The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-27
TURF CHAMPIONSHIPS
WON IN FIERCE RACES
Waterboy, Hermis and McChesney
Were Close Together Dur
ing Season.
FINISHED NOSES APART
Fame Came to Many Racing
Champions by the Margin
of Half Inches.

NEW YORK. Dec. 26-One cannot look
backward over the racing season OF 1903
without marveling at the extraordinary
number Of desperate finishes that marked
the great events Of the year. Fame came
10 racing champions by the margin Of half
inches. while men that fortune favored won
thousands on thousands by the mere frac-
tions OF a second.
Week by week and month by month,
from meeting 70 meeting, these hard
fought contests. with great horses finishing
noses apart. marked the seasons progress
and around them can be written all the
racing history of the year.
Hark you back 10 that damp, dark dis
NAL day OF March when Bennings opened
in floods of rain and morasses of mud. 1t
was Himself first in the Bennings handi-
cap. with Ahumada only a portion Of
length behind These are not the great
horses that will be remembered in the
years TO come. and the Bennings handicap
Is not one Of the classics of the year. but it
was the first, and 1t started the record in
which other more magnificent contests
were to follow.
To write OF racing In 1903 one must al
ways have before him such names Water
boy. McChesney. Hermis and Gunfre, Afric-
ander. Irish Lad and Golden Maxim, Ham
burg Belle. HighbalL Leonidas, Broomstick.
InfiexibIe, Magistrate and Pulsus-and
when you trace the dOings OF these ac-
knowledSed champions you find little else
but bruising, renGing, racing strife.
Skipping lightly as one must over such
an event the Carter handicap, the feature
OF the afternoon when the New York sea-
son opened at Aqueduct, the closeness of
that contest is not 70 be forgotten.
Ahumada, beaten at Washington, found
his revenge, but it took rOweling and fog
gtng and driving TO get him home first by
ecant half length from Yellow Tail. Of
badly, In field of thirteen, this brave colt
struggled gamely onward through mud and
water, In an apparently hopeless stern
chase Of those more speedy cOntenders that
had outfooted him from the start. The Won
der was that in the stretch he should still
have had the heart and spirit and strength
and might TO tackle them once more in that
famous final furlOng, and prove again that
no race is lost until the judges eye has
rested on the winner.
Although W. c. Whitney's colt Black
stock won the Excelsior handicap, the next
Of the seasons features, by length and q
half, according to the records, it must not
be overlooked that Fuller was at work on
him TO the last jump to stall OF the deter
mined rush of that game colt Heno, VINO
had been gaining in a long, hard drive.
'Blackstock was not TO be denied" wrote
the narrator of that day. He kept logged
y on. and at the finish victory was his by
length and a half
There was pretty much the same story for
the Metropolitan handicap, at Morris Park.
which was won by that game mare Gunfire,
a stable companion of BlackstOck. She, too,
accomplished her victory by a length and
half. but hand and heel were always at
work to keep her in front OF Old England
at the end Gunfire was the first mare ever
victorious in the Metropolitan, which made
her triumph all the more deserved. 1t was
achieved by true merit and was acclaimed
By heartiest applause.
Although Old England set a pace that was
meant TO find a weak spot in the heart of
Mr.. Whitneys mare, it was beyond his ac-
run the mile in IS 3-5. which broke all rec
Ords for the course. Such time was fast
enough TO astonish every one that saw the
contest