The herald., 1893-02-26
TURF AND TRACK PRATTlE,
The Los Angeles Spring Meet
ing Postponed.
Not Enough Entries in Proportion
to the Money Advertised.
The Quarter Horse sharpers Afraid Co
Come to tho Angel City-The San
to Anita Stables Said to Be
the Principal Cause.

On Friday the board Of directors Of
the Sixth Agricultural District associa-
tion met at their rooms, with full
board present and President J. 9. New
ton in the chair, and then and there de-
cided to withdraw all purses offered by
them for the spring meeting. Just what
were the causes leading up to such &C.
tion the outside world does not know,
but 1t 10 said that it was owing to an
insufficient number Of entries to the
fixed events advertised by them to close
on the 2lst inst. To what cause the
alleged deficiency Of entries is to be
charged, cannot say. Most people at
tribute it to the fact that the Santa
Anita stable is now racing in California
for the first time in ten years; and that
the owners of those wretched and mis-
cradle old "jackscrews" were afraid of
the new blood OF the big Baldwin
stable, 20 they stayed away. Others cay
1t was because they are all anxious to go
to the worlds fair and do not wish to
get their horses stale before that event
comes of.
I also heard that some of the horse
owners were "kicking" because the en-
trance money is too high. Right here
and now. I want to bet it is the lowest
ever known at any American track sup
Portland, in Oregon, is a city of our size
and yet she charges the pawnbroker's
rate Of 10 per cent and requires three to
ASsvk lx& ~vov~ raOu Tho atafa foirn AT
Sacramento and Salem, have always
charged ten (l0) per cent and will con-
tinuo to do 30 tilt there have been sew
oral flrst.class funerals. Here is q city
q about one-sixth the population of
enn Francisco and yet these quarter
horse sharks, who have been hippodrom-
Ing around all winter with Q lot OF old
parAlysed "skates" and string-hslted
"goAss." are growing about entrance
toes being too high, when they did not
average six per cent in all the purses;
and II some cases are less than four az
per oent. For three years have been
banging away at this Los Angeles board
of fair directors and asking them to cut
down entrance fees. 30 % to get greater
number Of entries in each race and
thereby exact larger fees from the book
makers; and now that they have come
over 10 my way Of thinking, I feel it my
duty to stand by them and defend them
from all such undeserved attacks as
these. The spring meeting of 1893 is
now dead beyond resurrection but it was
not want Of liberal purses nor q lack of
desire on the part of directors to deal
fairly with the general public.
~
In the last issue Of the California
Turf I hnd q lengthy article upon
''sprintors" whose best races
are run at distances under q mile-and
] find the writer presumably the editor
Of the Turf includes Judge Bybee's
mare Misty Morn in that category. Oon-
sidering that the great Oregon mares
9th dam ID likewise the fifth dam of
Parole, horse that has won in England
at mile and fivs-eighths, do not see
how she can be very we'll included in
che saffron-colored canine category of
which Mr.. Theodore Winters processes
20 be such an admirer in the matter of
breeding for speed without regard to
endurance when nerves are strained.
Judge Bybee, who has spent good deal
Of money In trying to breed good horses
in the bleak north, certainly will not
feel complimented by "yaller dorg" and
kindred Preferences to illusions" in the
case Of marc that won at one and a
half miles in her 3.year-old form. She
beat all the Montana and Oregon horses
as If they were at anchor with the "best
bower" out to windward. Misty Morn
contains the blood of Stockwell, Or.
faudo, bennington, Glencoe, Faugh-a-
Ballagh and Lanercost; and including
her among the "yaller dorgs" is very
unEight, to my notion.
xsx
The all.winter books on the Chicago
Defby are now open in that city and
New York, but there Is always diff.
cnlty in the way Of rounding up large
American book. Take the Melbourne
cup, with the certainty Of 27 starters
and from that all the way up to SO, as in
Carbine's year, and the book-maker can
generally get enough together to pui
him "ahead of the hounds, !" il the favor.
ite sheuld win. 80 long as 40 or so to
shot wins, the book-maker is all snug,
for he takes in enough on the four or five
leading horses to enable him to pay
what he loses on the outsiders. A few
days ago Charles L. Fairs colt Flood
gate was quoted at 40 to 1, and several
bets were telegraphed on from here, &c
that the horses price receded from Al
down to 15 to 1. These figures shov
rates against one dollar on the horses
named on the 18th:
Don Alonzo.- slCadmus. ....,......, o
Sir Francis. ........ 10 lPicton ............ q
Dare. 15 Fidelia. ....... %. II
4e~f w Iah