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Here and There! on the Turf j .j Adams Threatens Longden j Veteran Better Get Busy j Williams Also Has Chance j Arcaro, James Rate Highly j A.. . 4 Johnny Longden, who less than a month ago became one of the nations highest paid jockeys by becoming affiliated with the stable campaigned by Don Cameron for Mrs. Vera S. Bragg, Mrs. John Hertz and J. Shirley Riley, had better get back into his stride In a hurry at Tanforan if he is to win the 1938 riding championship. At the conclusion of the Pimlico meeting, the Canadian lightweight headed for the California track in order that he might protect his lead over Johnny Adams, but while Longden was traveling, the short-legged westerner made a sharp reduction in the margin of victories separating the two saddle artists, and if he can keep up the pace, he may overtake the leader during the final three weeks of thej Tanforan meeting. Longden topped Adams by nineteen winners at the conclusion of Mondays racing, but the latter appears strongly bent on wiping out the difference. Always one of the leaders since he began Tiding a decade ago, Longden is having his first real chance at attaining the championship. Although his riding has been steady throughout the season, Longden was aided in getting to the front by ill fortune on the part of Adams, who was setting the pace until he suffered a fractured leg during the summer. Since returning to the saddle, however, Adams has been moving along at such a. clip that he gradually reduced Longdens advantage, though it appears his bid has come too late. Longden probably would have taken a much needed vacation with the end of Pimlico, but for his fine chance of winning the championship, but he is so keen to attain that honor that he has gone out to stave off Adams rush on the latters own battleground. Silvio Coucci is another jockey who left the Maryland track for Tanforan and getting into action sooner, he has been making Longdens task easier by guiding home a few winners. Regardless of whether Longden or Adams is the victor, the champion will be the second straight full-fledged jockey to capture the title since Ivan Parke was the master in 1924. Adams topped the list last season, but he did not enjoy the apprentice allowance as did the leading riders from 1925 through 1936, when the boys enjoying the greatest number of winners were Mortensen, Jones, Hardy, Inzelone, Knight, Riley, Roble, Gil-"bert,Westrope, Peters, Stevenson and James. Best of the apprentices in the current ranking is Sammy Williams, who is third on the list with a total of 181 victories, twenty-six below the total enjoyed by Longden, Monday. Williams was inactive for some time until yesterday when the Fair Grounds opened, and he still must be counted in the running as he will be able to ride daily from now until the end of the year, while Longden and Adams must take time off after Tanforan unless they pursue their profession at Agua Caliente. From a percentage standpoint, the leaders are Eddie Arcaro and Basil James, both of whom won slightly more than twenty-two of every 100 races in which they rode. Longden!s rating in this respect is a little less than .21, while Adams and Williams average about .19. Sterling Young, top Canadian rider, and Sam Palumbo, the half-mile champion, each enjoy percentages of .21, while Johnny Gilbert also is well up on Continued on ticenty-seventh page. HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second -page. the list with .20. Although he is far down on the list in so far as the number of victories is concerned, Palumbo appears to have an excellent cance of attaining the highest percentage of the active riders as the Charles Town meeting is close at hand. The veteran from Long Island is thoroughly acquainted with the Charles Town turns, as the history of the West Virginia track attests. Arcaro apparently doesnt care who will prove the champion, as he laid away his tack the moment the Greentree Stable went into retirement for the season. Unless it be Ronnie Nash, no sensational apprentice was revealed during the season now fast coming to an end. After gaining experience in Canada, Nash went to Narra-gansett Park for its autumn meeting and literally became the talk of the town. Williams hasnt been quite so flashy but he has shown excellent promise wherever he went, although he didnt try the Metropolitan and Maryland circuits, where a jockey requires something more than the ability to sit on a horse. Warren Yarberry and Lucas Dupps are other apprentices whose work was hardly sensational but steady enough. Just now, out on the West Coast, theyre talking about a youngster named Van Tassel, who just seems to be coming around, although he rode his first winner back in August at Washington Park. In all this wordage about the leading jockeys, nothing has been written about Nick Wall, who has ridden less than a hundred winners and whose percentage is .15, but the horses hes guided earned upward of 00,000 and so his Christmas hardly will be an empty one.
