The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-08

in the old days had been turned over to the.
amateurs for a week.
The great Morris Park grand stand held
only a small proportion of the throng that
would turn QUIT for a New York Jockey Club
meeting, but the club house and paddock
were crowded with the Country Club set
and a dozen road coaches were lined up
on the lawn, including A. G. Vanderbilt's
Venture, all the way from Madison Square.
Amateur race meetings followed at the
farm Of the Graoes, Great Neck and the
nearby country place Of W. Gould Brokaw,
Nirvana Farm.
There is a pretty grand stand at Grace
Farm, which is owned by the family Of the
late William r. Grace, but it has been put
up for the polo club and the racing was on
turf, between flags to mark the course.
The opening dash was at three-eighths of a
mile, with one turn. and the ponies running
in a bunch carried down the flags as a tor
nado levels a cornfeld.
Stanley Mortimer, who was on in front on
his gray polo stallion Rondo, lost the race by
pulling up to ge. within the flags at the turn.
He filed a protest, but as there was not q
flag left standing except at the finish the
judge asked him as a favor to wit hdraw it.
OF course Mortimer complied, for such good
natured requests are not unusual in anna
, teur racing.
! At Nirvann the fiat races we're on a fenced
and graded half mile track and the stand is
a double decked one. with retiring rooms at
each end, in one OF which the jockeys
| changed from multi to silks. On the ground
floor luncheon was served to all, a dozen
walters being in readiness to supply the
orders from the 1000 or 30 who were w.
Gould Brokaw's guests for the race meet .
He is Squire Bountiful on race day, and the
farmers, store keepers and village folks
share the jollity.
The top Of the stand is fat and the onlook-
ers, women and men, by crossing from side
to side, as one does ON a steamer, could fol-
low the jumpers over the entire course Of
nearly three miles. Squire Brokaw owns
some Of the ia stest ponies and the interest
at his meet is largely due to the efforts Of the
ri ders from outside to beat out the home
entries. 1t takes a pony as fleet as the wind
to win at Nirvana.
This spring, after the golfers had wound
up their annual open tournament, there was
a race meeting at the Country Club Of Lake.
wood, the course being laid across the links.
This raised an outcry from the golang men,
! bers, who said the turf they had been three
years in growing at the cost Of thousands
would be ruined in one afternoon. 1t GER
tainly was a rough looking stretch Of turf
when the posts were taken down, the hoofs
having cut up the grass badly and the dirt
showing through on every yard OF the home
stretch. Yet, after W days OF repair
= work, the golf course was az good as ever
and the restoration cost only $50.
There have been pony races since at
Meadow Brook. Cedarhurst. Plainfeld and
West Orange on Ira L.. Kips's farm, now the
quarters of the Union County Hunt. Here
the ~onlookers climbed to the top of the old
farmhouse for a view, and as the women
and men were %applauding a finish some one
inadvertently toppled over the brick CHM
ney that had been a landmark for years.