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i §— $ i Here and There on the Turf Season in Full Swing. I Opening of Jamaica. Gift Hawk Shows Class. Critical Training Time. $» « i When the racing begins both in Ken- • tucky and New York the new racing season has surely opened. Lexington had its big opening on Saturday, while Monday will bring the opening of the Jamaica meeting of the Metropolitan Jockey Club. New York had a brilliant introduction to the sport on Thursday and Saturday when the United Hunts Racing Association entertained so well at the old Aqueduct course, but Monday marks the , opening of the Jockey Club tracks. That , it will be a fitting opening no one doubts. The immense throngs that attended the United Hunts racing and the enthusiasm shown on both of those days, gave full assurance of the continued and growing popularity of the sport. The opening at Jamaica promises to be vested with more interest this year than ever before and there are various reasons for that belief. One of the reasons is that the walk up system of starting will be put into operation. Mars Cas-sidy used the system both on Thursday and Saturday at Aqueduct, but the real test will come with the Jamaica racing. It is inevitable that there are some who will endeavor to find fault with the changes, there are always those who find fault, but with a fair trial there is every reason to expect that the system will bring a great improvement in the starting of the races. Jockeys who have been riding in New York under the old standing start will have to learn the new method, just as the older horses will have to become familiar with its workings, but there is nothing intricate in that education and, with a proper control of the riders, there should bo no fear of the walk up not proving an entire success. There was disappointment that Jamaica did not accept Mr. Wideners new track rule regarding scratches, or rather virtually prohibiting scratches, but there was a timidity about being the first to make such a radical change in conditions. Under the circumstances the first chance to pass on the rule that will only permit the withdrawal of a horse entered for changed conditions, or by the consent of the stewards, and for disability to run, will be at the Belmont Park meeting, which does not open until May 17. "When it is demonstrated at Belmont Park that the rule is a good thing for the sport, there is little doubt of the other meetings adopting the same rule. There was another New York improvement - at the United Hunts Association i meeting which might well be adopted by ■ the other New York courses. That was i of publishing the names of the horses s on the program in the post position i order. That is the rule that has been i carried out on all of the rautuel courses ; and it should easily be adopted in New York. Of course, it would be better • still to also publish the names of the, j * to j O of b V r ii in Ii t e t ■ c I i t i i I i • , , - i ■ i s i i ; • j jockeys that are to ride, but the post * positions would at least be some help the racing patrons. It might so happen that Willis Sharpe Kilmer did not entirely deplete his stable good three-year-olds when he sold both Sun Edwin and Reigh Count last year. This Gift Hawk, son of Rich Gift — Hawkshead had come back to the races a fashion that may bring new racing fame to the Binghamton turfman. Gift Hawk had shown so little as a two-year-old that he was not named for either the Preakness Stakes or the Ken- , 1 tucky Derbv, and his other opportunities ; i are not as numerous as those of some of the other three-year-olds, but he has . shown that he is a colt with a fine turn « of speed and his easy victory at Havre , de Grace on Friday was, to say the least, impressive. ~~ ■ * While there are several of the eligible:* , to the Kentucky Derby in Maryland, and i racing their way into condition, those at Churchill Downs, not yet seen under colors, continue to progress in a satisfactory manner. Of all the eligibles not i one attracts more attention than does Mrs. John Hertz Reigh Count. It is I I I natural that this colt should attract the most attention, for his form was so brilliant at the close of the 1927 racing that he was installed as the winter book favorite when the prices were first offered , on the Kentucky chief race. Thus far nothing has been accomplished by any of the other eligibles to threaten his position, and each time he is exercised by trainer Michell, he goes along in a way to keep him secure as first choice. From this time until Derby Day it may be expected that there will be many changes in the odds of the various other candidates. Those that may race brilliantly will, of course, move up, but while they are moving up it is almost inevitable that there will come a greater number of eliminations. It is when the real gruelling part of the conditioning begins that eliminations are brought about, whether they be in races or in the training. It is easy enough to bring a colt up to miles in 1:44, and even faster. That work may be accomplished in a manner that suggests undisclosed capacity, and an infinite amount in reserve. Then some of the reserve is called on from day to day in that tightening up process. Distances are stretched out and weights are gradually increased. This or that brilliant prospect under a slower pace, does not show so well when really stretched out to full speed. Then there are others that go amiss. Some of them break down right on the eve of the running of the race, and this is in no sense peculiar to the ordinary ones. Too often the most brilliant of the prospects go wrong at the eleventh hour and there has to be a hasty revision of all the estimates. That was peculiar of the Morvich year, 1922, when the field was pruned down of many of the good ones shortly before the race. One of the most brilliant was Edward R. Bradleys Busy American. He had won the Blue Grass Stakes at Lexington, but before the running of the Kentucky Derby he was in such a condition that it was feared he would not finish the mile and a quarter. He was sent to the post, but the worst fears were realized when he broke down hopelessly while rounding the first turn and was pulled up by his jockey. Then in 1925 Frederick Johnsons Quatrain, winner of the Louisiana Derby, was the popular choice until shortly before the running of the Kentucky race. He went amiss just before its running and it was Gifford A. Cochrans Flying Ebony that was the winner. Last year Walter M. Jeffords Scapa Flow was looked upon as one of the greatest of the three-year-olds and he was the winner of an overnight purse at Pimlico in a manner that made him the most talked of candidate for both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby. He was beaten in both and did not appear again under colors until the opening of the Havre de Grace meeting of this year. Scapa Flow had trained brilliantly and right up to the running of the Preakness Stakes he flattered in all that he did, but infirmity robbed him of his two big chances. Thus it is that the eliminations always come as the eve of the big races ap-B p roach.
