The times., 1897-12-29
LONDON CRITIC ON HORSES
American, Australian and Eng
lish BangtailS Compared.
THE GREAT MERIT In SLOANE
Admitted That There Is No Equal
in Eng land mt the Same Weight
Excellent Judge of Pace-Has Not
Yet Fad ead-lnd-Hend Finish
Will: Eng Iish Cracks.

The Ei slisf Sporting Times, letter known
as ..the pink un," III lengthy racing
article Oh the English season, Comments
as follows Un the American jockey, Tod
sloane and the degeneration uf thorough
breds Though too many short-distance
races:
Much as there is to praise in she
American jockey, Sloan, We run "a risk
of Sc; ing the thing oyerdOne, prec.sely
as we are OVERRIDING it with the Australian
horses, merely ON the strength OF THAI
one sv allow Norman, who is nearly
stone behind The Rush. That the appear
ance of 10th, however. viii be of great
ADVANTAGE 20 the English turf. %e have
not the slightest doubt. III the matter
of iockevSliip however. 1t viii not 10 10
run away with the idea that the great
secret is to Jump off in front AMI make
every pest a winning post We have sun
the fact before Us that season after season
.sMornI" Cannon figures at the head pl
the list, and he may fairly ask with that
result Why lic should alter his methII Of
riding. Unfortunately, however, other
Jockeys not having his skill, have got
il into their heads that al they have
to do in order to win race is to wdi,
and come with one ron at the finish
That this is good policy when otherh'fsaS
are being galIoped TO standstiIi does
not admit cfdUubt. IL is i'll waiting when
the pace is tad that provJEes our anger,
and too many of our jockeys Seem 20
have } idea Of pace. For this we .1a=e
to thank the wretchcd five 1urlong scram-
bIes ttat we still hope TO see eliminated
from our race programs.
a very large owner of horses once
said Ia us that it was the press that
spoiled the JOCK eys. "A jockey lie said
wins race in the last stride by sf:ort
head, ana you adulate him; wh ereas If Il
butcher boz bad been up, he would most
likely have Won by half dozen lengths
or more We do not see much or this
nowadays If d jockey rides Zine race
he is Only doing what he is paid for, and
deserves no special recognition. The
great merit in sloane is that lie is a judge
OF pace, and having secured tue best
place ill the fIeld-the front one, to wit
he either increases his advantage or is
content to remain, as far as he can, Where
lie is, according TO tue way that the race
is being won In this lie follows very
much In the footsteps Of FOrdham. That
we have his equal of the same age, and
riding at the same weight, and having
the same experience, We doubt, and this
we were one OF the first to admit, We
have yet, how ever, to see him in a head
and head finish with VI Cannon q Id Watts.
Though we by no means admit that
the Australian II horses that we have so far
seen art nearly equal to our own, we
believe that in bringing Carbine to this
country, thus leading the way for Trenton
Carnage and others, the Duke OF Portla nd
did the English turf good service. When
we see Australian and American horses
year after yeai running ON hard grounl
and find them almost as good when they
arc ten years old as they were when they
began, something is set us to think a bout
That we lave no good old horses is cry
that we have heard for many years, anil,
unfortunately, it is a true one. 1t be-
comes question as to whether, with our
English horses, we do not make undue
sacrifices to speed Possibly If we hal
little less speed nd more soundness the
general result might be better. Speed. )f
course, we KNOW, is the most sought 70.
of all tests, nd we have it to perfection.
What we should like to see, however, is
English speed ON Australian legs. For
that reason We hope that the experiments
that are being carried out Mt Welbeck and
Gotham will be successful, and nothing
would please US better than to see a
flying two-year-old by Ca-bine or Tren-
ton. The opinion Of Sloane, the American
Jockey, is that they have no horses in
america that are equal to our best. but
that the general run of American horses
is better than ours.
This corroborates exactly what the late
Gen. Peel sait, in his evidence given before
yalcommission over forty years ago. He
then said that our horses, as they We're then.
were better thar those of former years, but
the proportion of bad ones % good ones was
much greater than it used to be. This we
have often repeated, as it is our own opin-
ion exactly. The average of excellence
would, WI think, be improved by doing away
with five firlong races, except for two year
olls, and there should not be too many of
them. Not that we would do way with
two year old racing by any means, because