The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-14
WITH TROTTER AND PAGER.
NEW TRACK MAY BE IN A SWAMP
NEAR BATCHEsTER.


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Trainers say Horses woula Have n Hard Tine
There Between tho Mosquitoes ana the Colo
wInds FROM the sound-HiEh Estrnnco Fees
for Eanrsess Igaces-Rort wayne's Purses.
w. B. Fasig talked interestingly to the re-
porter Of THE sun a fow DAYS ago concerning
high entrance fees on the trottinR turf. Fasig
was for many years the Secretary of the Clcve-
land Driving Park, and ho is now the manager
Of the Charter Oak Park at Hartford. He has
also campaiRned such trotters as Eloise, 2:15,
and Marguerite. 2:14, and has thus gained q
knowledge Of turf finances from the. stand
point Of both tho track manager and the horse
owner.
There is no use in denying that entrance
fees are high In harness racing said Fasig,
much higher than they are with the runners.
The cost Of raising a trotter 10 greater, too. and
80 is tho cost of training and campaigning him.
Owners Of runners can start them as two year.
olds, while most %trotters arc not campaigned
until they are four or ivo years old. Then tho
runners come to their speed with less ~trairing;
they require little or no parnphernnlia, such as
sulkies. harness, boots, and the like, and when
they arc ready to go for the money they can
race all summer In one place and all winter in
another, avoiding the heavy expense of ship
ping around the country by express. Entrance
fees are lower. purses arc larger, and they are
"oh pJ u bihkio uhoh' SelcIdiiy az Y u y
mile.
II have always contcnded that harness rae
ing ought to be Chased as a quasi. amateur
sport. Not one man in ten who breeds or cam
paigns ~trotters does IL with the expectation Of
making money. They go into 1t for the fun
they can have, the same as the man who buys
a yacht or who keeps n shotgun and q brace Of
Irish settlers. And they expect to pay for their
sport. Take, James Butler, FOR, example.
| hnUa hRnrl aim AnC hR NNAG llln IN anPn1
S25, 900 u year on his breeding and campaigning
ventures, and there, are plenty. more like him.
Hardness, Gen. b. +; Tracy; John II. shuts,
and a hundred others i could name right
here in this city have spent fortunes in
tation OF getting their money back. Every6ody
from the millionaire breeder to the farmer boy
hopes to bring ont a winner or = world heater
some day, and when you come right down TO 1t
that's the backbone and mainstay of the trot-
ing ,;urf., Eliminate that spirit and there
wouldn't be u Grand Circuit meeting this year.
ALTHOUGH entrance fees and all other eX-
penses of the horse owner are high in harness
racing, who ever heard Of a driving clue or
track proprietor. shat made much money! De-
troit and Cleveland are probably the most pros
Whether either Of them earns an average Of
10 per cent; on the capital invested. take II
Tme year w, mnc snG 1ess than Ihs sI5 in oSS osehsa nrs
their expenses are heavy, SO. that when the end
of the season comes round they, haven't got rich
only five days u year. and, of.course, it is not to
be expected that a meeting lasting only that
salary of a secretary, the care OF the track, and
the hundred and one other expenses. which are
is the explanation Of the fact that there is no
money worth talking about to be made for either
the horse owner or the track owner IN harness
tanned generally 800 days in Improbable idle
ness, TO be ready for use the other five days of
ton can hold its own and scale down its en-
trance fees to anything like the standard in
vogue on the running turf: Six and a quarter
per cent. looks to be cxorbitant when you are
making an entry: but it isn't half SO big when
you are running the meeting
The regular weekly report has gone forth
that the subcommittee of the Driving Club
will be ready in a few days to submit a report
trotting track. This time there is some rea-
son to believe that definite action will be taken
James Butler would withdraw from the club in
case the, site recommended by him is not select
location near Dunwoodie on the line of Jerome
avenue. for reasons which have been stated in
in case the decision of the Executive Commit
tee shall be in favor of some other suitable site.
The other location under consideration Is near
the suburban station OF Baychesser. on the
New Rochelle branch of the New York, New
consists Of 7iN acres. and is the oid:connor es-
tate. which was sold at auction last October for
S137,4ss. 1t faces the Bronx and Pelham Park
way not far from the crossing OF the Boston
post road, and is about thirteen miles from the
Battery. A part Of the property, is in the salt
tide is high. 1t is reported that through trains
will soon be runnins; from the City Hall station
beyond there. thus giving excellent transpocta-
ton facilities from the cast side Of town; There
IL no way to reach r the TIsGs direct il ,no from n,nc the Sx West
be something like sixmiicafrom Central Avenue
h hT5ase' an SS T Feiha Gf iISGSiR W avenue # il. ap Hnd tne
stood that the property Is controlled by John
| raaarynir Ar "a mpafinu NJ tha EVpru.iVa l'on-
mittee several weeks ago he offered TO build
and equip a track on this property and lease it
fered. in case the club decided to purchase, to
furnish the dirt for filling in and building tho
laying a railroad track to the, property; Prac-
teal horsemen do not generally favor the loca-
Of the ground. They say it might be very ex.
pensive business to build a track there; owing
DO sow She ;P PH3s tbe msr thnS r.! Them ne% Sr sGlI , tbey do Si nat
the shore Of the sound, "Between the mos.
we should never be able to keep our horses
feeling good in n place like that" said a promi-
nent New York driver yesterday in speaking
Of the Baychester site.
Aaron FowlG5. one Of the best.known trainers
insane asylum on Wards, Island. Horsemen
here are talking about raising n fund to pay for
failed Two years ago, but he was harmless and
was not to an asylum until a few
mon months @g ago; lie trained ngd fit FFed sn GSTkG mon $ crack rack
won the intcrcity cup for ~trotting teams in
1894. and he drove them in their winning match
race for $1,000 against Cephas and Jesse ut
Fleetwood in November OF that year. John j.
Gibbs, who handled the other team. was strick.
en-, with paralysis nearly two years ago and is a
helpless invalid.
The Fort Wayne Driving Club has arranged
a list -of nine early closing purse races to be
trotted and paced at the Grand Circuit meeting
from Aug. 9 to Is. These events foot up $40.
OcO in value. and the club reserves 10000
more for other purses TO be opened a short time
before the date of the meeting, In addition TO
the regular card the race for the two.year-old
division of the 10000 Horse Review Stakes
will be trotted at the Fort Wayne meeting.
The events, which close on April J, are as fol-
lows:
2;lO class. ~trottinR. purse S2. 900; eco class. trot-
ting. purse 81, 900; 2;2S class, trotting. purse 81, 600,
2:SO class. three ear olds. trottinR. purse o. 900;
2:O5 class. pacing. purse $4,000; 2:0s class. pacing,