Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-12
FAvORS HOBBIES.
John Kervick Believes They
Should Be Allowed in Races.
He Upholds the ParaphernaIia and Cites
Instances in His Own Experience to
Show Where They Have Worked
TO Advantage.
"The rule is simply ABSURD. ;"

Such is John Kervicks characterize
ton of the rule adopted at the biennial
congress of the National Trotting Asso-
after Jan. 1st, 1899. horses wearing hob
bles should not be allowed to start in
races over tracks which the N. T. A.
controls.
Kervick is well known throughout
New England as being a competent
conditioner and driver of race horses
and many a fast one has stepped to his
best mark under Kervicks mastery
guidance. His Judgment on every mat
ter pertaining to the horse and to rae
ing legislation is generally pretty sound
and his sentiments upon the hobble
question, as he expressed them to a
representative Of the Spy, Friday after
noon, are certainly interesting and
worthy of consideration.
81 don't know why they ever passed
any su4l rule against hobbies, I'm
sure said Mr.. Kervick. "Hobbles are
about as necessary to a good many
horses as boots, and why the gentle
men of the National Trotting Associa-
tion should want to have them discard
ed is difficult to see. know that argu-
ments have been advanced for and
against them, and perhaps we have seen
more in the papers written against the
hobbies rather than for them. But for
all that, in my experience, l have found
that hobbies are not half bad thing
after all. The fact remains that there is
many good horse who cannot be made
to go unless he wears the hobbies.
Take a little instance in my own ex-
perience. There is the bay gelding X.
L., which / raced last season. I got
him three years ago and worked him at
first without the hobbies. He would go
a few steps well enough and would
then slow down into a jog, and no
amount of persuading would bring him
up to his clip. One day met the man
who used to drive x. L. before ne came
into my string and we got to talking
about the horse. Are you using the
hobbies on him.? he asked. No. l said.
We'll then you won't get him to going
fast Any time that you can drive the
chap mile in 8 minutes without the
straps on, let me know and I'll come
and see the performance 1t did not
take me very long to decide that the
hobbies must be used.
"What was the result? X. L. did bet
ter last season than ever before. As
soon as I began having him wear the
hobbies l noticed an Improvement, and
toward the end of the season L sent the
gelding over the Saugus track for the
fastest mile at the trot that has ever
been made in a race over that historic
course. He did that mile in 2:13A,
which is his best record.
Here is another case, even more
convincing. You remember, probably,
when Peter Turney came to me, a year
ago last spring. Well, the record that
horse had previous to coming into my
string was anything but creditable. He
had started in six races out west and
had been distanced every time.
worked him for a few days and soon
found that he had plenty of speed, but
his manner of going told me that the
hobbies would be likely to improve his
gait.
"The result was that 1 put them on.
He came to his speed very rapidly, and
would hold it without a break. In fact,
during the year he made less than a
half dozen mistakes. I started him in
95 iii ITO less than II races, and in 16 of
them I got a piece of the money In
the seventeenth race he threw a shoe,
and was distanced In ten Of the seven
teen races, 1 landed first place, and in
all won $2490 around at these tracks,
where the purses were small and where
5000 was about all a man could win by
finishing ahead for three heats in sue
cession.
These are just instances in my own
line that l have cited. Others could
name by the score, Take Planet, for
instance, that great race horse. He did
all his work in the hobbies In my
travels about New England last season,
/ think it is safe to say that ! found at
least % of the PAGERS were hobbled. A
few of the fast ones don't wear the rig
ging, but where there is one that don't
three of them do. OF course accidents
happen to drivers who use hobbies and
some have taken advantage of this to
ring the changes upon the danger of
using the apparatus. William Penn,
the fastest trotting stallion Of '97, in his
race at Kentucky last fall, fell end over
end in one of the heats, because his toe
caught in boot. But is that sufficient
to give up boots. I sometimes think
that people are looking for us all to
have these hippodrome guideless Won
ders' that require neither harness,
drivers, checks, hobbies nor boots.
Il am not a lover of the hobbies,
mind you, and never put them on a
horse unless it seems imperative. But
/ do believe that if hobbies tend to inn
prove a horses gait and make him
more valuable for racing purposes,
equine equipment
But, after all, the passage of the
rule, as you may understand, does not
mean that we shall see no more hob
bled horses in races. The majority of
the trotting associations will simply an
nounce that rule so and SO will not be
enforced. as they have a perfect right
to do. There are a lot OF these associa-
tions that, bar the hobbled horse, would
not be able to fill their lists with horses
to whom the hobbies were unknown. 1t
is sometimes comparatively easy to get
around an obnoxious rule, and this is
one of those times"
What do you think of their rule
about licensing drivers" the reporter
queried, as he rose to leave. There's a
rule which no fair-minded man can
criticise. Let me tell you, I would ra-
ther drive a race against a field of
horses who We're all hobbled than to be
one of the starters in a race in which
some of these so-called reinsmen are
driving If this matter of licensing
drivers is maintained it will prove a
grand good thing to the track, and keep
a lot of the poor ones from getting in
and making it dangerous for all the