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« Here and There on the Turf Chicago Racing. Belmont Field Narrowing. Looks Like Three Starters. Maryland Lauds Racing. e $ Chicago racing is at hand. The meeting at Aurora, which draws its largest patronage from Chicago, was in the nature of an appetizer for the sport to be held at Arlington Park, Lincoln Fields and Hawthorne. Never before since racing was revived in Illinois, after a suspension that lasted over twenty years, are the prospects brighter for a wonderful succession of meetings, beginning Monday at Arlington Park. The enactment of the Lager racing law last year, legalizing the use of the pari-mutuel system of wagering in Illinois, re-established the sport on a solid and substantial basis andsd removed all the uncertainties that had previously overshadowed the revival of what had once been a part of Chicago summer life and entertainment for its many visitors. The passage of the Lager law made it possible for H. D. Brown and his associates to build the massive and beautiful Arlington Park, located northwest of Chicago, and within thirty minutes ride by train from the heart of the city. All know how well Mr. Brown built. He had been instrumental in the erection of several American race tracks and likewise beautiful Oriental Park in Cuba, so was well qualified to give Chicago one of the largest and finest race courses in this country. Its popularity was instantaneous, the inaugural meeting last fall being attended by large daily gatherings and immense throngs on special occasions. Everything was not completed last year and even now all the plans of president Frederic McLaughlin, Mr. Brown and Frank Bruen are only in part finished, nevertheless when the gates are thrown open Monday the public will be greatly surprised at the many improvements completed since last year. Arlington Park is ready with its two tracks, one at a mile, the other at one mile and an eighth, and there is plenty of racing material of the highest quality to fill the programs to be offered daily in addition to the rich array of stakes and special races. Certainly no more auspicious opening of a racing season could be anticipated. As the date for the running of the historic old Belmont Stakes approaches it becomes more and more apparent that Harry Payne Whitneys Victorian is going to have anything but a walkover for the rich race. There was bitter disappointment when Mrs. John Hertz Reigh Count was unable to keep the engagement, for , his victory in the Kentucky Derby made I him appear the most eligible of the candidates . other than Victorian. Then Nassak, the hope of the Rancocas Stable, went amiss and he was declared from the race. Those were two of the disappointments. And there is nothing that Sun 1 Edwin has done that would warrant starting him in the Belmont Stakes, while Mowlee, a stablemate of Nassak, does not seem to be in any manner eligible to represent the Rancocas silks. The last race run by Frederick Johnsons Replevin was almost too bad to be true, but it is hard to make him a dangerous • contender. Taras Hall, War . Flier, Oh Say, Kirkover, Knapsack, Iron Sides, Distraction, Diavolo and other of the eligibles have no business in such a race. Vito is another that has hardly shown enough. Bobashela is racing at Fairmount Park and Eugene S. is in t Canada. But in the meantime Gifford A. Cochrans ■ Genie has moved up until he looms as a worthy starter, while Willis Sharpe Kilmers Sun Beau surely has earned the I right for a try with Victorian. In the running of the Preakness Stakes, at Pimlico, Victorian took the measure of Sun Beau, while he was beaten by Reigh Count in the Kentucky Derby, but he is I a better colt now than he was on either , May 11 or May 19, when those two races were decided. Thus it is that a study of the remaining eligibles narrows the field down to i three starters, though there had been promise of several more. Sun Beau and Genie seem to be the only ones of the eligibles on hand that havo any right to try conclusions with the Whitney colt. While there have been various different estimates of the crowd that attended the Decoration Day races at Belmont Park, most of them were away below the actual attendance. Joseph E. Widener announced before he sailed for France that the attendance was only greater on one occasion and that was to view the International race between Harry F. Sinclairs Zev and Ben Irishs Epsom Derby winner Papyrus. And while the attendance was beyond the fondest expectations Decoration Day, the attendsnee right through the Belmont Park meeting has been greater than in any other year. This testifies to the popularity of the track, but another reason for the increased attendance, in the opinion of Mr. Widener, was the adoption of the no-scratch rule, that will also be a regulation of the racing at the Aqueduct meeting. That racing is surely secure in the state of Maryland has frequently been set forth, but there was one more evidence at a recent luncheon at the Columbia Country Club, at which Andrew J. Cy Cummings was the host. Guests of the occasion included Gov. Albert C. Ritchie, Major E. Brook Lee, speaker of the Maryland Legislature, and more than one hundred of the official family. In the exchange of compliments racing, of course, was the chief topic, and there was general congratulation on the manner in which the sport is conducted in the state of Maryland.
