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Here and There on the Turf New York Season Opens. Strolling Players Debut. Illinois Claiming Rule. Display and the Dixie. §, 1 Racing is back in New York. As usual the United Hunts Racing Association raises the curtain on the 1928 campaign and the opening was a truly brilliant one. For the first time in its history Aqueduct was the scene of this racing and the patrons of the association took kindly to the change. The big gathering for this opening augurs well for what is to come through the year. Havre de Grace is a strong counter attraction this spring, and Pim-lico is to follow with many races that will attract some of the best horsss and a number of the best turfmen, but New York promises to have all the patronage that can be comfortably accommodated. Each year there is wonder at the manner in which the United Hunts Racing Association has grown in importance. There was the same wonder for the opening on Thursday. The racing no longer is only a gathering of those of the hunting set, and it is no longer composed I of races principally devoted to the hunters. . Just what has been accomplished is the holding of all of the amateur interest and at the same time broadening out the attractions until it is racing that appeals strongly to the "regulars" of the New York patronage. To miss the racing offered by the United Hunts in these days is to be late for the opening of the I New York racing season. On Monday the first of the meetings ; of the associations under the control of [ The Jockey Club will be under way at t Jamaica, when the Metropolitan Jockey • Club begins its meeting which is to con-tine ; until May 1G. The big opening day event is the Pau-mouok . Handicap, a three-quarters dash i to which ,000 is to be added. The same i day the Kentucky racing gets under way ■ at the Lexington course of the Kentucky Association. For a considerable time horsemen l have been eagerly awaiting both the Jamaica ■ and the Lexington openings, and 1 to that end they have been carefully f conditioning some of the best horses in i training. It is assured that with favorable - weather conditions, the field for the B Paumonok Handicap will be both a large ! and a representative one and it is a race I that has always brought out the good I ones, while Lexington has been a training ground for several of the candidates a for the Kentucky Derby, some of which l will undoubtedly have an outing with the e opening of the meeting. Admiral Grayson has good cause for r elation over the showing of Strolling Player at Havre de Grace on Wednesday, , in the running of the Congressional Handicap. - It was the first appearance of f the half-brother to Call Boy, in this s country and when he was second to as s I . I ; [ t • ; . i i ■ l ■ 1 f i - B ! I I a l e r , - f s s fast a horse as Jock he stamped himself • as one of the truly good three-year-old prospects. The pace was not fast in the race, but the outlander finished in a manner to suggest that Bob Smith will have him fit and ready for his engagement in the Preakness Stakes. Smith found out long ago, by the way Strolling Player behaved in his training, that he was a good colt, bnt he did not know just what to I expect when he sent him to the races. He remarked that, like many English horses, Strolling Player, while a colt of excellent manners, wanted to do things his own way. His own way seemed to of be the right way before he was Drought j; to this country and if he ran in his ft own way on Wednesday, it is rather a t commendable way. " Strolling Player is engaged in both r the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky j ll Derby, and present plans are that he willjs of be sent to the post in both of these May races. To finish out a mile and a six- j teenth as he did would surely indicate b that he will be trained up to the mile u to o and three-sixteenths by May 11, and the mile and a quarter by May 19. The Illinois Turf Association is to be Z complimented on the change that has v been made in its rule governing claim- ■ ing races. This change provides that d hereafter a horse may be claimed for its ■ 1 S1 entered claiming price rather than for g his entered price plus the money added a by the association. t That is the rule of claiming races in ci New York, and was brought about after • a considerable newspaper campaign, g pointing out that the purse should have E nothing to do with the claiming price, s, and it only complicated the conditions without meaning anything. The change permits the entering of horses for their fc value without the aid of a pencil and at the same time, it, at least, looks better o of on a program to see the real value of a i; is horse rather than a paltry sum to which f the purse money must be added. It dig- in nifies the horse, or at least prevents its being robbed of a proper dignity, as it is I under those "plus the purse money" l to conditions. to | Another excellent change made by f the Illinois governing body was that regarding scratching. Under the new rule Avhen only eight horses are entered in a purse race, none shall be declared with- o out the consent of the stewards, and then l only upon payment of five percent of i the first money. This fact that it is not ° possible to dodge the running merely by , paying a percentage of the purse is what ■ makes this amendment an excellent regu- J lation. ■ It is also commendable that the asso- ciation proposes to insist on a close ad- j herence to all the rules of racing. This . was shown by refusing riding and training " licenses to some of the applicants f who have offended. Walter J. Salmons Display, after hav-. ing progressed famously in his training : . $ at Belmont Park, is still going along in a fashion that leaves little doubt of his being on edge for the running of the Dixie Handicap, at a mile and three sixteenths, at Pimlico May 1. . The son of Fair Play has progressed 1 to a point where Tom Healey is sending ■ 2 him along at distances closely approach- • 1 I ing the requirement he is to. meet. Since , : 4 his arrival in Maryland he worked a I 6 6 mile in 1:41%, and galloped out the mile I 7 and an eighth in 1:5G. He will need little more now in his preparation, but it is probable that he will be started at Havre I ] 1 de Grace as a final tightening up for i 2 the T ,000 engagement. It might so happen that Jefferson Liv- 1 4 , ingston has a good class three-year-old 1 - in Burning Glass, the son of Assagai — - 0 Dancing Sun. This colt was a maiden . 7 when Eob Smith brought him to the races at Bowie, and he was the winner f 1 in a fast race. That race was a bit of a 1 2 « surprise, but the colt proved it was no I 3 4 fluke when he was an easy winner at a mile and seventy yards, over the Havre 0 de Grace course on Tuesday. 7 Burning Glass was only taking up 102 | pounds and the horses back of him were i ] 1 not particularly successful racers, but 1 2 « the easy manner in which he led them l home convinced that he is capable of c 3 4 better things, Bob Smith brought a number of fit t -; 6 horses to the races from the old Ross s • Farm in Maryland, and his conditioning proved bountifully successful when he began his racing year by taking the In- - : augural Handicap at Bowie with Son of r , John. I
