The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-09-23
NEWS AND GOSSIP
OF THE HoRsEMEN,,
Washington Park Meeting Not by
Any Means a Model of True
Racing and Form.
THE LAST WEEK AT DELMAR.
Form at That Track Has Been Elk
ceedingly Good-No dead
Ones" Handled in Local
Betting Rings.

During the week a ST. Louis dispatch 10
the Chicago Gazette told of a race track that
was to be built here and which was to be
operated like Washington Park"
This is news indeed. No one in St. Louis
suspected that Fred Cook and Charley EVIL
son, not to speak of johnnie Buliman.
Eddie Dominick and Sam Hilldreth. who
pretty much run things at Washington Park
last season. were interested In a race trach
about this city. In fact it seemed that
Cook and Ellison were rather TOO well
acquainted here 10 attempt to transact
business as it was done at washington
Park. St. Louis Is not a 'rube, racing
town; as Is Chicago, ABE Frank p, rsTss
could not ride The Parader here as he u,9
in the American Derby. Sam Hildreth coula
not operate his stable here as he did az
Washington Park. Fred Cook would fnd
it hard work to keep on booking mere as
he did at the Fair Grounds. JOHNNIE Bull
did in Chicago. nor could Charley Ellison.
a man with two horses. control haif a a9Ish
Jockeys and engage mounts for them. En-
agement for a while In St. Louis and the
Delrnar Park and the Fair Grounds gre
Grounds meeting was a rank failure from
the standpoint of form. One
who was ruled off early in the game was
ID TtspUIIsih1t IOI luis "a VI la D
He had made extensive preparations to do
a mortuary business on a wholesale scale
He was caught with the goods on him In
the okla-stephens case and ruled of.
Another operator" was not openly landed.
but he. too, was nailed with the stuff on
him and went away. The Fair Association
has possession of sheets that would hang
him. These operators did not get to
Delmar Park. They made the Fair Grounds
m as lsTss,S a fai t1Inmp be IN form Paf and has eorr eesn
honest racing as the Fair Grounds was of
the other kind. There never were so few
illlooking races run on any track In the
country. You can count on the fingers of
one hand the bad races run on it Not even
one paipabIe ''shoo-in' was pulled of.
While several horses may have run bad
Laces for cause or otherwise. not more than
five races gave evidence Of fraudulent con-
cert among owners.
This correct form is attributable to the
fact that no matter what may be said about
t'le .'nearness' of the bookmakers there Is
u lobster. When the ring lets the owners.
trainers and Jockeys alone bad races are not
SO liable to occur.
Prices in the Delmar ring have always
been good No fault can be found on that
score. though the ring could be easily syn
dicated. The chief trouble bettors have had
with the ring Is that few layers In It will
take anything like a decent bet at q long
price on a horse that has a chance. Thu
average ~bookmaker at Delmar will not take
more than SO on a NNto-1 shot that has a
chance. Frequently they Will not take that
much. though they have the price up.
W, whs # a and Set ,Ss s Seatm a Eepd rf p5,se up 1o saks
the money. the bettor naturally Is provoked
by the cheapnese of the layer. This Is n
fs5li9E Of Most ams p sf sRe b= saog ans res there to a re-
S INIT ssssse' Isl. s Z can M ss sr sasPs g ca saka
may win al a long price.
II any person has intentions Of operating
a race track in st. Louis he will do well
have been run and not bother himself con-
Quoting n race track where operations can
BE- CONDUCTED nSaes n as t ae;h, were a,o at M Wa hing On
Washington Park. as given by the Chi
cago papers. that would encourage any one
TO use it as a model IN the operation Of a
race track meant to win public favor in ST.
Louis.
There is no use going to the public with
and tremendous boards Of stewards and
laying much stress upon the character OF
the gentlemen at the head Of affairs. The
~shrewdest on earth. 1t knows when races |
are being run honestly or dishonesty. Del
mar Park had no imPosing list of stewards, |
all. and IT'S Judges and starter are men un- |
known to fame. Kinlcch Park opened with |
s sSS q lan boala ' ~ ssswa sTs o samoss s%. a shs
finest gentlemen IN the II an impos- |
ing LIST of officials would draw patronage |
AiulOCH SuUulQ udVC DIOKcn Ill IeCOIuS. IL L
had the best the land could AFFORD. But the |
unknown officials at Delmar had given the |
public clean races and the public knew 1t.
ronage because they had nothing but their
populations to attract It. They did not
IL, rsse fact Sa' r aas i that N the aeeS Sth nao , eHeSss
had horses, too. and had delivered the
goods.
track or who starts the races or decides
winners. just as long as the racing is prop
erly conducted and all these things are
prospects. arc what the racegoers want. So
IL a new track IL to be built around st. |
Louis let It not be told that it Is going. to
Park. 1t is better not to pick a model at
all, to be original and better than any. But
ine Ias Park meetine g Of y h io1 PC Which sbs "a was
famous. even in Chicago. for its lack of
form and for the apparent irregularity Of
Its races. /
There never was a. meeting held in
form shown at Delmar. II there was
a reversal. not n book in the ring gave
of having numbered on the. dead
one Une primal reason of the cleanliness
OF Delmar racing is that not a bookrnaker
in the ring would handle a dead enc. A
whose interests lie in maintain
Ing clean racing. The Independent book
makers like Jess Hughes. Herman Hoffman.
r Tduh II bhILIcy oCLISiDeT ana IQm i
Carney will not handle a dead one. with
unwilling to lay against a IA
vorite that is dead" a great reason of
dying has been removed.
Chicago turf critics are VIGOROUSLY blind
to fraud when It happens in Chicago. The
daily papers OF that city TEEN with tales
Of fraud at st. Louis. at Sa~ratoga-every-
but in Chicago. The Chicago turf
critics stand for '.the nuts In the way of
Of form at home. Chicago races
are never criticised. Yet even the Chicago
critics could not swallow the ~in-and-ont
At Washington Park. Dumb
as they have always been about such
things. at Hawthorne and Harlem. they had
to cry bloody murder about some OF the
tricks turned at Washington. Park. Not
that Washington Park form was worse
that at Harlem or Hawthorne, but
that the critics had less consideration for
Washington Parks interests than those OF
the other tracks.
After this week racing will cease at Del
mar Park and will be resumed at the Fair
Grounds: With a dozen valuable stakes to
be run there, with all kinds of good horses
to run them and with brilliant prospects of
large crowds during the Fair, the fall rae
ing season should be a splendid one. II the
form which prevailed at Delmar holds good
at the Fair Grounds. It is to he hoped Thar
the racing at the old track will not be as II ,
IN the spring. but as It was at Del
mar, clean md true. |,