Semi=weekly graphic., 1896-07-15
MANY SPEEDY ONES.
THE TRoTTlNG OUTLOOK THIS SEA
 SON IS VERY BRIGHT.

If we are to take the trotting and pacing of the past month as any indiea- tion of what might be expected later on, when the trotting season is tt its zenith and the big meetings are in progress, the year 1896 will prove the most sue cessful in the history of the sport
 Never before so early in the season has there appeared as great anumber of really high class performers at both gaits as have shown up during the past few weeks in the early meetings both east and west.
 A mile in 2;0S E was recorded during the recent meeting at Omaha by the pacer Joe, and 210 has already been shown in the east The number that have paced close to 2.10 and shown their ability to go much faster is re- markable. While the trotters do not as rule, come to their speed so early as the paeers, yet there have been several who have come close to the 2:12 mark, and even in the slow classes heats in 2:15 and better have been of common occurrence.
 With the spring Meetings showing such exceptional speed not only in iso- lated cases, but at almost every meeting and i'll all classes, it must necessarily be expected that when the big purses and stakes of the grand circuit are the prizes to be gained the class of the con testants and the speed which will be exhibited will unless all signs fail, surpass that of any previous year.
 Then, too, it is well known that the cream of the racing stables is reserved 1 for these events. Indeed many of the trainers have not started a single horse as yet eonfning their energies entirely to putting their pupils in condition for these races, knowing well that extreme speed and condition only will secure any part of the money
 While the grand circuit proper does not open until tho 14th of July, with the Saginaw f8lioh. meeting, the hot- ting carnival, under the auspices of the Northwestern Breeders association at Washington park Chicago really in- augufates the great trotting meets of l 1896.
 Following Washington park, the sta bles have the choice of two high class meetings to fill in the week prior to the initial circuit meeting at Saginaw These are Grand Rapids and Windsor, Ont, both of which have been arranged on grand circuit scale and are within easy shipping distance of Saginaw
 Following Saginaw and each occupy ing week are Detroit, Cleveland, Co lumbus Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and finally New York, where the circuit will be wound up unless Philadelphia shall come to the front with a meeting at Belmont or Point Breeze, which is very improbable, as the antipool selling legislation in Pennsylvania is even moro stringent and has had more depressing effect than in New York state
 This was the plan as originally ar- ranged by the stewards of the grand cir cult at time when it wus generally supposed that neither Buffalo nor Koch ester would give meetings and when New York alone upheld the eastern end of the great chain of which Buffalo, Rochester, Hartford and New York were but a few years ago, prior to ad- verse legislation, the most powerful members. Since this programme was laid out, however, Buffalo has boldly entered the arena and announced its determination to give a meeting, and, with its old time energy and hberality, offered list of purses which will bear favorable comparison with those of any of the members of the ''big ring, :" Then, too, Rochester will undoubtedly be to the fore with a meeting which will complete the eastern chain and make continuous racing in the old cir cult line up to the final meeting of the grand cham at Fleetwood.
 As Buffalo has taken the same dates as those assigned by the circuit stewards to Indianapolis. there will necessarily be q division of the stables after the Fort Wayne meeting, but there will be such vast number of horses in train ing for tho various classes that diyi- sion of the stables can easily be made and still leave abundant high class ma terial for both places so that there will be no appreciable difference ill the quail ity of the racing.
 As to the meeting at Fleetwood. noth- ing need be feared, for the great stables, trainers and horses win all get together again for the New York meeting, and the cream of the trotting turf will wind up the grand circuit of 1896 over the grades and hills of Fleetwood's famous track
 A most satisfactory evidence of the strength and popularity of uotting is that, despite the depressing effect of dis couraging legislative action and the un- satisfactory condition of business gen erally, which it twould naturally be sup posed would have a powerful effect up on the sport from financial standpoint, there has not in years been d season which gave greater promise of substan- tial success than this.
 The enterprise of the association, un- der the circumstances, in offering purses and stakes quite as large, and in some instances even larger. than heretofore, has been fully rewarded by the grand support accorded by the horse owners. } The entries throughout the entire circuit are something unprecedented, surpass- ing in number and quality anything that was even hoped for when times were at their best.
 Aside from the prospective candidates for record honors which will be reserved for special events. such as Robert J,