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e 1 i i « New York Racing Scene * Changes to Belmont Park I j | l J I I | j j | | 1 j INAUGURAL PROGRAM Toboggan Handicap, With Sation Top Weight, the Feature — Camera Eye and Loud Speaker Innovations. NEW YORK, N. Y., May 9.— New York comes into its most important spring meet-I ing with the opening of the twenty-four day ! meeting of the Westchester Racing Asso-| ciation at beautiful Belmont Park Monday j afternoon. It is always a day of big importance when the big Nassau County course i throws open its gates, and the old associa-tion had a like importance when its racing i was conducted at Morris Park before the j opening of the big Long Island course in the ; spring of 1905. For an opening feature the offering is the Toboggan Handicap, a dash of six furlongs j over the Widener course, to which ,000 is j added. Should all eleven that accepted the | weights Saturday go to the post, this prize i will have a value in excess of ,000. For the opening program secretary Campbell has arranged an excellent card of seven races. It marks the return of steeplechasing, i and the jumpers will perform under selling ] conditions and over the short distance. There i are two races for the juveniles, one being for maiden fillies and the other inviting both sexes. Thus with the Toboggan there will I be three of the events over the straight course. Rather a nice band of three-year-olds are to meet at a mile, and the other two I events are under claiming conditions, bringing out nicely-balanced fields. The most notable acceptance in the Toboggan Handicap is George D. Wideners Sation, the top weight, and required to take up 135 pounds. The son of Galetian came back to! racing brilliantly in his one start at the | Metropolitan Jockey Club meeting, when he carried 128 pounds to victory, and even under! his heavy burden for the Toboggan he will doubtless be the choice of the company. Continued on thir*y-fovrth pnqe. NEW YORK RACING SCENE CHANGES TO BELMONT PARK Continued from first page. The race will also bring Hal Price Head-leys Whopper back. This giant son of Phar-amond II. — Romance had some seasoning through the winter and raced brilliantly in California. Since that campaign he has had a rest and has been freshened up by Duval Headley at Belmont Park until he appears thoroughly ready for this sprint. His weight is 123 pounds, and he is second in the handicap, as far as actual poundage is concerned. George Odom will send out Marshall Fields Futurity winner Tintagel to carry 112 pounds, i and there are few sprinters that have anything on the swift-running son of Sir Galla-had III. Then, A. G. Vanderbilt is represented by two in Identify, winner of the Toboggan last year, and Postage Due. the only three-year-old besides Tintagel that is in the field. There will be much interest in the appearance of John F. Clark, Jr.s record-making Clang, which earned his reputation last year in the Middle West. The son of Stimulus has been doing all that has been asked of him and on his brilliant racing seems to be well treated. "Bob" Smith promises to saddle both Psychic Bid and Clocks for Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloanes Brookmeade Stable and the Greentree Stable is represented by Plat Eye, one that came back successfully at Jamaica. The other two that complete the field are John Hay Whitneys Singing Wood and the Howe Stables Nautch, both well suited at the distance. From such a field, the Toboggan is sure to have a memorable renewal, should the weather and track conditions remain favorable for the running. While the steeplechase is under selling conditions and accordingly does not invite the best, it is a thoroughly good field of half a dozen that have been named. Of these, Thomas Hitchcock is represented by a team in Blackcock and Santi Quaranti. This last named one was winner of the steeplechase at Pimlico before being shipped to Belmont Park. Others in the field are Benedictine, Louis DOr, Jungle Dawn and Masked Knight, a lot that should properly introduce the crosscountry sport for the new meeting. The mile race for three-year-olds promises well from the thirteen that have been named to bear silks. Some of these in this company are C. V. Whitneys Tatterdemal-lion, which has been used as a working mate for Red Rain, Brush Hook, a Greentree Stable candidate for the Preakness, and the Belmont, Merry Pete that races for William Woodward and the A. G. Vanderbilt team, Spank and Tiana. This opening of the new season of the Westchester Association will mark the installation of two mechanical devices that should make the racing at the big course more popular with the public. One of these, naturally, is the camera at the finish and the other is a loud speaker description of the races that are run over the Widener course. Most of the platers that are engaged in the opening day at the big Nassau County course have been seen in action at Jamaica and an excellent line has been obtained on them through that successful meeting. The camera at the finish has met with popular approval through the Jamaica meeting and it is of greater importance at Belmont Park in its promised stilling of the criticism that has come in races over the straight course when the finishes have been close. By reason of the angle of that finish line to those in the stands, it has been only on rare occasions there has been agreement with the placing of the judges. The camera should demonstrate that the watchers in the stand have little or no chance to correctly judge close finishes and it should do much to restore confidence. As for the loud speaker description of the running of races through the straight course it is sure to be greatly appreciated. These races over the Widener course, as are all races over a straight course, afford the public only a meager view of the horses as they are inside the final furlong and, as a matter of fact, even there it is frequently impossible to determine which one is leading. This description should keep all informed on the progress of the horses as they run and it will certainly make such races more popular than they have been lin the past.
