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Show FOR THE PONY LOVERS nnn nnn nnn nna TURF NEWS AND YARNS By JACK SALLEE. LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 30. The first half of the local fall racing season closed Tuesday at Douglas park, and the scene shifted to Churchill Downs Wednesday. The meeting will close at the latter course next Thursday, aad then Latonia will fall in Hue. The fall season has been about the average all over the country except at Havre de Grace. That track got moro classy horses than any other course and the meeting has been a great success. The Belmont, Miller, HalTenbeck, Butler, But-ler, Whitney and Herz stables are ait quartered at the Maryland track, and the sport has been keen throughout. Three horses are standing out in the three-year-old and up division this fall, and it would be a hard matter to pick out. the champion, though Dodge, the Maconiber crack, has done more than any of the others in the way of earning purses. The other three-year-old which is looming up as a star of the first order or-der is Star Hawk, winner of the Louisville Louis-ville cup at Douglas park and favorite in. the Historic St. Legcr. Theso two seem about the beat on the card. The Finn, H. C. Hallenbeck's great four-year-old, is now back in his best form, and if he continues he will wrest the all-aged crown from Koamer this year. However, there is another -which looks like the best distance horse that has been brought to this country in a long while Boots. This racer, at a mile or up, has proved a groat one. Of ; course the Butler crack, Spur, must be given some consideration m the three-! three-! year-old class. j Good Ones at Downs. j The meeting at Churchill Downs has 'brought quite a few good ones from the east, including the stable of J. W. (Bub) May, which has Bayberry Candle as its star. This one has developed considerably consider-ably in the past year and ranks well up among the handicap horses of the country. coun-try. May is a shrewd trainer, and he figured that he would not have such rough sailing in Kentucky as in Maryland Mary-land this fall. His horses have been doing pretty well in the east this summer, sum-mer, and haudicappers there have not hesitated to give them real imposts. Hodge, one of the best all-around handicap han-dicap horses in America, is rounding back to top form after a long rest. He is as dangerous in a sprint race as at a mile and a sixteenth or two miles. The son of Ivan the Terrible has been the mainstay of the Spence barn for the past two ye.-irs, and as ho is as sound as a new dollar, he is liable to be a good bread wiutier for several seasons. Douglas Park Closed. The meeting which closed Tuesday at Douglas park was a fair one from the standpoint of tho Jockey club. The crowds were about as heavy as they usually are in the fall and play was fairly fair-ly good. If every race was played as heavily as the last race each day, the jockey clubs would profit a great deal more. Those who are winning try to increase them while losers attempt to get even, and, as a result, the men who handle the machines are busy from the time the numbers are displayed until the off bell rings. The horses of J. W. Schorr have been causing a great deal of caustic comment at the local tracks. John W. Klein beat J. J. Murdock several days ago with oase. J. J. Murdock, is owned by a son of John F. Schorr. Later the same horses were in a race together with Murdock Mur-dock having a still greater impost to carry, and he tow-roped all the way. John W. Klein in this race was far back in the ruck. Last Tuesday Klein showed his heels to a good baud of sprinters. He was at fair odds. Best to Understand. Baldy, one-time rubber for the late W. C. Whitney, who is kept before the public on account of his way of going, convulsed the visitors of a South Louisville Louis-ville saloon a few nights ago when he got the best of another negro in an argument. argu-ment. Baldy was talking about how the horses were not running to form and about past performances. "Aw, Baldock, " said one dusky negro, ne-gro, "you jes' don' know what you tawkin1 'bout; yo ' can't neither read nor write." "Ah knows dat," replied Baldy. "It's ve'y nice to read an' write, but it 's much bettah to understan '. ' ' The St. Leger, the feature of the meeting at the Downs, is going to draw a fine field of distance horses. Star Hawk will have to carry top weight, and Trainer Jennings is working the colt up to his final race of the year. The entire Macomber string will be taken to Palmetto park, Charleston, S. C, at the conclusion of the Downs meeting meet-ing for the winter. Trainer Jennings declares that Palmetto park is the best training ground he can find. He is going go-ing to try to get. him a derby winner out of the classy lot of two-year-olds he has in his stnble. |