New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-09
p4cLyc 10 rLlNOrS EycEsS.

The expansion of racing in America has been
too swift and hasty to be sound and lasting.
Race-courses have been springing up in every
quarter almost in night, like Jonah's gourd
The number Of races has been multiplied many
times. The Dimensions of stakes and purses
have been enormously increased and now upon
almost every available day. from the time when
the snow mcts until the frostS and storms Of
December set in, there is racing in some part
of the country and upon a great majority OF
the days racing on two or more tracks at the
same time For many years the breeding and
running of thoroughbreds in this country were
practised on a modest and reasonable scale
Now they have suddenly swollen into pro-
digious proportions. A craze for this form of
sport has seized upon great numbers of people
who desert their regular occupations during
several afternoons in a week to take part in the
excitement and the gambling which attend the
tests Of the relative merits Of the horses. The
business Of betting-fOr ii has become bust
ness pursued with an energy and activity
equal to those devoted to more legitimate and
salutary forms of -getting-has advanced
and widened to an extent that would not have
al
Hundreds of thousands of dollars are staked in
all the chief cities Of the country on such races
as the Suburban Handicap and the Futuity
Stakes. Gambling on the turf has become the
most attractive, the most fascinating and the
most dangerous form of wild speculation in
which masses Of people indulge. Betting on
horses is practised far more generally and by
a far greater number Of people than specula-
ton in stocks Stock speculationS require con-
siderable sums for margins and for the pro-
lection of operators. Gambling on races re-
quires so little capital that even men of the
most meagrc resources may practise it.
The whole thing has been carried to most
deplorabe excess. While the racing near
New-York was confined to jerome Park,
Sheepshead Bay and Monmouth Park, and
while the clubs which control these three
courses were content with a reasonable num-
Der Of racing days, there was more to commend
than to critcise in the conduct Of affairs. But
the immense attendance, the abundant receipts,
the enthusiastic interest shown in the races Of
recent years have brought about the opening
of new tracks and the planning Of still more.
The Brooklyn Jockey Club must now have its
share Of the racing season between May 10
and October | >. The new WestcheSter course
to be started next year also proposes to race as
many days as the older associations As things
now look in the five months to which racing
is confined in this part of the country there
will not be in 1889 a single unOccupied week.
day. During six days of every week one club
or another will have its gates open and will in
vite the public to come in. Mr.. Withers and
his associates of Monmouth Park have pro-
jected new track. Talk is heard on every
hand Of the big profits made by the jockey
clubs, and new schemes and enterprises in adj
diton to those already mentioned or indicated
are in the air.
A reaction must come from this feyerish, I'M
natural and injurious state Of things. Big and
broad and rich as this country is, il cannot
during this century support the turf on any
such scale as the jockey clubs seem to expect
Every one who has the true interests of breed
ing and Of racing at heart must deeply regret
the undue haste on every hand TO add to the
number Of race-tracls and to carry specula-
ton Of this sort to fantastic extremes. II is
mistaken policy. which must inevitably end
in disaster.
Because the present clubs have made great
profits there is no reason to expect that addi-
tional ones will prove lucrative. The drain
on the surplus money Of the patrons Of races