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Here and There on the Turf Opening of Arlington. Latonia Meeting. Result of Suburban, ! Misstep Makes Good. s S Monday marked the opening of the long racing season for Chicago proper. The racing at Aurora came to a conclusion on Saturday and that meeting, which of course depended on its patronage from Chicago, did exceedingly well, but the beautiful Arlington Park course is a Chicago institution and it is really the beginning of the Chicago racing year. This newest of the Chicago institutions came into instant favor with its inaugural meeting last year and the opening of this meeting was indeed a brilliant affair. The monster course and its magnificent appointments will ever be a show place for racing and, since the racing of last fall, much has been accomplished in the finishing of some of the details of the great stands. The book of the meeting, which has been prepared by Frank J. Bruen and William Dondas, has met with the instant approval of the horsemen and there is every evidence of that approval in the great number of horses that will take part in the racing. The opening day program was fitting to the occasion and one of the biggest days of the twenty-four days meeting comes Saturday with the running of the American Derby, taken over from the new Washington Park course, which will have no spring meeting this year. The American Derby for this year, is at a mile and a quarter, is to be run Saturday and the added money is 5,000. This has in its eligible list virtually all of those that raced in the Fairmount and Kentucky Derbys, as well as those that raced in the earlier May event, the Preakness Stakes. Several of those are on hand, or will be on hand for the race, while some few others will be racing in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park the same day. Reigh Count, winner of the Kentucky Derby, is out of training, and Victorian, winner of the Preakness Stakes, will race in the Belmont Stakes. But Misstep, which was second to Reigh Count, and the winner of 1he Fairmount Derby of Saturday, will race at Arlington Park next Saturday and it is expected that Toro and Jack Higgins, second and third to him, will also be in the field. This fact, for one thing, by itself would make the American Derby a race of importance. Another glorious meeting at historic Churchill Downs came to an end Saturday. The racing scene in Kentucky now shifts to Latonia, where a twenty-nine days meeting will be inaugurated today. While Latonia does not monopolize the racing picture in the Middle West, as it did for many years in the past when there was no racing in the State of Illinois, the Covington track will suffer no hardships because of the conflict with Arlington Park and Fairmount Park. As these tracks draw their principal patronage from the great cities of Chicago and St. Louis, and Latonia depends upon Cincinnati, there is no need for fear that any one of the trio will be affected adversely in the matter of attendance, nor should the racing be anything but the best, as there are horses in plenty available to supply the demand at the three tracks above mentioned. The Latonia Jockey Club has provided its usual list of valuable stake races, of which the 5,000 added Latonia Derby is the principal attraction. All the stakes received a splendid array of entries and will not lack for contestants when they are decided. All that is necessary for a successful meeting at Latonia is good weather. While it is generally agreed that the victory of E. F. Cooneys Dolan in the Suburban Handicap on Saturday was a surprise, an analysis of the race does not make it in any sense a surprising performance. In the first place it was a case of weight bringing horses together, and, in the second place, the supposedly topnotchers in the handicap division are probably overrated. There was nothing in the rate of pace of the Suburban Handicap that should cause Chance Play to quit in front, even though he was taking up the top weight of 123 pounds. There was nothing in the pace, or in the 120 pounds he carried, that should have prevented Chance Shot from at least fighting it out with Dolan. Scapa Flow did not appear to be harshly treated under 120 pounds, and of course tho performances of both Black Maria and Ximba, winner of the Metropolitan Handicap, were so utterly bad that it could not be charged up against weight carried, fast running in the race or anything else tangible. As a matter of fact, back of Dolan, the rest of the field seemed to be almost perfectly handicapped, for those that ran well at all were closely bunched at the end. When L. J. Marks good colt Misstep was the winner of the Fairmount Derby on Saturday, the running of that race was a confirmation of form of the Kentucky Derby, run at Churchill Downs on May 19. In that race Misstep, after making the pace to the last quarter, finished second to Mrs. John Hertz Reigh Count. Toro, bearing the colors of Edward B. McLean, was third, with Jack Higgins finishing fourth. On Saturday, with Reigh Count out of the Fairmount Derby, Toro was second to Misstep, with Jack Higgins third. Misstep proved himself thoroughly in the running for the Kentucky Derby and the result of the Saturday race at Fair-mount Park was mere or less forecast in the big Churchill Downs feature. And the running of Saturday also tended to show that the Kentucky Derby was a truly run race. Since the race there have been many stories told of .the manner in which Distraction was handicapped by being caught in the barrier. This story is told more graphically by those who were not at Churchill Downs on May 19, than by those who had a good view of the race. It is admitted that Distraction suffered somo slight interference at the start of the Kentucky Derby, but to offer that as an excuse for his defeat is utter non-sens?. And the same may be said of the interference that was suffered by Strolling Player. There have been few races more truly run than the Derby of 1928, when the size of the field is taken into consideration, and the running of the Fairmount Derby rather testified to that fact, when the order of the finish was the same. This Toro, the son of The Porter and Brocatelle, has been a consistently good colt, since he gave H. P. Whitneys Victorian such a stern battle in the running oi the Pruakncss Stakes at Pimlico. With a bit more luck he would have been the winner of that richest of all the renewals of the old race. Then, in the Kentucky Derby, his third to Reigh Count and Misstep was a truly good race. Going on to the Fairmount Derby he finished second to that same Misstep. To have kept all three of these engagements, and taken a share of the money in each is some accomplishment and it testified to the rugged constitution of the colt as well as his consistently good racing.
