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GREAT BOON FOR FENCERS 1 1 Chicago Revival of Steeplechases J Means Much to Fraternity. P.laborate Tlans for Arlington Parks Course, "Which Will Rival That at l-t mont, Under AVay. , r a Thirty thousand dollars, at least, will he -the portion of the horsemen who take part in I the steeplechasing the Arlington Park Jockey Club will stage at Arlington Park in July, s There will be three steeplechases a week, each carrying an added money value of s ,000. These races will remain open until f the day before their running, when they will 2 close with the flat races of the programs of I which they will be a part. They cannot, ac- 3 cordingly, fail to attract the best available 1 horses. Whether or not there will be a stake of greater value than 2,000 will depend on the 1 number of first class fencing horses that J come this way after the finish of the Aqu-duct June meeting, and their quality. There will be plenty of time for decision in this direction. The Arlington meeting, which will run thirty days, will not begin until June 30. 1 The coming chasing will be the first patrons of Chicago racing will have enjoyed in the last twenty-five or thirty years. It will 1 be a boon to the steeplechasing fraternity, which has had a lean time since the great J war took a score or more owners and train- j ers of the old order into military activities. -The only steeplechasing New York City has J is promoted at Belmont Park and Aqueduct. There are no jumping courses at Jamaica and Yonkers. The finish of Aqueduct racing in the past has found from seventy-five to 1 one hundred and fifty jumpers of the first class, seasoned by Pimlico, Woodbine Park, Belmont Park and Aqueduct spring and sum- 1 mer chasing, witli nothing to do until Au- ; gust. Arlington Park chasing this year and hereafter will plug that gap and profitably. UDER EXPERT SUPERVISION. The steeplechase course at Arlington Park will lie within the confines of a skinned track one mile and a furlong around. Its construction will be supervised by II. I. Pels, the Belmont Park superintendent, whose services have been lent to the Arlington Park Jockey Club by Joseph E. Widener, president of the Westchester Racing Association and reconstructor of Belmont Park. Widener, who came into racing through steeplechasing some thirty years ago, maintains one of the strongest stables of fencers to be found anywhere. The jumps of the new course will correspond in every particular with the jumps of the big course, which expert opinion has - voted the best and safest on. this side of the Atlantic. The fact that the Belmont Park jumps are as stiff as the jumps of the famous Aintree course, over which the Liverpool Grand National, the worlds most celebrated steeplechase, has been revived since 1S39, is attested by Thomas Hitchcock, dean of the American steeplechasing fraternity, and Major Thomas McCreery, one of the most capable and successful trainers of the current epoch, who have made comparative measurements. The Belmont Park course is the safest on this side of the Atlantic because of the very stiffness of its fences, paradoxical as such an idea may seem to the uninitiated. Jumpers learn quickly that they cant take chances on a stiff course. They must jump cleanly or fall at the risk of necks and limbs. Hitchcock and McCreery, with Widener, will bring powerful stables to Arlington for the initial meeting. IIUXT RULES PREVAIL. The rules of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, which govern at all other courses in the United States, barring those in Maryland, which, under the law, are subject to the supervision of the Maryland Racing Commission, will be applied. A representative of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association will serve in the stewards stand with deputies of the Arlington Park Jockey Club. The National Steeplechase and Hunt Association weight scale will obtain. The expediency of staging at Arlington a race or two of two miles or two miles and a half for hunters with non-professional riders up is being considered. Whether there will be such a race depends on how well the Billy Barton, at Pimlico, and the Aiken, at Belmont Park, pan out in May and June. With Albert and Pete Bostwick, Downy Bonsai, William Streett, Lex Wilson, Regan McKinney, Bayard Tuckerman, Ike Clothier, George Saportas, Jr., Bobby Davis, Dave Odell, Charles Cushman, James Simpson and ten or a dozen others ready for the colors always there are as many first class amateur riders at call as eastern amateur chasing boasted twenty to thirty years back when Lee Evans, Dion Kerr, Tommy Wright, the Tucker brothers Lee. Evans and John, Bob Taylor, Fred Stone, Fred Alpers, Antelo Dev-ereaux, Ambrose Clark, Harry Page, Billy Hayes, Charles Harrison, Cortland Smith and Al Davis were youn and ambitious horsemen.
