The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-12
AMERICAN RAGING
BY PhINEAs FLETCHER.

There Is no sport that has a greater fol- l owing among representative Americans than that of horse racing and It's devotees are enthuiastic. actuated by no other mo. i've than the development of blooded stock and the promotion of sport on a nigh plane. In an article emitted .,Deh- sions of the Racetrack," which appears in Ine Cosmopolitan Magazine for January MT. David Graham Philips attacks the sport and it's promoters and has aroused wave of indignation and protests from every section of the country
 In racing there are no sectional lines and the country is practically united in | it's favor especially since it is being con- ducted on the present plan under the con trol and direction of representative men | of character, wealth and intelligence There Is feeling of pleasure and pride | in watching the speedy flight of the well l trained thoroughbred that permeates the l heart Of every man and the victories that have followed the careful breeding from l sires and dams, famous in turf history. 1 make up a record that Is not confined to l our own continent but has even plueked | the grand prizes of the English turf It is l very poor American who was not proud when an American bred horse ridden bv an American jockey won the famous 1 Derby.
 MT. Philips sees nothing in all this. but | declares that the breeding of American l horses Is not helped or encouraged by it MT. Philips is not speaking frankly and l when he declares that the movement in this country toward improving the breed l of thoroughbreds has only an inszdenta1- l practically an accidental, connection with racing" he states what he knows to be l untrue.
 Nothing can be more absurd than inc statement If we had to look for the de- | yelopment of our breed of horses to the raeetraek. with It's killing speed and its merciless sacrifices of two year oids, we s.-ould soon have 8 retrograde breed weak, deformec, shortlived." And vet 1 rom these very two year olds come the very best American horses Their laurels won on the racetraek, they are in l their later years the sires and dams of more two year olds, who exceed them in | speed and endurance and the breed in stead of deterioratlng is getting better and stronger every year. It Is not many | " .rs since there was d demand for | sprinting horses that might have been in l tnls category described by Mir Philips but the demand and the breed of the racehorse of toeGty are for long distance. strength endurance and intelligence and | the weak, deformed and shortlived' have no place in this class.
 According to MT. Philips Ito gamble is the great, fundamental, the real object | of the racetrack" If the winning of tha purses is gambling is it not one of the eets and if this is gambling there is gambling in every pursuit intellectual or athletic. for the winning of prizes of one kind or another is characteristic of them a. and the prizes may be in cash or in the shape of valuable cup Among the men who are known to the world as the leaders Of the turf, the men who own and coh1roi the racing interests the owners n pafrR
 Who ever wager cent on the result of the race.
 @hey ind their pleasure in the success mat attends the careful training and breeding of their horses and a racing sta ble cannot be c'assed as a money maker because there are a few owners who do not find the balance on the wrong side of the bookT at the end of the year. It is the eleanest sport today in America and kept so by the most rigid set of rules that can be devised
 MT. Philips has also used some very in- temperate language in describing the at- tendance. He says Each racing day the attendance is from ten to thirty or forty tic usand There is in the crowd A sprinlx ling of really respectable people. lovers of out door sport; there is a sprinkling of
 more or less reputable people directly and | indirectly connected with racing But al- so all the jungles of vice and crime have been emptied of their cowardly beasts of prey-the keepers and patrons of dens and diVes, the political heeleFs, the thriving police officers. the most offensive ele- ments in the city"
 1 Ihefe was never anything written that IS less true than this description of the crowds in attendance at the racetracks of today. The sprinklings, he says there are two in the crowd will any day Tn the rac- Ing season make up more than a majority of the crowd, and if any element is con- splcuous by it's absence from racetracks 1t Is the criminal element
 Yet Mir. Philips says in the crowd are
 thousands of young men neglecting their w5rk, wasting their small earnings. pre- pairing themselves for the desperate state or mind in which accounts are falsifed, tllls tapped. pockets picked and the black jack of the highwayman yielded" The eNaggeration indulged in by Mr. Philips Is so apparent that it destroys the force of what he has said. The crowds that attend the races are representative, there are the same sort of people one meets at the theatre, in the best restaurants the best | hotels, in the office and business houses | and ones own club
 | The smallest element in the crowd is the l gambling element and if the young or the youngest men MT. Philips describes are really preparing themselves for the cayeer he sees in their futures they are doing it In the poolrooms and not at the race tracks and it is safe to say that no such state of alfafs CT one approaching 1t real | 1y exists.
 | ltorseracing i. a healthy sport 1t has become one of the great American insti- tltions, it is honestly conducted and man. aced and it has come to stay
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