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Here and There on the Turf ! 1 Match Race Finally Arranged 1 Keeneland Gets Special Event Vanderbilt to Help Piralico Sation Nearly Great Sprinter jjL . 4 Just when we were writing the swan song of Myrtlewood her owner, Brownell Combs, was persuaded to run her once more, but he would not have agreed to send the daughter of Blue Larkspur Frizeur to the post again but for the fact that it was to be against Miss Merriment in a match race. While the Kentucky breeder-sportsman has not cared about going out of his way to run Myrtle-wood in the toughest of company, he long has been willing to start her in a match race, and in midsummer he had an open mind about sending her against Discovery over the mile distance. So when Joseph A. Murphy asked Combs a month or so ago if he would start Myrtlewood against Miss Merriment, the outstanding older filly or mare in the East, he was willing. Murphy made a strong effort to get the race and all conditions were agreed upon except the date, so the match fell through, as Miss Merriment had engagements at Jamaica, and Myrtlewood was pointing for the two races at Keeneland she is fresh from winning. Last week Miss Merriment became the property of John Hay Whitney, who purchased the five-year-old daughter of High Time Nobility, by Nassovian, from Victor Emanuel for breeding purposes. Miss Merriment was to have made her final start in the New Ro-chelle Handicap, opening feature at Empire City Monday, which she did, carrying the familiar Emanuel jacket. As soon as the race was over title in her passed to Whitney, and the young sportsman, who is greatly interested in the welfare of Keeneland, informed MaJ. Louie Beard that he was willing to match Miss Merriment against Myrtlewood. Combs was approached and, with the desire to face the High Time mare still with him, he agreed to the match. Each will carry 118 pounds and the race is to be six furlongs, which ever has been Miss Merri- ments favorite distance. As she has been accustomed to carrying higher weights, the impost of 118 pounds will suit Miss Merriment perfectly. Myrtlewood also has been called upon to shoulder bigger loads, but she also has been asked to race over longer distances, her last effort having been at a mile and one-sixteenth in muddy going. She will have the advantage of having run over the Keeneland track, but the course doesnt seem to be of the kind requiring previous experience. Superstitious persons may feel that Miss Merriment is 100 to 1 right now because she already has won her seven victories this season, this having been the total of her triumphs in each of the three other years she has been campaigned. Since winning the Fall Highweight Handicap at Belmont Park in mid-September for her seventh the High Ttme marc score of the year, has been out three times, going unplaced in .Continued on twenty-tMr$,pa9.cl HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page. one and being nosed out in the other two. Nevertheless, the match promises to be a thriller, and it will be the means of attracting a big crowd for Keenelands closing Saturday. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilts acquisition of a large block .of stock in the Maryland Jockey. Club can only be considered as a good omen for racing in that state, and at Pimlico in particular. The young Maryland sportsman now is a stockholder in two tracks, as he also is a director at Belmont Park. Vander-bilt should bring some new Ideas to Pimlico, one of the oldest tracks in the country. He already has asked the public to write him of any suggestions as to the improvement of Pimlico and the racing there. At once a sportsman, Vanderbilt has tried to operate his stable along that line, and when Discovery was going good he didnt mind shipping the horse to tracks all over the country. With young men like Vanderbilt coming to the front. Maryland racing should stand on its best traditions for many more years to come. In the death of Sation, racing loses its champion sprinter of 1935 and one of the most formidable speedsters of the present season. The six-year-old gelded son of Gale-tion Salacia, by Ultimus, suffered a broken leg in the New Rochelle Handicap Monday and had to be destroyed. But for unsoundness, the George D. Widener horse undoubtedly would have proven one of the countrys greatest sprinters of all time, but his infirmities taxed the training skill and patience of Andrew Jackson Joyner and Bert Mulhol-land. both first-class horsemen. Despite his inability to remain in good condition, Sation was able to run nine times last year, winning four, being second as many times and third once. He wasnt so fortunate this year, winning only two out of ten until his fatal accident, but he ever was regarded as the kingpin of his division by the handicappers. His best race, perhaps, was in the Fall High-weight Handicap last year, when he carried 140 pounds to defeat Whopper, Cycle, Bran-non. Black Buddy, Miss Merriment and Wise Daughter, all fast horses.
