Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-10
A GREAT RACE WELL D|GESTD,
A Merited Rebuke to a Most
Scurrilous Fling.
The Charge Of C0llusion Met and
Parried by Positive Evidence.
"A Santa Ana Writer and His Unfounded
Assertions-The Facts About
the Conduct of the
Recent Race.

RoCout ANGc0s
There was no subject discussed a
more length in Santa Ana YESTERDAY
than the defeat of Silkwood in the grea
free-for-all race in Los Angeles on Wed
nesday. The people of this county to 9
man are highly indignant over what
they are free to proclaim a most unfair
and dishonest race, claiming that Silk.
wood was repeatedly fouled on the first
and last quarter of the heats, but that
the judges refused to consider Mr.. Will.
let's protest, and that when the secre-
tary of the, Orange County Fair associa-
tion, in behalf of the Orange county
people and of fair play and an honest
race, went to the judges stand to enter
protest. he was ssurreptitiously ordered
to leave the stand at once or he would
be pitched out.
These complaints are not being made
alone by the sporting element or those
persons who have a particular interest
in the Santa Ana PAGER. In behalf of
honesty and fairness on the race course,
the very best and most influential men
in the county loudly protest against the
devious ways OF the powers that be in
government and ruling of this pacing
race on Wednesday. The people of
Orange county, men, women and chill
dren, protest against such outrages upon
decent horse racing and ask that race
be made between the winner of Wednes-
days race and Silkwood, that an honest
test OF speed may be made. If Silkwood
loses the race fairly and squarely, the
public will hear no kick from Orange
county.
The foregoing find in the Santa Ana
correspondence of the Times; and while
I may have seen something more puerile
than the spirit which animates it. 1
cannot remember where. The presiding
judge of that race, Hon. Leonard J. Rose,
is the man of all men whom 1 would
pick as judge. especially Of trotting or
pacing race. To an unquestioned sense
of justice and broad-gauge fair play, he
unites rare degree of perceptivenees
on anything like job; and ia therefore
capable of un iting the detective with
the magistrate, when he gets up to
Judge a race, although / have known
him 18 years and it is the first time 1
ever saw him acting in that capacity.
With his two associate judges, Capt. A.
w. Barrett and Mr., R. r. Brown, have
less acquaintance, but 1 have always
found them models of politeness, and
have never yet heard the integrity of
either called in question. Now which
of these three gentlemen was it who
threatened to throw Mr.. w. A. Beckett
out of the judges stand, when he went
up to complain OF unfair treatment to-
wards Mr.. Willets and his horseP Ger
tainly not Mr.. Rose, for his fighting
days are left astern in the voyage of life.
Nor was it Mr.. Brown, for he is hardly
equal to the task, even il he 60 desired
and as for the burly, good-natured Cap
tain Barrett, nobody for moment
would believe that he ueed harsh or
threatening language to anybody.
Again, Mr.. Beckett is not one of the
kind to take firing out of any place.
He ie a man capable of asserting his
rights on all occasions, and 1 should
never think of getting into a row with
him, although l outweigh him 20 odd
pounds.
As to the unfairness complained of in
the foregoing letter, let us examine into
1t. The only unfairness that could have
been perpetrated by anybody in that
event must have been through combi-
nation between the three other horses.
When a combine is made, it is generally
to let one particular horee win, and the
other drivers put their money on that
horse before the start. Then one of the
others carries the dangerous horse-the
Silkwood of the case-to the quarter
pole, and drops him for second one to
carry to the half. or further; and then
the "pool horse" comes up and finishes
the heat with him. such is the way in
which this trick is done in harness
races, and formerly was done in gallop-
ing races; and to such pass did it go
from 1862 to 1866, that the writer of this
article started in toward abolishing
heats and introducing dashes. And he
did more towards accomplishing that
end than any ten men in the state, ex-
ceptino, perhaps, Mr.. Theodore Winters,
who was at first his only coadjutor in
the matter.
x*x
MY chief objection to heat races was
not 60 much from humane point of
view; not 30 much because they dis
tressed horses, as on account OF the col
lusion that seemed to be natural
sequence of the system. Since then I
have taken but little interest in trotting
races, because they are always given in
heats. But if ever saw heat race
in which there was no tangi-
BILE evidence of collision, the
race of October was that
one. What horse carried Silkwood to
the quarter, and what horse picked him
up at the half-mile to worry him around
the lower turn, in order that Our Dick
might come up at the head of the
stretch, fresh horse, to brush him
home? In the first heat, the alleged
helpers were not of much use to Dick,
for he won all the way and never once
asked any horse to set the pace for him.
In that heat, Silkwood paced at least
30 odd yards over mile, instead of
pulling in behind the others for three
quarters Of mile and then putting the
result on brush from the head of the
stretch. Had he followed "wait and
win" tactics, he must have won the
heat by 10 feet instead of losing it by
less than three.
*x*
The second heat was won by Silk
wood by about four feet from Our Dick.
What horse jostled or crowded him in
that heat? None were near enough to
do go, except in the last 300 wards of