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Here and Therej on the Turf i j Decries Chute for Belmont Fu- I Iturity J Owner Says Public Conies First J Asks Lower Weights in Rich - j Event i i Rockingham Stakes Attractive J J A- 1 A well known owner and breeder who has met with considerable success in the Belmont Futurity agrees with the contention of the majority that the nations richest and most important two-year-old race should be staged over the main track, instead of the straight course at Belmont Park. The construction of the Belmont track, with its wide, sweeping turn, is well suited for a large field and the Futurity would be just as truly run if not more so than out of the chute, he informed your correspondent. Racing is the publics sport just as much as it is ours, the horsemen said, and their wish to have the Futurity run where it can be seen is the only argument to be considered. Belmont Park would find it good business to move its star two-year-old race to the main course because considerably more enthusiasm would be stirred up among the public. Fortunately the leaders of New York racing are learning more and more that Americans like their racing American fashion, instead of under English customs, one of which has the horses starting at some distant point regardless of its direction from the grandstand. Our suggestion that the Futurity distance be one mile now that the race is scheduled -v- for about October 1 does not meet with full accord from the person with whom we discussed the matter. He believes seven furlongs is the proper distance, saying the starters would have plenty of run down the back stretch for the field to be well spread out before reaching the turn. We continue convinced, however, that the Futurity, if held over the main course at Belmont Park that late in the season, should be at one mile. In addition to being a more popular distance, it will give the contestants more chance to settle into their stride after the start and therefore prove less of a hardship on them than a shorter race. Sprinters will not have so much of a chance in the longer race and it would immediately become a spur to stouter breeding. Futurity winners have developed notoriously poor stayers as a whole. Although opposing the contention that the Futurity should be at a mile, our prominent owner believes the weight scale for the race is pitched too high. He is not in favor of having two-year-olds carrying as much as 130 pounds as the winners of the Hopeful Stakes and Arlington Futurity must do in the Belmont classic. Other stakes winners are penalized under the Futurity conditions, some carrying 125 pounds and others 127 pounds. The imposts are based on scale weight of 122 pounds for the colts and 119 pounds for fillies, with maidens getting five pounds off. It is pr. -jbsed to reduce the arrangement of weights so that the good jockeys would not be excluded, as for example, making the basic impost five pounds below scale and leaving the penalties and allowances such as they are. Three-year-olds, the vast majority of which have attained maturity, are well able to take up 126 pounds over long routes, it is contended. The Illinois State Racing Commission has heard the plea of Sportsmans Park and turned it down, so the doughty half mile track has gone into court to test the powers of the board. It is unfortunate for racing that such steps are being taken, because they can do the sport no good, regardless of the courts decision. If the outcome of other racing cases that have been taken to court is any criterion, Sportsmans Park will not get satisfaction in its present endeavor. The Illinois commission is endowed by law, and the supreme court of the state must determine if that law is constitutional. The season may be over and Sportsmans Parks purpose may be defeated before the case is decided. Even though the half mile track pays a greater license fee than Aurora, the commission properly feels that racing to be anything like a sport should be over a mile course, so it is not taking anything away from the Fox Valley course. That the new owners of Rockingham Park intend to keep up the high standard of racing that has prevailed at the New Hampshire course since the sports revival, is indicated by the stakes program for the eighteen-day meeting to be staged from May 25 through June 13. Some of the events will not be as rich as they were a year ago, probably because Rockingham has felt the pressure of too much racing in that area, but the program is attractive enough, with the Rockingham Park Handicap as the main event. As has been customary, this race, at a mile and a furlong, will have a 0,000 purse, and, coming after the Suburban and before the Brooklyn Handicap, should draw some of the leading handicap stars from New York. No announcement has been made as to the size of the purses, but they can be expected to be up to the former standard of the track. As the Rockingham meeting follows a term at Narragansett Park, it should prove successful.
