St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-03
RACING NEEDS REFORMING.
People Don't Enthuse Over Con-
tests at Odd Distances.

bCSOS al Ouu INSTANCES
A great many changes have taken
place in the character of racing during
the past decade, and much that was
good in the old style was left off, while
new methods are brought into play that
are not so acceptable to the people. One
of the faults of modern racing is the
fact that it is spiritless. The people
now-a-day do not get enthused over a
race, as race, but they follow them
either from force of habit or from de-
sire to speculate OH the results. The
people that have a practical knowledge
OF the turf by an everyday con-
tact with its patrons are aware that
hundreds of people that daily attend
races never go out of the betting ring to
see the running of an ordinary event.
They have perfect apathy to the strug-
giles of the horses for the supremacy,
and mastery bit of riding on the part
OF some clever jockey is utterly lost to
them. The care nothing for anything
connected with the race but the odds
they get and the final result. Their
pleasure or pain is in accordance with
the winning or losing Of the horse they
back. 1t is not the nature of man to
become entirely Indifferent to the
pleasure OF racing as sport, but it has
been forced upon them by the endless
succession of dash races that differ from
each other only in the wording of the
conditions. The jockey clubs have
made weak effort at variety by
chopping up the distances of races
into leven-siXteenths, fifteen-siX-
teenths and other fractions of a mile.
Instead of making variety this rather
ulsgusts race-gOers, for it makes races
n Tl ri IStn hot
does not make study of the matter can
tell whether contest is fast or slow.
and the American people place great
stress on time. Races are now run at
80 many
ODD AND USELESS DISTANCES
that the compilers of the Turf Guide
make no pretenSe of keeping up the
records of any but those run at estab-
lished distances. The writings of the
turf reporters, too, have become dull
and prosy. simply because there is
little in the sport, as it is now conduct
ed, to enthuse, and there are few men
that can write entertainingly on
subject that is dull to them.
three-year-olds in the West,
and a few two-year-old stakes, and the
Suburban handicap in the East, there is
but little for turf writer's to dilate on
ana turf patrons to be interested over,
outside OF the general run of handicaps
ana selling races, which, as a rule, are
arranged to suit class of horses that
ought to be at the plOw. How different
1t was in ante-bellum times, when great
match races were in vogue. In those
times when two of the monarchs of the
turf were brought together by the
Terms OF match, the merits of the two
norSeS was the never-wearylng subject
OF discussion months and months be-
fore the race took place. Even in later
umes the interest in great special races
is the same. Who that was familiar
with the turf fifteen years ago
will ever forget the uDbounded.
enthusiasm that was awakened
throughout the country when Mollie
Mccarthy, the feet daughter of the Pa
clhc slope, who had never felt the sting
OF whip IN race, was matched against
len Brock. the pride of all Kentucky?
no. too, that witnessed the race, will
ever forget the frantic efforts of that
VaSl crowd to see every football of the
TWO CHAMPIONS IN THE CONTEST.
despite heat that steamed from the
ealsSl under the Dlistering rays of
July sun IN sutfocating intensity? The
quiet CITY OF Louisville never before or
since held such a crowd to see q race.
and though there were thousands
and thousands of dollars wagered
on the result, and the pooI-
shed was damned to its utmost capacity
before the race, yet when the two horses
went to the post the shed was soon as
empty and as deserted as a country
graveyard at midnight. The race was
no race at all. Ten Brock won with
great ease, but the simple sight of the
Two champions brought together was
enough Tor the people, and men that
had travelled hundreds of miles to wit
ness the event went home satisfied. To
tnlS day the race is common theme of
discussion among turfmen, and its
memory will never die out