The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1881-06-15

WHAT is there about a horse which
always attracts around it so much chicane
and fraud? The question has been asked
again and again, and has never been salts
factorily replied to. The horse is certainly
a noble animal the noblest domestic
animal-and horse-racing per Sc, as an ex-
hibition of strength, endurance and speed
in the horse, and of skill and judgment in
the rider, is by no means an Objectionable
or a useless sport. Horse-racing does ac-
tual good: it tends to make owners of
stock breed more carefully, and therefore
it improves the breed in the country. So
important is the matter considered in
England, that there, in a country where
not too much Government assistance is
given to amusements, a sum is yearly
subscribed by the Government to the
various large race meetings. We all know
what splendid animals have been bred in
England and in the States, in order to
compete in these great races. Mr.. Loril-
lard has spent many years in getting his
stock to its present state of perfection
and, after many defeats, has at last carried
of the "blue riband" of the Turf with
Iroquois. Such victory viii have a good
effect on both sides of the water the
American stable will do everything in its
power to keep up its prestige, and English
stock-owners will redouble their care in
producing animals which shall be able to
compete better than they have done this
year.
A fine breed of horses is certainly an
advantage to any country, and as racing
tends to foster this, it certainly does good;
and no country needs that more than this
You can go to some places where the
population may be poor, but every man
who owns a horse, owns a fine animal
Now, the bulk of our horses here are GER
tainly not fine animals There has been
considerable improvement of late years,
but few years ago one could not wish to
see a worse collection of horsefesh than
was possessed by the Sandwich Islands.
Good blooded stock in country has its
effect outside the stables of the wealthy.
owners. A race of horses is produced,
not thoroughbred, but with sufficient of
the good blood in it to tell both on its APP
pearance and endurance; with such race
coming on, the race of "rats" would
gradually disappear.
But if racing has the advantages which
we have set forth above, and they are in
our mind considerable, it has also its dis
advantages, and these, too, are great.
Races should be run fairly, horses should
be permitted to do their best, and there
should be no putting in of horses and then
Withdrawing them on frivolous pretexts
Then there is the demoralizing influence
of gambling We suppose it is impossible
to prevent this on race-course; laws viii
not do it; it viii only be the moral sense
of a whole community which will do so.
Looking round the course the other day,
we were astonished to see what large sums
changed hands over the various races
This, of course, is a thing which has grave
results 1t is nothing to the man who has
a good income to lose few hundred dol
lars; but it is serious and demoralizing to
any one who loses even $40 which he can
not afford We believe that horse-racing
is also in some minds inevitably connected