The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-06-09
OF LAST WEEK
LACKED GOOD GLASS.
Fair Grounds Programme for the Last Six Days Was Made Up in the
interests of "Dogs'-Jockeys Are Riding Poorly.
R1rrEx FOR TIE SUNDAY REPUBLIC.

WRITTEN FOR HI SUNDA REPUBLIC
Fair Grounds racing fields Of the last
week failed to come up to the high stand
ard OF the May meeting. Indeed. the races
Of the entire week. including Saturday.
were Of very poor class. P~rogrammer Ma
ginn evidently meant to give the poor
horses q chance to exist.
Nor can 1t be said that the form Of the
horses was good. The writer Is not a hide
bound adherent OF figures He does not in
sist that q horse shall conform to time as
q machine. Horses are flesh and blood and
heir to all that mutability that human
flesh and blood are. They have bad days ana
hours. as well as good ones. But some OF
the races run at the Fair Grounds during
the week were on their face so very bad
that not even a horseman could excuse
them. In these, the bad race OF the great
undermining :-year-old Lemuel on Thurs
day, and that Of Battus on the same day.
When Mccain rode such an odious finish
right at the wire. are high examples. Inc
~in-and-out running of Silver Coin and Gel
tic Bard earned for them disqualification
n refusal of entries.
The one fearful handicap which the
Fair Grounds meeting has had to over
come has been the utter lack OF capable
or even cemicapable. riders. Without any
doubt there is not even a ffth-rate boy
Al III lIdNh- LIZ III 49,
ly the latter. are very promising boys. IN
deed. there never was a lad who held out
higher promise than O'Neili. He Is a much
butter boy now han Dominick was IN MS
first season. But he is some years removed
from a ~second-class boy. He IL only IA ana
has plenty Of time for Improvement.
Outside of these two boys. Houck - a
fair Jockey. killed BY effort to keep down
weight. He cannot do better thar 1W. and
few mounts come along at those figures
TurbiyiIle. who was once a rider OF some
merit. though uncertain class. has shown
no disposition to get back to the form re
possessed when he rode Ogden a winner IN
the fastest Futurity ever run.
Wedcerstrand seems TO be an actiSe oos
at the post, handles his mounts well there.
bat he will not ride in the bunch. and he Is
not a warrior in u finish. Inc same NOUS
good Of little Weber, who. since his faii AZ
Memphis, will not go into a bunch OF strtv-
ing horses. Excepting Combs. who 10 SO
heavy that he is in the class OF 'chefs.
and cannot accept mounts at a figure below
IO pounds there Is not a boy on the track
capable of riding a finish. Both brlen
and little O'Neill are exceptionally poor
frishers. utterly incapable Of holding a
horses head at the end. ONeill Is as OAR
ing a bunch rider as you can md. and can
skin a rail- as well as any one alive. but he
cannot ride a finish with a horse that IL In
front and firing, and who II being threat
ened from the rear. He Is. however. q great
lad for hts age. holds them well. takes good
care Of them at the post and fears naught.
The incapacity of the boys makes the win
ners hard to pick. Time and again are
the best horses beaten by poor riding. And
the very Inconsistency Of the riding hurts
more than really bad riding would. FOR
when you allow Tor a bad rtde the improv-
ing youngster Is liable to spoil your calcu-
lations with "A good ride. ana vice versa.
So bad has the form Of the hOrses and
jockeys been that no Handicapped at the
track has been able to average Two winners
I, day during the season. though they will
guarantee two winners each day under nor
NAL conditions. A certain pubic handicap
per, who has access to the figures OF his
brethren. has been able TO pick IS per cent
OF winners. A man SO situated should pick
at least S. per cent OF winners. The news
papers which pick-they have not the time
TO n-gure-horses have been fortunate to get
one winner a day. As a rule. . turf editor
will pick three horses a day without any
particular trouble.
All this goes to show that picking the