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m — * Here and There on the Turf Bateau and Night Life. Return of Scapa Flow. Helping the Apprentices. Progress of Display. ■ 1 Five of the starters at Havre de Grace od the openiog day which were making their first 1928 appearance impressed greatly by their racing. These were Rock Man, Scapa Flow, Bateau, Night Life and Canter. All showed enough to warrant the prediction they will play an important part in the racing of this year. The fact that both Night Life and Bateau are candidates for the Preakness Stakes of the Maryland Jockey Club, to be run at Pimlico, May 11, naturally attracts more attention to them than to the older horses. This pair only raced five and a half furlongs and the Preakness Stakes is at a mile and three-sixteenths, but the race was one to indicate that both Bateau and Night Life have been brought back to the races thoroughly good ones. It is known that Night Life is the choice of Mrs. Bakers Sagamore Stable for the Preakness Stakes, while Scott Harlan has none other than Bateau named to bear the colors of Walter M. Jeffords. Night Life is also engaged in the Kentucky Derby, but Bateau was not nominated to the Churchill Downs race. It was the first appearance of Bateau since her race in the Pimlico Futurity, in which she was disqualified for the fouling of Reigh Count after she had finished third. And there were some of those who watched the running of that five and a half furlongs dash at Havre de Grace who were of the opinion that Night Life was better than the filly and would have been the winner but for losing ground at the head of the stretch. That is debatable, but the fact remains that when the pair finished closely lapped they at once stamped themselves as better than any other three-year-olds that have been shown thus far in Maryland. And the return of Scapa Flow, stable-mate to Bateau, was also an impressive one, though he was beaten by Rock Man in the Harford Handicap. Incidentally, • it was just a bit remarkable that the two best races of the Havre de Grace opening found horses of Mrs. Margaret Emerson Baker fighting it out with those of f Walter M. Jeffords. And while Mr. Jeffords Bateau beat Mrs. Bakers Night Life, Rock Man, under her colors, took [ the Harford Handicap from Scapa Flow, . and in each instance the first two horses l were closely lapped. Rock Man is now a five-year-old and 1 he was third to Bubbling Over and Bag-enbaggage, - the Bradley pair, in the 192C ] Kentucky Derby. Always a horse of excellent - speed, J. H. Stotler has brought t him back a good one this year, as his s victory over Scapa Flow would indicate. .. But Scapa Flow was giving Rock Man i a year and ten pounds, making the race e run by the son of Man o War a truly ■ good one. At this time last year Scott Harlan had d high hopes of winning both the Preak - • f [ . l 1 - ] - t s .. i e ■ d - ness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby with Scapa Flow. The colt had worked well enough to warrant that belief, but he failed in both and when he appeared in the Harford Handicap on Monday it was his first public showing since the running of the Kentucky Derby. It was only unsoundness that prevented Scapa Flow from being a brilliant three-year-old. It was unsoundness that kept him away from the races after that early failure in the May stake races of last year. He is going soundly now, as his race in the Harford Handicap would indicate and, always a handsome , horse, he seems bigger and better than i ever this vear. For a first appearance i since last May, Scapa Flow raced im- ; pressively. He is engaged in the Dixie Handicap, to be run May 1, and will , doubtless be sent to the post. As for Canter, another that impressed in the Monday racing, it was only bad racing luck that prevented him from at least taking some part of the Harford , Handicap money. Crowded back at the start, this sterling campaigner was last of that big field of nineteen in the racing down the backstretch. He closed an immense gap and was fairly running past opponents at the end to land in fourth place. Altogether the opening day of the Havre de Grace meeting introduced some real horses that will furnish abundant entertainment through the coming racing season. Conditions have been written for several of the races at Jamaica that are decidedly radical in a change that has been made. They provide for an allowance of ten pounds for jockeys that have not ridden as many as twenty winners. Such conditions are undoubtedly made to aid along in the making of riders, and that may be brought about, but the allowance appears to be so ridiculously high that the race might just as well have been arranged at ten pounds under the conditions, irrespective of riders to be employed. It is not expected that any trainer would accept a ten pounds handicap to ride a jockey of experience. The conditions could just as readily have been for jockeys that had never ridden twenty winners. Apprentice riders seem to have been well taken care of with a flat allowance of five pounds, and as a matter of fact, it is questionable whether or not any allowance for apprentices is a good thing in the making of riders. The evil of an allowance to the inexperienced rider is that trainers are prone to make use of such riders merely for the weight allowance that is obtained. That is natural, but it does not give the horse a fair chance. It is sent to the post fit and ready and under competent riding should surely win, but, for the sake of an apprentice allowance, he is turned over to the tender mercies of a rider of little or no skill. Time and again it would have been wiser to waive the allowance and ride a jockey of experience, - but the allowance is too allur-1 ing. Now with the allowance doubled, the ; riding of lads of the kindergarten class becomes almost imperative, for ten pounds in the race to which these conditions apply is too severe a handicap for . trainers to accept, except on rare occasions. The crying need for better and [ more jockeys is admitted, but it does not * seem to be politic to write conditions that offer a bar to the full fledged riders. The riders who have devoted years to , their chosen profession should have op- portunities as well as these lads who are just breaking in, and while these races may work beneficially, and the intent is apparent, on paper the conditions do not appeal. From the way in which Walter J. Sal-t mons Display is progressing in his training at Belmont Park, there seems i to be no doubt of his being ready for the Dixie Handicap, at a mile and three-sixteenths, to be run at Pimlico May 1. T. J. Healey has brought the sterling son of Fair Play along gradually in his training until now he is beginning to show becoming speed in his workouts. . Always a rare stayer, and a horse of I great gameness, Display has already earned a place in the hall of equine j fame, and this year it is promised that t he will go much further along that road. . Display is handicapped at 126 pounds 5 in the Dixie Handicap, that will be the e top weight for the renewal, but it is in l no way excessive, in the light of what t Display has accomplished. The best of f , i . I j t . 5 e l t f the handicap division is engaged in the Dixie Handicap, and many of them have been pointing for the renewal in a satisfactory manner, but if Display continues to progress, as he has in the last week, he will keep the best of them exceedingly busy. Display was not named for any of the Jamaica stakes, and in fact his only en-! gagement before the Dixie Handicap date is in the 0,000 Philadelphia Handi-l cap at Havre de Grace, to be run Satur-- day. That is a dash of a mile and a six-. teenth, and it would be a profitable step-; ping stone to the 5,000 Dixie Handi-; cap, but it is not expected that Healey will start him so early. There will be other overnight opportunities for at least one race before the Dixie Handi-f cap date, and one race, after training has progressed a bit further, should put the finishing touches on the conditioning of the fast Salmon horses. Display has earned the title of Iron Horse, from his long campaigning, and this spring he seems to be a better horse than at any time in his long and useful career.
