The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-17
COST OF A SULKY CAMPAIGN EXPENSES CAN EASILY FOOT UP
 TO se, ,00O 4 MONTH.

Details In Which Harness Racing Amounts to More Than stab.e of Thoroughbreds Entaiis-oue of These isconstant Railroad Transportatfonf BilIs.
 There is a general belief with the pub lie that it takes more money to start and maintain a stable of runners than it does to own and campaign a stable of harness race-horses, but the suppos1- ton is perhaps erroneous Take, for example, the single item of equipment. Two hundred dollars would be an ex- travagant sum to spend on thorough bred for cooling sheets, stable blankets, bandages and everything connected with the racing outfit. This sum would scarcely pay for the harness and outfit of boots for harness race-horse, to say nothing of the sulky and cart and outfit .sof clothing. Then in the expensesS nt the etsA@.aa ie,-4 d lIloxs,>rl-s>. s>.A-<741 StaDle has practically no shipping expenses as compared with those of harness sta ble. Many of the prominent harness stables are wintered in the south or ir California, and the campaign shipping begins and ends there but in the inter- val the route includes weekly ship 1nent that covers thousands of miles.
 The item of railroad transportation costly though it is, forms but a part oi the actual travelling expenses. The sta. ble and equipments must be unloaded and transferred to the track each week and sent back and loaded again at the close of each meeting. The item oi drayage is almost as much in the az gregate as the railroad transportation Even the advance hostler, who makes g goodly sum by being on the ground ir time to have all the stables bedded and the hay and grain ready for the horses the moment they arrive, becomes an i'm portant item of expense to the stable.
 The cost of repairs to harness and ve- hicles is an important item and with the cost of the blacksmith added amounts to about as much as the salary of a f1rst-ciass trainer and driver. Al these items seldom enter into the cal. culations of the average patron of har. ness racing, who counts only the cost oi the feed and the groom and figures tht balance of the earnings as clear profits
 The matter of entrance fees is heavy tax on the earnings of a harness stable as compared with what it costs to star thoroughbred in a race. The harness horse owner is taxed five per cent. or the gross amount of the purse or stake offered before he can start, and all tht money winners are taxes an additiona five per cerlt.-not on what they win but on the original purse or stake This in reality is twenty per cent. or the actual winnings.
 These are all legitimate expenses tha' must be incurred by every stable, nc matter how great or how small the win nings. When it comes to the expense O the betting ring the bookmakers handle all the money wagered at a thorough. bred meeting and it becomes guessing contest between owners, trainers anc the public against the layers of odds Nearly all the betting at harnes. meeting is done through the auction pools, and while this is undoubtedly tht fairest form of betting it costs the win, Ter three per cent. on his pools, anc this includes his own money also
 IHe HSureS tHal IoloW dre taken Iron the books of an owner whose stable has been one of the most prominent in tht Grand Circuit for several years Ter horses are supposed to make up thu stable, as this is about the minimum al owner can carry and have starter il the different classes Some of these vii train off or fail to tarin into the form necessary to warrant starting at all st that an owner is fortunate if he is abl, to have one starter that looks like probable winner for each day of ; weekly meeting.
 A good trainer commands salary o about three thousand dollars year