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t--------------- ....... --- t t j i Here and There! on the Turf i Jamaica Offers Improvements Better Betting Ring Available j I Camera Will Aid Placing Judges j List Compares IPreakness Favorably j A. ........... 4 Jamaica opens the New York racing season this afternoon for the steenth time, with a modernistic touch definitely in evidence. The Metropolitan Jockey Club management has decided that further improvements would meet with the publics approval and the many thousand persons journeying to the course today will find a betting ring of increased size and accommodations and a camera to give the placing judges a second look at close finishes. They are changes that should please the patrons. The Jamaica betting ring, a fair-sized structure enclosed on two sides and overhead, now not only is larger, but is equipped with mounted booths for the layers and their assistants. With the larger slates in vogue the customers who would support the horses of their choice will ltave less trouble making their bets. All that is necessary now for complete happiness for the patrons are winners and reasonable odds. The camera, to be tried out in New York for the first time, is the one developed at Hialeah Park under the supervision of Marshall Cassidy, steward for the state racing commission. It is not to be confused with the machine used at Tropical Park and now at Havre de Grace, nor that pioneered at Santa Anita Park a year ago. With any merit vhatsoever the Jamaica camera should find a welcome with metropolitan racing fans, because several years have elapsed since they had complete faith in the placing judges. Other changes and improvements have been made at Jamaica, which enjoyed its best season in some time last year, and the management undoubtedly feels that the better conditions enjoyed at the winter and spring tracks also will be evident at the Long Island course. As far as racing is concerned, Jamaica should have a very good meeting because of the wealth of material available. With such noted establishments as those of the Whit-neys, Brookmeade Stable, Marshall Field. Mrs. John Hertz, Wheatley Stable, Belair Stud, Hal Price Headley, William Ziegler, Jr., GeOrge H. Bostwick and Sage Stable furnishing contestants in the various events, the sport should be of a very high caliber. The opening attraction is the traditional Paumonok Handicap, which has drawn an overnight field quite in keeping with its standard. Featuring the meeting is the Wood Memorial Stakes, which this year will prove the important preliminary for the Kentucky Derby, coming, as it does, a week before the Blue Grass special. Every important Derby hope in New York is being groomed for the Wood, a 0,000 race including Hollyrood, Granville, Bold Venture, Tintagel, Bright Plumage and Teufel. Most of them will see action beforehand and their various appearances are sure to promote interest. Everything, with the exception of the stall gates absence, points to fine racing and a wonderful season on the metropolitan circuit this year. In a comparison with the nominations for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness both gains and loses. Tatterdemalion and Jean Bart are the promising three-year-olds in the eligibility list of the Maryland Jockey Clubs long-time fixture that cannot run in the Derby, while Brevity, Coldstream and The Fighter are well known candidates for the Churchill Downs race that were not named for Fimlicos special. The Derby apparently has the better line up, but the Preakness may have several starters that declined the Kentucky race although eligible. Memory Book is one of these as William Brennan has given up hope of getting the Greentree Stables good colt ready for the Derby but may use the additional two weeks to good advantage in preparing the St. Germans colt for the Preakness. Jean Bart, the candidate of Walter M. Jeffords for the Preakness, is a stablemate of Firethorn, which sidestepped last years Derby to make the Pimlico event his first objective. .The son of Sua Briar was un- able to match strides with Omaha but drove into second place. The new Jeffords hope distinguished himself as a two-year-old by finishing a fast third in the Belmont Futurity. Tatterdemalion, one of C. V. Whitneys three Preakness eligibles, displayed promise last season and is being brought along slowly this spring. He is a half brother to Boojunii but being by St. Ger mans may be the reason why he looms as a stouter three-year-old performer. Red Rain, from the same stable, is a Preakness absentee as well as from the Derby, so the Belmont Stakes remains his most important objective. We are not in a position at this time to report on why Brevity, Coldstream and The Fighter are not Preakness eligibles but hope to find out in short order,
