view raw text
and — -e Here and There on the Turf The Element of Luck. Nimbas Great Race. More on Widener Rule. Opening at Collinsville. « «v Some statistical chap figured out long ago that there were some forty, or was it seventy ways, the best horse might be beaten in a race. But the number makes no difference and Joseph E. Widener lost both the Charles L. Appleton Steeplechase and the Metropolitan Handicap, at Belmont Park Saturday, with two horses that to many appeared best. Fairmount ran a wonderful race when he was only beaten a nose by the lightly weighted Bangle, from Thomas Hitchcocks stable, while Chance Shot ran a good race in the Metropolitan Handicap, though he was beaten by Marshall Fields great filly Nimba. Fairmount is one of the surest jumpers in training, but he made a bad blunder at the third jump that cost him some ground, and he made one other bad landing. Then he lost several lengths by running wide on the last turn. All of these moves are unusual for Fairmount, and but for the slight mistake he would surely have led Bangle home instead of having been beaten by a nose. Then with Chance Shot it was another case of lost ground. Sande, on Chance Shot, took every advantage of the good pace that was being forced by Osmand, in there for that purpose, but at the head of the stretch he swung to the outside to come past the leaders, while Thurber came on the inside with Nimba and saved enough ground to gallop home the winner. Nimba ran a smsahing race and Odom sent her out in rare condition, but Chance Shot lost more ground than he was beaten, by Sande going to the outside on the stretch turn, and it is doubtful j if Nimba would have been able to beat him home had he been ridden the course that was taken by Thurber. But with it all, the brilliant return of Mr. Fields Nimba is of vast importance to the handicap division. The wisdom of Joseph E. "Wideners new no scratch rule had a real try-out with the racing at Belmont Park on Saturday and it must be admitted that the result proclaimed it an ideal track regulation. I "When the entries wee made Friday, for the races of Saturday, indications were that the track would be fast. Then early Saturday morning there came a drenching rain that completely changed the track surface. That made possible, under the new regulation, the scratching of horses without any charge and without the consent of the stewards. It is provided that a change in the track condition is reason enough for the scratching of any horse that may have been entered. In fact under the rule there is no bar on the number of scratches even bhould the event result in a walkover. That naturally brought several scratches, but each race had a worthy field and it was a day that was remarkable for its close and exciting finishes. j The horses that remained in the various races all had the ability to race through the sloppy going and the results were all that could have been desired. As a matter of fact, the rule is one that should be greatly appreciated by the horsemen themselves. It does away with the demand for a percentage of the purse when the scratching reaches below the number that are permitted to withdraw free of charge, and it does away with the entering of horses, with no intention of starting them, merely for the purpose of scaring others away. The trainer is infinitely better off when he knows exactly what horses he is to match his horse against, instead of guessing at just what ones will be scratched from the field. T.ere is still a hope that the Queens County Jockey Club will come to a realization of the benefits of the rule and adopt it for the Aqueduct meeting. It has been intimated that at that meeting the lead of Belmont Park will be followed in the way of printing the names of the horses on the program in the post position order. Should that be done, without also adopting the no scratch regulation, it would only complicate matters and surely bring about many more scratches. Trainers whose horses draw an unfavorable post position would be enabled to scratch and for no other reason when the scratches are possible until 1:30 oclock in the day. The opening of the Collinsville meeting of the Fairmount Jockey Club, Saturday, was successful beyond all expectations when the attendance record was broken. There were some surprises in the results of the various races and the most pronounced was when Shasta Lad was the winner of the big feature of the afternoon, the Collinsville Handicap. One of the interesting occurrences for the opening day was the use of the Waite stall gate starting device in two of the three-quarters races. In one of these races the results were anything but satisfactory, by reason of the unruly actions of several of the horses. In the other the start was a good one. Thus it is that most of the stall gates have done the work of starting. It is natural that with the device new to most of the horses and riders it will take some time and some schooling before judgment may be passed on the real efficiency of that method of sending horses away. Frequently excellent starts have been had from the various stall devices that have been tried, but also frequently the device has been anything but a success. Joseph A. Murphy is one of the btanchest advocates of the stall gate end undoubtedly the Waite gate will have a thorough tryout at Collinsville. Should it fail to give satisfaction there arc several others with the same stall scheme for the lining up of the horses that are on the market for approval. Although the Hawthorne meeting, in Chicago, does not open until July 30, much work is going forward to make that opening a big one. This oldest of the Chicago race courses has grown to great importance since the revival of racing in Illinois and the association is sorely tried in finding accommodations for all the horses that it is desired to have race at the meeting. Hawthorne is more limited in its area than any other of the Chicago courses, and while there have been several additions to accommodations it is impossible to find stalls for come nineteen hundred for which applications have been made. Already these applications are being gone over and some of the stables will have to be denied stabling on the grounds for lack of space. In the meantime, one important addition that is being made for the coming meeting is the construction of a chute for the three-quarters races. In this chute there will be constructed a permanent stall starting gate, such as was used with success by Marshall Cas-sidy at Tijuana. Joseph A. Murphy is a strong advocate of the stall gate and the present plan is to have all the three-quarters sprints started from such a device. It is also the intention to so arrange the important Hawthorne stake races so that they will not be run on conflicting dates with similar races at Saratoga Springs.. This would permit the shipping of candidates between the New York course and Hawthorne, or from Hawthorne to Saratoga Springs, to meet all engagements. This is a wise move and will surely be greatly appreciated by the horsemen with eligibles at both of these racing points.
