The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-02-04


the rent of stalls, but it will increase
the attendance OF better class of people
and throw the betting business into the
hands OF more respectable lot OF PEN
cillerai and it goes without saying that
il will drive out of the business OF train
ers great many who now follow it and
really know nothing about conditioning
horse for anything above spin OF five
or elk furlongs. In my youthful days,
before l came to California, Thomas
Patterson trained for Capt. William
Cottrill OF Mobile, Mr.. Pool for Captain
Goldsly Of Selma, 8. G. Graves for Hon.
ID. L. Kenrer OF New Orleans, A. j.
Minor Tor Colonel Bingaman, Mr.. ]. b.
Pryor for Mr.. r. Ten Brock, A. w.
Small for W. ]. Minor, and g. P. Coyle
for Capt. ]. X. Duke. And while my
preference OF the seven would always
have been Mr.. Pryor, yet the other six
were go evenly matched in point OF
ability that you could generally rely
upon it that the best horse had won the
race. Those men made the horse and
his condition the study OF lifetime,
and richly deserved the professional
reputation they had acquired.
But times have decidedly changed
from what they were previously befo'
de wah." Now we find about two train
ers out OF every FIVE who have under
gone the preparatory discipline OF
Jockey or q rubber. So long as trainer
now does not have to run his horses
above six furlongs he can do so, for all
he has to do is to keep them clean and
make them eat. Once they get lame,
he has to call in the veterinarian, for he
knows nothing about equine diseases
himself. Ii the minimum distances for
the all-aged division we're fixed at one
mile. there would be general stampede
OF these "five-eighths thieves" as they
are called here, men who know nothing
about training, into other vocations.
Here We have some fellows who own
these short horses and train for them
selves, as they are either too poor or too
mean to hire any person of ability TO
train for them. Away from home they
sleep in stalls among their horses, while
at home they live in novels that would
disgrace the peat lands of Ireland. Let
four OF them get together at q 20 days.
meeting and they can pretty nearly SIX
the business" to suit themselves. Once
make one mile the shortest run for the
alleged division at any of the board OF
control tracks and you would stampede
all these fellows into ahoveling manure in
livery stables at $50 month, and good
radiance to them. am aware that /
shall be met with many objections to
this proposition, and from several dis.
tinct sources. the first being the short
horse men themselves. who do not fancy
the idea of honest labor or honest rae
ing, either. under any condition. The
second class will be the live stock
Il 80 81 as~
commissions materially abridged by the
decreased demand for these quarter
horses. The third class will be the book
makers, who know that when horse is
mot meat" it is much easier to conceal
his shortcomings in race of six furlongs
than in one of mile and quarter. l
was talking with one OF these "aure-
thing" (mind, l do not say all book
makers are such, by q good deaD, at
Chicago one day last October. 81 don't
care much about the purse races at six
and seven furlongs," said 1; "what l
like to see is stake race, where every
horse is out for tine ducats."
mo stake races for me-" he retorted.
"What chance is theme for fellow to
make any money in stake race? You
can't fix nothin', because every horse is
out for the stuff. There lie no chance to
make any money, except on gamble"
NOW, ii that man was really q ieRiti-
mate bookmaker, and not q thief at
heart, he would admit that stake race
is best for the bookmGkers, because il
is ths only one in which he can "round
up" his book by laying the odds against
every horse in the race. But the trouble
ia that legitimate bookmakers, like Joe
Thompson of Melbourne and Humphrey
Oxenham of Sydney, or Mr.. Cridge and
others Of New York, are very scarce.
The bulk of bookmaking in this country
is done by the House of Bondage, which
calls everything BUSINESS" They will
be the ones to fight HARDEST for the
short races, for they have always lot of
short. horse men under pecuniary obli-
cations to them and can use them in any
way they like.
Fourth in the list will be the million
aire stock holders in the metropolitan
racetracks. Once shut off the short
races and you reduce the number of
bookmakera and therefore materially
abridge the revenues of the racetracks
from this source. But / contend that with
the renewal of long distance races land
tits By no means necessary to 20 back
to heats, which are equally aenseless
and crueD there will be an increase of
attendance, and that, too, of the better
class of people, quite enough to compen-
safe for any falling off from the ranks of
the book.makers. / say senseless be-
cauue anybody who knows the rudi-
ments of heat racing knows that where
one broken heat race was won by actual
gameuess fiveNyere won by collision and
conspiracy. Take the great three-mile
heat race run st Lexington in October,
1861, does anyone believe that John
Morgan could have beaten either Idle
wild or Millington (safterwards known as
imported Australian) in single-handed
race at any distance7 l think the sur
yivors of "the Old Guard" would agree
with me that he was clearly outclassed.
He won because they ran themselves to
death in the first heat. 1t took IL miles
TO decide the race. and none OF the con-
Eestants ever faced the starter after
wards. This is but one out of hundred
parallel cases.
But contend we can have long races
and good ones, too, without resorting to
heats. have been three times to AUG
tralia, where they have short races like
ours, and plenty OF them. But they
also have their long races, and more of
them in month than we have here in
q year. / append the principal long
races run there, over such tracks az |
have visited:
W " c. sPRrNe MEETING, yLEMrNeToN COURSE.