The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-27

Much depends upon the weather next
| month. The Silver Bow Jockey club is
to give 81 days of racing, sundays in
cluded, at the new track, named
'Rancheru Park in honor of the game
Montana bred stallion of that name
The track, as stated in the Standard
Tuesday, is situated just south of the
Montana Union tracks. between the old
Parrot Stag dump and the street car
line. The grandstand, fence and some
of the stalls are built and mechanics
are busy pushing things to completion.
The three-eghths track will be model
in itself and every appointment is to
| be up to the standard The feature of
! it all is it is close to town. on the line
I of the street cars, and if the weather
| is all right there will be big crowds at
the races. There will be some fast
sprinters at the track. Colonel Hatch,
the veteran judge and starter of ma
tiOnal repute. will have direct charge
of the business.
The jockey is an important creature.
There are plenty of men who can ride
horses; there is even a respectable
number who can race them with judg-
/ ment; but, owing to the custom that
| has grown up of racing horses under
| weights they would have to carry in
| ordinary work, the number of men who
| can ride and race horses at the weight
| called for by the Handicapped is very
| small. In horse racing, the thing de-
| sired is extreme speed, and evidently
| with 80 pounds up horse can do far
! better than with $50; hence no race
| horse on the fiat is required to carry
| the weight of an average man. This
state of affairs gives to midgets like
| Tod Sloan and Maher an Importance
| they would have in no other way, and
| is perhaps, natures way of compen-
| sating them for their inferiority in size
| to the ordinary man.
really successful jockey, as every
one knows, can almost command his
own price. Besides his regular salary.
| which would pay those of several COL
| lege professors. he is likely to receive
| gifts of several times the amount of his
| salary after winning any race. When
! an owner has won a small fortune, on
IA few seconds work by jockey and
| horse. he is in an expansive mood, when
| The world looks large and seems to be
| mostly in his own pocket. The SUCCESS
| Jul jockey has. therefore. chance to
| earn competency, as well as much
! shortlived fame, if he be honest: but
| his honesty, unlike mans innocence
| before the law. has to be proved rather
| than taken for granted unless dis
proved His opportunities and tempta-
| tons for dishonesty are very great, and
neither his breeding nor his education
usually leads to the greatest moral de-
If an owner. after a successful race
| is willing to give his jockey a good bit
| of money, a bOokmaker, before a race,
to insure large winnings to himself Is
willing to be even more liberal with a
| jockey open to inducements: and not
only jockeys. but starters, can be man.
ipulated so as to alter the results of
races; and the more easily, that while
winning race is very difficult, losing
one is comparatively simple.
Horse racing presents a curious cir
Gle. 1t cannot be made to pay without
betting; betting leads to all kinds Of
CrookedneSs, and crookedness kills rae
ing. In England they seem to have
outlived our stage of the game where
alternative waves of disgust and of re-
form sweep over racing. In England
racing has a social standing it has not
attained here. Perhaps the larger leis-
ure class there has led better and
more independent sort of men to take
up horse racing-one not in it for profit
alone, and not to be bullied by those
| who are.