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on the Turf 1 1 Brown "Wizard, this unsexed son of Brown Prince and Prodigy, a daughter of Light Brigade that races for E. F. Sanford, has come to be a three-year-old of some importance. His race in the Woodstock Plate, at Woodbine Monday, was a first class effort ; on other occasions he has shown quality. Bred by Frederick Johnson, this fellow Mum from a family of stayers and it is entirely possible that had it not been for his being a gelding he might possibly have duplicated the feat of another son of Brown Prince, which, after leading Chance Play and Display home in the two miles of the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, was disqualified for a trivial stretch foul. In his score at Woodbine Brown Wizard forced all the pace and easily took the measure of African, which finished third in the Preakness. The Woodstock Plate is a mile and a sixteenth and it is safe to promise that the son of Brown Prince would have won just as easily over a longer route. The local racing season is near at hand. The Aurora meeting ends Saturday and Washington Park will throw open its gates Monday for the first of the Chicago meetings. There was no racing at Washington Park last year and a surprise is in store for race patrons when they enter the portals of the Homewood course Monday. This course, tlirown up hurriedly in 1926 and never completed, has undergone such a transformation that few will recognize the rehabilitated plant Of the newly organized Washington Park Jockey Club, which has pledged itself to provide for Chicago one of the most magnificent race tracks in the country. Among the many Improvements is a beautiful club house, Which, carrying out the Washington legend, ts patterned after the Washington home :tt Mount Vernon. Probably the improvement that will be most appreciated by racegoers Is the electrical system of transportation with a schedule of approximately twenty-five minutes from the city to the gates of the course. Already there are over four hundred horses on the grounds and with additions arriving daily there will be plenty of high class racing material available when the meeting opens Monday. Never before was the outlook brighter for a most successful season of racing ever the Chicago tracks. Pacing returns to Ohio with the opening of Bainbridge Park, near Cleveland, Saturday. A meeting of twenty-five days has been announced and during that term there will ae the Ohio Derby, which has attracted a surprising number of the three-year-olds of the top division. Already the track is well filled with horses and the assurance is that the class of the horses will be above that of former years. It is proposed that Clyde Van Dusen, winner of the Kentucky Derby, will be kept right at it as long as he holds his present form. The Gardner three-year-old is being pointed for the Fairmount Derby, at the Collinsville course, as his next important objective. This comparatively new prize, it has only had three runnings, has on each occasion attracted many that performed earlier in the Kentucky Derby. In the first running in 1926 Joseph E. Wideners Haste beat Baggen-baggage, the Bradley colt that was second to Bubbling Over, and Boot to Boot, another Bradley colt that later won the American Derby at Chicago. It will be remembered i i . - . . . i I r - I . ; t t that Bubbling Over, winner of the Kentucky Derby that year, was not brought back to the races for the Fairmount Derby. Then in the 1927 running there was a surprise when Mr. Bradleys Buddy Bauer led home H. P. Whitneys Whiskery and Joseph E. Wideners Osmand, which had finish-. i first and second in the Churchill Downs race. Last year Mrs. Hertzs Reigh Count was not seen under silks after his Kentucky Derby victory and the Fairmount prize went to Misstep, with Toro second, the same two that were second and third to Reigh Count in the early classic. Naishapur, which finished a fast closing second to Clyde Van Dusen last Saturday, may meet the gelded son of Man o War at Collinsville and John McKee, who trains th-3 colt, promises that he will turn the tables on him and keep up the traditions of the Fair-mount Derby. The Westchester Racing Association has announced that four important cross-country prizes, to be decided at the Belmont Park fall meeting, will be closed June 1. The most important is the Grand National which carries an added money award of 5,000, making it the greatest of American steeplechases. Then there is the Brook Steeplechase of 0,000 and the Broadhollow of ,500 added. The Brook and the Broad Hollow are both under handicap conditions and the Grand National carries penalties and allowances. It is a trying three-mile test and tince it has been brought to its present great value, two years ago Jolly Roger, from the Greentree Stable, has been winner on each occasion. The coming of Blue Larkspur, and various others in Edward R. Bradleys strong stable, will lend a new interest to the Belmont Park racing. Blue Larkspur, the stable hope for both the Withers and the Belmont, was unloaded apparently in the best of condition and he should gef far towards redeeming his showing in the Kentucky Derby in both the Withers and the Belmont. While making ready for the Kentucky classic the son of Black Servant was tried through muddy going on one occasion and he went along treely enough, but the track was not in the slippery condition that prevailed last Saturday at Churchill Downs. That running would indicate that he surely is handicapped by muddy going. Last year there was considerable rivalry between Blue Larkspur and George D. Wideners Jack High and it is possible, and probable, that the pair will take up their thre?-year-old battles with the Withers. This famous old prize is at a mile and it leads up nicely to the mile and a half of the Belmont which follows. H. J. "Dick" Thompson, who developed Blue Larkspur, but who was denied th» chance to saddle him for the Kentucky Derhy. by reason of being stricken with appendicitis shortly before the running, is rapidly regaining his strength since a successful operation and it is promised he will be able to follow the horses to Belmont Park next week. He has an abiding faith in Blue Larkspur and while, of course, bitterly disappointed ever his failure in the Kentucky classic, promises that he will prove himself a champion be-jfore the August racing. : 1 1 I : 1 • i 1 J J c - 1 I c r J 1 5 1 . . I " . . _ t p s - v e d r s
