The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-15
Men Who Make Figures on Racing
Performances Have a Rare
Command of Detail.
SOME OF THE DELICATE POINTS
Resistance of the Air Cuts Large
F1gure-Grading of Tracks
Must BE Given
Consideration.

with scientific turns and back stretches. and
OF split-second watches, handled by ex-
perts. The weights carried in each race
have been adjusted on a scale regarded as
nearly perfection. Instead of the old, bare
accounts OF the also ran" the racing
Spectator to-day is provided with dope
sheets. giving every possible detail OF each
horse in each race.
From these statistics the modern betting
man digs decimaIs of percentage in estl-
mating results OF the past and results to
come. II is reasonably. claimed that the
up-to-date racing man knows more than
twenty times as much as the man of ten
years ago. and. as a proof. is claimed the
fact that the bookmaker has been driven to
make his m~oney-not SO much from his in
divfdual book and its old system OF kitty
percentage. as from his own expert wager
ing with his kind and the catching of the
insufficiently capitalized punter.
Given a number of horses in a race, each
carrying weight. according to a scale of age
and previous performances, the Spectator
constrasts what each animal has done I'M
der somewhat corresponding conditions in
pounds. beats "B." carrying l6 pounds,
over a f1ve-furiong course, by a short head.
and that. IL these weights be reversed. or
changed, he would argue thai the chances
of were the brighter of the two. pro-
Vfding the track was fast. slow or muddy,
whatever the preceding race may have pro-
vided. Except that one horse may have
been favored at the start. or closed up a lot
of ground at the finish, there his calculation
what might have been and the corre-
ponding excuses of why 1t did not"
BANQUET VS.. SALVADOR.
When Salvador made his great American
Is, 1850. at sheepshead Bay, he ran on an
elliptic course. but when Banquet. three
weeks later. at Monmouth Park. ran a cor
straight course and on a day when not a
breath Of wind was stirring.
This was at the rate Of about IS miles an
hour. and the pressure Of the atmosphere at
pounds to the square foot. Now, take the
area of a horse and rider head on to the
windl
The rider is about twenty-four inches
across the shoulders at the widest part and
to the narrowness OF the horses legs, pre-
senting a mean area Of about fourteen
square feet OF surface, or sail area plan,
seventy-fve pounds. which must be %continu-
ously pushed away and displaced to make
room for the body following after. 1t IS
seventy-five pounds away that this is APP
preciated. and it must be remembered that
the weight moves no easier after motion Is
started. for the air cushion is ever being
renewed at the old ratio. Thus: pressing
Quet made that recordi
Suppose for an instant that there had
been a head wind Of equal force-thirty-five
miles an hour-with the pressure of an ad.
ditional seventy-fye pounds per area, what
would the record have been? Thus 1t will
race to-day against another horse, the rec
ord showing an absence Of wind for !"
and a strong head wind against "B" for
there Is Is a tremendous field Of valuable cal:
culation to cover II it can ever be corralled.
enty-ave pounds against him and transpose
1t behind him as a favoring agent. the re-
s sion S MGui alre ee im soserned huns human n0a atSietic
dash record is credited unless the surround,
upon bv Competent and reliable authori-
ties. The new plan Is to do this to some
extent with the horse.
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE.
Conceding the great Importance of the at
mospheric pressure, 1t IS but a step to the
still greater importance of the state of the
track-its mud density. its holding quail
some horses can run in mud" while others
cannot. The different constituencies of mud.
of Morris Park. With a hard undersurface.
TO the tide-affected. skinned" track at
over. as with the charts Of today. paSSe'
The average horses foot and its area will
be taken in hand on a sliding scale. from
4sx4A-inch foot Of The Bard, these being
the largest and smallest feet on the Ameri-
To an artificial hoof of given area is at
tached two semirigid arms. with cross ham
dies, one to be held In each hand. and then
'ht " Is pluHSeu INTO tne track surface
as far as it will go, in a somewhat slanting
direction; then partially turned forward, and
the hands being shifted to the ring attach
ment of a registering spring balance, con-
Meeting. with the hoof. 1t is quickly raised
and withdrawn. The percentage of the mud
suction Din pounds is at once obtained ex-
actly as it is experienced by the horse in
motion, This is contrasted with correspond |
with.
Careful experiments show that the aver |
age momentum of a horse. Weighing an ay-
erage of 1000 pounds. affects the leverage
or withdrawal. to. a certain extent. and this
Thus. not only are the distance. weight and
previous time records considered. but the
ejaculation is taken further, on the lines of
the locomotive. where the gross weight, the
area OF atmospheric pressure, the size of the
boiler. the supply and exhaust Of steam,
With the stroke Nof the piston, ETC., are
counted as important factors in the pre- |
estimation of probable speed under known |