barred I from starting in Maryland by the foolish i ruling of the racing commission. And while Maryland and New York is s showing off the three-year-olds, there i , I I | 1 [ I I * 3 1 t f s I i s will come the first appearance of them in Kentucky. The racing season in that state is to begin at Lexington on Saturday, and for a considerable time, various of the Kentucky Derby eligibles have been on hand in training for its running. It was there that E. R. Bradleys great colt, Bubbling Over, was tightened up for his Kentucky Derby victory of 1926, when he proved the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes, at a mile and an eighth. That race was discontinued last year, and Bubbling Over was its only winner to follow it up with a Derby victory, though it annually attracted many Derby candidates. But there are various other opportunities for the three-year-olds at Lexington, and trainers will avail themselves of the chances to give Derby candidates helpful conditioning in races. Early spring racing always has tremendous interest, and that taken in the three-year-olds through April and May is the greatest. Of course, the new two-year-olds hold much of the interest, but it is still too early in the racing year to expect that any of the prospective champions will be shown under colors. They are seldom uncovered until at Belmont Park in the East, and Churchill Downs 1 in Kentucky. Xew York is to have its first taste of 1928 racing at the Aqueduct course on Thursday, when as usual, the United Hunts Racing Association will introduce the sport. It is the first time that the Aqueduct course has been used by this association, but the change from Belmont Park has one advantage in its closer proximity to Manhattan. Some changes have been made in the stand of the Queens County Jockey Club, for this I occasion, and all has been brigtened up i for the two days of racing. There was a time when much less attention was given the United Hunts Racing Association, and its racing. It was strictly amateur, and for the most part brought together the hunting set and 1 the races themselves were largely devoted to hunters. All that has been 1 changed now except the sporting flavor of the meetings. The two days of racing, spring and I fall, continue to be pure sporting days, but the racing has grown in importance I until some of the best horses are seen under colors. This was brought about - largely through the untiring energy of f John McEntee Bowman, president of the I association. He inaugurated a new campaign of liberality in the offerings, and • gave both flat racing and the crosscountry - races an importance that attracted the best horses in training. The - tv.o days, Thursday and Saturday, are 3 chosen at a time when there is no other , steeplechasing, and the offerings always s attract worthy jumpers that will later f perform at Pimlico. Then there is the Initial Handicap for sprinters, a three-quarters of a mile dash, and the Sporting Plate, for the two-year-olds that have equal importance with the flat runners. The Sporting Plate is a well named 1 four and a half furlongs dash for the new two-year-olds. It is a sweepstakes of 00 each, all to the winner, and the association adds a handsome piece of gold ■ plate. It was first run in 1925 and the Greentree Stable was its winner with Cantankerous, in 1926, and Nitouche in 1927. The first winner was G. D. Widen- ers Galetian. The manner in which trainer Michell is 3 bringing Mrs. John D. Hertzs Reigh Count along in his training for the Ken-| tucky Derby must be highly gratifying to the admirers of the good colt. That • recent workout of a mile in 1:44 was a 1 truly impressive one, for the reason that I 1 an even pace of twenty-six seconds to 3 the quarter was maintained throughout. That is evidence enough that the son of Sunreigh — Contessina was under re-8 _ straint and it is also evidence that he ■ should have no trouble racing a mile and 1 a quarter on May 19. Faster work, that would show a tailing g off in the pace maintained, would not t mean half as much, and any three-year-old - that can gallop along through the e final quarter of r. mile in :26, to finish 1 out in 1:44, must be taken seriously. Reigh Count went into winter quarters S a particularly brilliant prospect, and he e has come out this spring apparently a better colt than he was last year. He e has not been unduly hurried in his preparation and the manner in which he has trained will bring him to the post fit and d ready, should he meet with no intcrriip-e - tion in his exercises.
