OCR Text |
Show 111 1EET PHOMISES TO IHKEHISTOHY Auspicious Opening Augurs Well for Future; Continuous Continu-ous Racing When Horses Get Into Condition. HAVANA, Cuba, Dec. y. (By Mail.) The fourth season of winter racing under the auspices of the Cuba-American Jockey club has opened in a manner that is highly gratifying to all concerned. Oriental park, mid there is no more convenient or prettier racing plant anywhere, was the scene of a brilliant gathering of the elite of Havana on Thanksgiving day, when Hie season of 100 days' racing was Inaugurated. In-augurated. The patronage was of greater proportions than for the corresponding days alntle the opening of the track in 191a, Find it is evident that racing has been firmly established as one of the most lopulnr of Cuban sports. Americans mak-' mak-' ing their first visit to the track were much impressed by the display of finery that was a feature of the opening. The iiianv boxes with which the grandstand is ninipprd were filled with prominent Cu-1 Cu-1 arts, and the spectacle presented by the scores of well -groomed men and handsomely hand-somely gowned and bejeweled women moving about .the promenades and ex changing; visits between races was both inspiring and appealing to the eye. Among the prominent Cubans in attendance was Senor Juan Montalvo, secretary of the in -tenor in President Menocal's cabinet. Senor Montalvo witnessed some of the I racing from the stewards' stand as the j guest "of the management, and expressed himself as highly pleased with the racing and its Attendant incidents. He informed ( lenera I Manager H. P. Brown that it would u'ive htni much pleasure to attend the races as frequently from time to time L ns his oflkial duties would permit. S. Manager--Satisfied, jfc, Manager Blown, in commenting upon i he opening, pronounced It the best in - the huUorv of the Cuban-American .lo.-kev eh lit. Not only wa tho pat-f pat-f ruuago greater than ever, but the same improvement was manifested in every f it her res pert. Nino tec n boo); makers, a 11 ord number, competed with 1 lie paris-Mutiels paris-Mutiels for tiie patronage of those speculatively spec-ulatively imbued. Th -mality of the horse- engaging in tli- "'icing was far n per lor to t he showing made in this ran iculnr in anv previous season, and it" lacing results were highly formful and satistuctory. The day's- proceedings rtent off without a single marring inei-tieni inei-tieni , arid c -cry body concerned went home convinced i ha t the Cuban-American Jockey .-iuh is destined to have a high-- successful season. There are more American here than usual. but the 1 ulk of tin- patronage is furnished by t ' fa bans, and it Is predicted that "hen Cue meeting gels well under way, with the form of ihe horses well established, estab-lished, the attendance v'li far outstrip that of any preceding season. There aie already mere than -P'in horse? here, and more are coniina on every C,(;u arnV.m: from the I'nitcd States. As a general rule, the horses stood the .munie-.- from the l'ni'ed States well ' ad reached 'r--o in Rood cond it ion. but there wei e some exceptions. Saffron t;:rl and Suukist died -n route from sick-revs sick-revs roi:r raci ed m shipping, and Pr. Non dropp'd -lead after being worked ea the trn- k hee rew days ni;o. Most "f tlv owners arc io);i in:; tho policy -'' giiug tiic'h" iiorsrs an abundance of i ime in which to recover from the effects ef-fects of the trip here, and for that re,a-i-on the fieids are apt to be light for a 'ek or t wo A s soon as a sufficient t. an i tier of horses are a valla hie the present, plan of racing only four days a weelO will be aba ndoned in favor of e erv day racing. Th idle da ys which iMterv'ene nowadays sre beins utilized !o A a b' the , mer'.ca n visitor- in sechig tee many interesting eights tha: are lo st-en oji e ei v hand and in virdi inn C.e bt tiling beac'-r?. which are zvr-; ? . trj ;; to ' hose who liae rot hcen here before and. to tlios" ". o luivp .-is 'rll. Surf ha t hint in the v r rm w : tors of t he i iulf of Mexico is rei'l delight at nil seasons of tiie ear. fc-n'rl many of the American visitors luve curprr,i in;rj t;);v recreation with much Therp .ire fo man1-' quaint and charm- S ing things to be seen in this interesting foreign city and bo much that is different differ-ent in the way of customs and the daily routine of living that the visitor from the United States finds no end of diversion diver-sion and entertainment. And the hospitality hospital-ity of the Cubans ib another feature that makes a sojourn here enjoyable. If they take a fancy to one, there is no length to which they will not go to show their esteem. An example of the fidelity with which the Oriental park management is endeavoring endeav-oring in every possible way to safeguard the interests of its patrons is to be found in the action of Presiding Steward Christopher Chris-topher J. Fitz Gerald in posting the following fol-lowing notice and warning: It Is the intention of tiie stewards to avoid the necessity of the disqualification disquali-fication of a horse because of foul riding or foul racing. Instead of disqualification dis-qualification the most severe ruling justified by the facts and the evidence in each case will be made against jockeys riding foul and against owners, own-ers, trainers or agents whose instrue- tions and methods show them to be , responsible for the foul results., The stewards will not hesitate to rule off rtdere, owners and horses concerned when the fouling is decided to have been intentional. American Bookies. American bookmakers have a monopoly monop-oly of the business of laying the odds at Oriental park, although a few of them are backed to some degree by Cuban capital. cap-ital. The list of the bookmakers who cut in for the first three days of the meeting was made up of John Hare, J. Oscar Holder, John Nasmith, Abe Meyers, Harry Litchenstein, W. K. Applegate, Jr., Ed Thornton, Charles Xarris, A. J. Levy, F,d Colell, James Campion. T. Rodgers, Kd Winstanley. T. McBride, J. Sullivan. Walter Morgan and Mannie Smith. The last named is in charge of the book that Is operated in the field inelosure. Phil C. Hamill is operating: the combination book. i rlavana Is just now enjoying unprece-i unprece-i dented prosperity and when the racing , season get? fully into its stride there uri-i uri-i questionably will be lively times in the belting ring. |