The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-07
Entertainment for the Visitors Mt
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THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACES
RECORDS OF THE FAMOUS RIDERS
WHO WILL COMPETE.
"Desfruction of Cervera's Fleet"
smOker-At Country Club.

ship races this season, that expectancy and
that opportunity for unbounded speculation
which gives 60 the contests of the national
meet of the League of American Wheelmen
at Indianapolis the present week an impor-
lance they have never before enjoyed. In
previous seasons there have been one or
two men expected to run away with the
honors.
That these men did not do so was due to
the fortunes of war and oftentimes to the
great amount Of hard work previous to the
principal meet Of the year. During the
present season there has been a lack of
hard campaigning work, the circuit having
had but nineteen days of racing previous
TO the meet The great men of the year to
a man enter the contests in the very best
of shape in consequence. Where the honors
will land no man may tell, and man after
man approached for an opinion had his
own, a score or more being different in
some respect. Fancy figured largely in the
selections and form seemingly had little
weight with the pickers. The variety of the
guesses was due entirely to the superb form
of the crack-n-ja jacks just at this time-at
the very time when they should be and
in the best form of their racing career. De-
feat at this meet is going to warrant not all
excuse from any man, and the final deci-
sion of the meet will be, without the slight
est shade of a doubt that the best man
won
Arthur Gardiner, the leader all through
the present seasons race; Eddie Bald, the
three-time champion; Tommie Cooper
Balds greatest rival for three years, during
all Of which three years Gardiner ranked
below the pair, and Major Taylor. the
dark horse of the great quartet, are all in
the pink of condition, while from four to
six men more will add interest to the sport,
owing to their past regulations or present
good form. Freeman. the Oregonian Kser,
the great match race winner, Tom Butler
the cyclone of SO, Johnnie Johnson, who has
not met one of the big four. so called. of the
circuit this season, and many others rate
as expected winners. Orlando Stevens, the
Iowa Splinter, always dangerous. but espe-
cially so in his present form, probably occu-
pies a position betwixt and between the two
great quartets named above.
Public betting is not allowed at cycle rae
ing, but betting under the cover is so much
fun and those who witness the cycle races
are OftentmeS as sporty as they make them.
The man who could pick the winner in each
of the three championships at this meet
could land barrel of money. Certain it is,
no trainer caring for his man day by day,
watching the other men like hawk at all
times, and anxious to great degree upon
the results, is confident enough of results to
risk a weeks salary upon the race. Bitter
riValry-nO one not on the inside knows
how bitter--eXists between these great rae
ing men, and although they come smiling
from their dressing rooms arm in arm, not
would favor another to aid him to VIC
tory when that terrible last sprint comes
and fires the blood to fever heat, makes
wild the eye and tired every muscle of the
carefully trained body-trafned to the very
edge for these, the most important races of
the year.
ARTHUR GARDENERS RECORD.
If supremacy for the time being counts for
aught then Arthur Gardner should win the
championship. The Chicago man has
labored diligently from the outset of the
circuit, missing but one championship race
and that at Buffalo, the last meet previous
TO the national meet He has won the great
est number of points by eighteen over
Cooper twenty-four over Bald, the cham
pion of last year. and thirty-four over Mar
shall C'Major') Taylor, the great coiored
rider who halls from Indianapolis These
four are the big four of the racing circuit.
and probably of the racing game this season,
and it is among the four the championship
honors will probably fall. Gardiner also has
the best percentage upon his work, having
Won siXty-three OF a possible los points He
has won the greatest amount of money upon
the circuit, the greatest amount of money
by hundreds of dollars in the all-around
work on and off the circuit, of the year.
eral work. In the one-nlile and half-mile
championship races of the season his work
pionships are to be finally decided at this
meet along with the two-mile. at which dis
tance Cooper has thus far excelled.
Gardiner has had four more starts than
Bald and Cooper and seven more than Tay-
Tor, three of the four having been made in
the West in the opening days of the circuit
at Louisville. where two days of racing
We're held, and St. Louis, where the third
and last day was held in the West previous
TO the present meet. When the Chicago
man started his season so successfully in
the West some critics wanted it to appear
that once he reached the East and met Bald
and Cooper his career would be checked
These critics guessed wrong. however. when
they planned for the Chicagoan, for in his
races with Bald he has beaten that rider
eight times, while the champion has beaten
him but four times. Against Cooper, Gard
tEer has not as great margin, having one
the best of the Detroit rider in the nine
meetings. While the work of Gardiner upon
the whole has been steady and consistent
the other riders have been showing so great
Improvement of late as TO cast a doubt of
the Chicagoan's ability to hold more than
his own in the great championship races of
the meet now so near at hand. Bald,
Cooper and Taylor have been taking hand
of late and Stevens, the speedy Iowa sprint
err. has also been very much in the running
COOPER'S CHANCES GOOD.
Tom Cooper's showing on the whole this
season. has been excellent, and his chances
I'm the championships are considered quite
as good as those of any other rider. The
Detroit man suffered from boils in his ear
Her racing, caused by fall received at
Rochester, and from which he was a long
time recovering. He is now in the very best
Of shape, and is possessed of as strong q
heart any rider. Cooper also has the
best Of Bald in their individual meetings.
having defeated the Bison eight times in the
fifteen races in which they have met. The
sixteenth meeting was at scratch in the
handicap race at the Buffalo meeting, when
both men quit together, and with advantage
for neither.
Champion Eddie Bald has been disap-
pointment. His work of the sea-
son has been far from his standard,
fourteen championships this season. But
enlargement after encouragement never
mars the serenity of his countenaIce. He
works harder in time of defeat tl1anfn time
OF constant victories, and defeat no matter
how steady but stirs him on 10 greater e n
deavor His logged persistehcy has won
him honorS in previous seasons and bids fair
% win him more honoTs at this time when
many really looked to see him shaken from
bis hold on the throne and the proud title
Of champion wrested from him, a title held
so tenaciously for the past three seasons.
Bald won one OF the greatest championship
races of his career at Buffalo last Monday
night, a win" made in close fight OF
inches against Freeman on one side, McFar-
land on the other and with TAYLOR and
VA IL rt4ar xrrha oF.d III