The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-06
KEENE'S Big WINNINGS
RUSSIAN HORSEMEN SUCCEEDED IN
HAVING HIM SUSPENDED.
Claimed He "Doped" His Horses, but
Friends Attributed His Success
ito His Wise Training.
nondenc. Of the Associated Press.

Correspondence of the Associated Press.
ST. PETERSBURG, Saturday, Aug. d.
John Oliver Keene, of Lexington, KY, train
er for the racing stable of NJ. 1. Lazarev,
who has been suspended for a year dating
from Aug. 20. for the alleged use of some
unknown drug, has won s~eventy-nine races
with his stable and over 100000 during the
last four or five months. Keene and his
friends say that is the only reason for the
ruling against him.
Keene was trainer. last year, for Henry
De Bloch, the millionaire, of Warsaw, and
won $4,000 with a single horse named Sir
dar. He has already exceeded this. though
the season it not yet over, will Mr..
LaZarev's Irish Lad, the horse which has
won $685. and now holds all the three
year-old records for Russia.
The success of the stables handled by
Keene has been the sensation of Russian
sporting circuits for a year or more and he
has been accused of running horse racing in
this country, since everybody bet on his
entries. When the present season opened
Keene selected Irish Lad, a three-year-old,
sired by G~alteemore. an English horse. pro-
cured at great expense by the imperial stud.
for the great racing events. and Irish Lad
" NhC O1OoCOW dlld tnC NdISdW OCI OAcSB
besides other valuable purses.
Keene's success was attributed by the
leading sporting journals Of ST. Petersburg
TO wise training and good riding.
The rival stables, however, were unwin-
ing to acknowledge that Keene had won by
superior training alone and had, for months,
been trying to prove a case Of doping
against him and eventually procured
Keene's suspension for a year.
A detective one day watched the Lazarev
horses for eight hours at Warsaw. On the
day referred to they won four out Of five
races in which they were entered, and the
fifth race was only lost by a head.
At Moscow an order was issued requiring
all entries to stand in the paddock four
hours before every race. The Lazarev horses.
der was eventually abandoned, because all
the owners protested against 1T as being
cruelty TO animals.
When the st. Petersburg season opened
the technical committed of the racing club
began collecting foam from the Lazarev
horses mouths at the end of every race.
They gathered it on cotton and put it in
bottles. 1t was afterwards m by a
chemist named Perl, who claimed TO find
traces in Ii of some form of morphine.
Keene was then summoned before the board
of stewards and he swore that he had en-
ployed no chemicals.
The stable boys claimed they had seen
heelle give SOIne mcOlClne 10 one or TWO
horses and NJ. De Bloch wrote a latter stat
ing that he had discharged Keene for "dop-
ing" Keene did not deny that he had doc
tored the horses when they were sick, and
demanded that he be confronted with NJ.
De Bloch, but the board of stewards denied
this request.
1t is claimed for Keene that admitting
the honesty of the tests, a trace of morphine
might be due to the use of a certain leg
wash composed of a small amount of laud-
anum, spirit extract of arnica, saltpeter
and sugar of lead dissolved in a large body
of alcohol"
1t is asserted that quantities of this mix
ture are frequently employed with a quart
of water and that no objection has been
made to this leg wash by the racing au-
thorities. Keene will appeal to the Grand
Duke Dimitri Constantinovich, who is pro-
tcctor of Russian racing.
Other Americans engaged in racing here
also have been in trouble. J. C. Mitchell, NJ.
Lazarev's rider. has been fined $500 for an
alleged foul, which all the Americans deny,
and has been forbidden to ride for anybody
except NJ. Lazarev. Trainer Frank Stars
was ruled off for having a bottle of speed
elixir in a valise, but the penalty was
afterwards reduced to nine months suspen-
sion. He claimed he employed it only after
a race TO help his entries cool off properly.
William Gaywood, a rider. has been dis
missed by his employer with the offer of
| $1,000, instead of $3.50 due him on his con-
tract. The employer said he did not like
Gaywood's riding. Another American named
| Slattery had previously been dismissed by
the owner of the same stable, his contract
Cancelled and his earnings withheld.