The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-01-12
steeplecnase Racing.


The American Jockey Club has made a
move in the right direction by increasing
the weights on horses of all ages for racing
on the fat but they should have gone a
trife further, and made some rules to regu-
late steeplechasing and hurdling. There is
nothing in their rules that has the slightest
application to the latter style of racing ex-
cept an ambiguous sentence at the end of
rule SO, which is, ''Winners or losers of
hurdle races or steeplechases are not consid-
cred winners or losers in fiat racing" In
| Great Britain, France and other countries
sweepstakes are opened yearly for across
country races, as they are styled, and they
are generally well filed in some of them
amounting to nearly one hundred subscri-
bers. We have material enough in this
country to commence the sport on grand
scale, there great many horses that
can be put to that kind of work which are
not fit for the sharp, short races on the fiat !;
and riders will crop up in Maryland, vir-
ginia and Kentucky as fast as they are
needed-young, daring fellows, who have
been fox hunting all their lives.
The weights for steeplechasers and hur-
dlers can be easily regulated in weight for
age races, as the weller weight added to the
new scale for fiat racers, would answer the
purpose, as that would give an aged horse
one hundred and fifty pounds to carry
But as handicap sweepstakes would most
likely fill the best an intelligent handicap
per could easily bring all the horses to the
post on equal terms. The matter of weight,
however is not so important n subject to
determine as the height and breadth of the
jumps for the horses We will not pretend
to dictate to the club what they should do,
but will merely state that in Europe the
lowest for fences and stone walls are four
feet six inches, and the water jumps twelve
feet At Punchcstown, in Ireland the
stone walls and fences are said to be about
five feet high, and the brooks or water jumps
from twelve to fourteen feet in width
They are the same height and breadth in
France and the horses of those countries
60 over these great distances with less
danger to the rider or themselves than our
horses go over the two and half and three
feet obstacles that are put in front of them
on our race courses. The horse Lottery, in
England, is said to have jumped thirty-four
feet over hurdles at Liverpool, and Chan
dler, at Warwick, jumped thirty nine feet over
water; and Lochiel, in this country, jumped
twenty eight feet over brush and water. A
horse is of little use that cannot carry a man
of ordinary weight, and it is sheer nonsense
| 70 20 for ba Il
and improvement of the breed of the thor
oughbred horse without he can be bred to
carry a man weighing one hundred and fifty
pounds or more and run fast also 1t is a
historical fact that three-year- thorough
bred, Copenhagen, bore the Duke of We'll
lington on his back for twelve hours on the
last day of the battle of Waterloo, and when
the French were beaten and Wellington dis
mounted the colt came near kicking the
Dukes brains out by letting his heels fly
over the great Generals head. Of such colts
is this country much in need at the present
time, as too much attention has been wasted
on the breeding of fast short distance run
ners, instead of having them, as
we said before, to carry weight
and run too. A horse that can run
with one hundred and fifty pounds on his
back four miles in eight minutes is an
infinitely superior animal to the one that
could run a mile in / 39 ID as Longfellow
was said to have done in the first mile in the
race for the Saratoga Cup with Kingfsher
And it is probable that Longfellow would
not have broken down in his race with Harry
Bassett had the weights been what four
year-old will have to carry next summer, as
it has been demonstrated that it is the pace
and not the weight that breaks down the fore
legs of the racer.
But to the steeplechaser, the horse by his
style Of racing that gives the greatest salts
faction to the people, and draws larger
crowds on racing days than any other kind
of race horse. The people from Europe,
now in this country have been accustomed
to steeplechasing in their native land and
like to see it still. But we do not here get
the races up in the same manner they
have been used to see them. We make
time the test and speed the oil in
all. Instead of having the jumps high
enough to show the real beauty of
the race, we make traps to trip and throw
horses, thus endangering the lives of both
horse and rider, because the horses are run
with such breakneck speed that they cannot
J see distinctly what they are coming to, be-