The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-05
ALL NEW YORK WILL JOURNEY TO
WESTCHEsTER TODAY.
FIRST OF THE QUARTETTE
OF GREAT HANDICAPS.
FAMOUS COURSE WILL SOON DE
SOLD AT AUCTION.

Successful, in Spite of UnfavOrabIe
weather, Served Only Appetite
ers for the Gallant Struggles That
VIII Be Seen ON New YOrIx's Most
Attractive Race COurse-Hefmis
VIII Carry Top Weight in tho
Great Event To-day.
To-day the racing scene in the East
7 will shift from pretty Jamaica to Nor
ris Park, with it's wealth of great
stakes, it's vast stretches, and its many
courses, which will test the stamina
and the fleetness of the very best of
the thoroughbreds.
There is always an eagerness about
the Morris Park meeting and this year
more pronounced than before from
the splendid meeting which Aque-
duct had, and the brilliant one at
Jamaica which closed yesterday.
The racing season of the East will
be on in full swing with the opening
at Morris Park to-day. If report be
true, never has the course looked bet
ter than it now does on the eve Of
it's farewell forever from the racing
world. Never has it quartered so many
horses fit for the fray. Never has
it had a programme of vaster inter-
est. Racing at this lovely spot, set so
beautifully in the hills of Westches-
ter, has ever been most popular, car
rying with it, as it always does, that
sense of recreation without which rae
ing, however brilliant in it's contests,
never can be completely satisfying.
An Excellent Card offered.
The briefest glance at the card for
to-day will give some notion of the
bounteous feast which will be spread
for sportsmen. 1t is as varied in char
acter as it must be excellent in class.
First, there is a lightning dash set
down for the famous Eclipse course,
and then a 2-year-old race, followed
by the Juvenile, the first great stake
for youngsters in the year. This is
bound to introduce the pick of the
great stables, for the Juvenile has a
history, participation in which lends
prestige TO any colt, or to any fly
There is also steeplechase-a race
which, from the very picture which it
presents, always is most attractive to
spectators.
the Metropolitan, the first of the quar-
tette of the great handicaps of the
year. The prospective field is not mere
ly larger in number than any that
ever before faced the starter for the
stake, but one, the superb quality of
which excels that of it's most worthy
predecessor. Perfectly impossible that
any horse unworthy of the honor
should lead home a field of such daz-
zling prominence. Its list of probable
starters embraces every horse of merit
to-day in the East with the exception
of Waterboy and McChesney.
Hermis the Top Weight.
Hermis has the honor of top weight
an honor gained in many sturdy con-
tests that have made some of the
most brilliant pages in modern turf
history. Africander, at 123 pounds,
comes next to Hermis, and if he should
start, Irish Lad, at equal weights, will
meet him. There is no secret at all
made of the brilliant work done by
the Brooklyn winner of 1903.
There is about him the confidence
that was exhibited about Gunfire last
season, then his table mate-confidence
that was magnificently sustained.
Major Daingerfield will carry the
colors of the Leeds, and, trained in
the same stable, Divination, with the
merest of feathers upon her, also will
go, if good boy can be engaged for
her. Shorthose, the sensational win
ner of The Tidal, is expected to go to
the post, as may Hurstbourne, who
recently has been coming on extreme
ly we'll.
Mamie Worth and ROsetint.
Mamie Worth, at III pounds, will be
top weight among the mares, closely
pressed by Rosetint, who, if she starts,
Will carry 100 pounds, having incurred
a penalty for her victory in the
Queens County Handicap and by Daz-
zlng, who has won for herself many
friends among those who have seen
her recent work at Gravesend. Lux
Casta is almost sure to see the post,
and, with 107 pounds up, her stable
is most sanguine. Her superb finish
in the Metropolitan last year, and her
subsequent victories are memories that
command attention for her, and that
cause one to listen with some respect
when her stable grows enthusiastic. If
her campaign last fall had not been
such a grueling one, her chances would
look rosy, but it does seem as if she
got more last year than she deserved
III the way of racing.
Highball can be put down definitely,
and So too, can Orthodox, the latter
a colt that this year has found his
foot and now is speedy as well as
resolute. HighbalIs people will brook
no suggestion either that his defeat
at Jamaica measured the capabilities
or that the race itself did anything
but sharpen him UP. He was under
pressure throughout in that sprint, as
! he necessarily will be in the Metro
politan; but there is a CHEEKY optimism
about his trainer that one likes to see
Astounding on the eve of a great handi-
cap.
Buttons "A Sure Starter.
Eugenia Burch, who got in at 100
pounds, is a probable starter. Her one
race this season was relatively a good
one, and so she may be honored with
place on the card. Red Knight, too, is
starter, and one that would have
called for at least an instants consid-
Grafton If he had not started after his
very excellent race in the Excelsior.
Buttons, in nicely at LOG, may, at pres
ent, it is thought, be set down as al
most sure starter, though, of course,
something will depend upon his public
performance in the Montague at ia
he also will start, but he did not fill
the eye as he should have done last
time out. He plainly had not got over
his Excelsior.
Toboggan "a colt that was very high
ly tried by the Keenes, will represent
the white and blue polka dot and
John A. Drake will probably send Ort
Wells to the post This colt has been
working like a stake horse, and in Civ
10 handipannpT