Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-31

horse that has got the path, and even a
mutt has got to be pretty poor when this
back stretch IN mile races. ana It lasts all
the way around to the finish. The track
slopes In both directions. SO that the path
Pit to the outside in spots. It lie sort Of
divide" from which the water trickles
away on either side, consequently the path
dries out much faster than any other part
OF the track, particularly the part nearest
the inside rail- where the water remains in
pools and puddles, and where the going is
something unutterable for days after a
rain. 1t might easily be doubted IL
Sysonby, running close to that infield rail
at the Fair Grounds track after rain,
could beat a Sam Craig in possession of
the path. doing ANYTHING from jump to
four miles. 1t is not only that the path,
being at the crest of the track, dries out
more quickly than the other s1oping por-
lions of the track. but the exercise boys
breeding their mounts before and after and
during the races--between the races, that
Is to say-invartably take the path, and, In
go doing, beat It down until It is far and
away faster and safer than any other part
of the track On the Fair Grounds track
owners and trainers are allowed to exercise
their horses between the races, whether the
horses are due to run the next day or the
next week, or not at all during the meet
ing, so that between the Fair Grounds races
all sorts of animals in all sorts of conditions
are flying around the track all the time,
making 1t 0lfncult IL not lmpOSS1Die 10 us
tinguish the runners that are being warmed
up for their races. All of these exercised
horses are taken along the path, and they
pound the thick alluvial muck into sort
of easily distinguishable ditch or runway,
where the footing is infinitely better than
elsewhere.
THUS at the Fair Grounds the curious
spectacle is presented of boys swinging
their horses always for the middle of the
track at both turns, instead of sinking
along the rails, as Is the case almost every
where else, and thus saving ground. 1t
doesn't make any difference at the track of
the Crescent City Jockey Club how much
ground is saved. The boy idiotic enough
to skin the rail just about blows his mounts
chance of winning or even of getting into
the money. A bad horse, by taking the
path If he has enough speed to get 1t, can
travel a sixteenth of a mile farther In a
mile race than a good one anchored on one
side or other of the path, and come home
alone.
Reversals of Form.
All this makes for some queer spectacles
and some extraordinary reversals of form,
So called. A plug that is nothing better
than ordinary slX-furlong Splinter can
be slapped into a mile and a quarter race
and have every chance in the world Of
winning, solely on account of that path.
The Splinter has the early speed necessary
to permit of his grabbing the path at the
first turn into the back stretch, and then
wants to take, While the rest of the field
founder around behind him in the vicious
going, laboring hard at every jump The
Splinter can tire when he reaches his or
binary sprinting distance, but if he has
the path his firing doesn't cut the least
figure, for with a long lead he can begin
to back up all he wants to, his boy being
safe in the knowledge that the boys on
the other horses behind are fighting with
all their might for the path And in this
fight behind for the path there is all kinds
of humping and jostling and crowding and
rough riding that throws the contenders
for the path off their stride and causes
many of the horses to sulk and quit out
right, and then the mutt of Splinter
that has been quick enough to grab the
path at the outset swings home on the
bit, staggering and all out, at that, from
having been required to so a distance
greater than he has been used to.
/ saw positively funny eXemplifcation
of the way the path game works at the
Fair Grounds track one day last week.
Sea Voyage was the picked horse in his
race, on account of his weil-known early
speed. He looked far the best of his lot on
1.-THE dope" and the big operators took
him for thousands on the almost certain
chance that he would grab the path on the
first turn-for it was mile race, and
there were two turns to the path.
Sea Voyage made good in the matter OF
mailing the path. Quick as a cat on his
feet, he made 1t in half dozen jumps
after the turn into the back stretch was
reached, and then he went out like a cata-
maran in smart breeze, and took to just
loafing along in front, ten lengths to the
good, the rest of the field all strung out
like bunch of boys playing follow my
leader.
Good Thing Lost by Carelessness.
Turning into the stretch, however, and
still with what seemed like an acre OF day
light between him and the field behind,
Sea Voyage went wide. The boy on him
bnci
at the other youngsters and kidding
them to hold his horses head up and keep
the animal to the path The result was
that Sea Voyage, a hard-mouthed brute,
swerved away to the outside at the turn
into the stretch, and lost the path This
was exactly what a lot of the other
youngsters on the horses behind were wait
ing and hoping for
Almost in twinking-so rapidly, in
truth, that the shift all but bafied the
eye, and caused one to imagine that his
vision was going back on him-anothar
horse in the race, Extol, was actually ten
lengths in front of Sea Voyage and sweep
ing down the stretch, by the path route
simply alone and all by himself, looking
as if he meant to just go away and hide
from those other horses, including Sea
Voyage. And that's about what he did
Extols boy had been the lucky one to nail
the path when Sea Voyages imbecile lad
had permitted the horse to swing OUT of
the path, and then there was nothing to
hadn't been for the path. Sea Voyage
even if he had swung wide, wouldn't have
lost one-quarter much ground as he
did, and, strong he finished, he would
easily have regained the lost ground in
the long run down the stretch. But in
stances in which horse at the Fair
Grounds once having lost the path, gets
it again and wins his race, are about as
rare as 500-to-1 shots.
Liberal Odds Offered
The prices offered by the bookmakers at
both tracks seem remarkably liberal to the
man used to playing the horses only IN
the north There very few odds-on
choices, considering the wide differences
existing in the form of horses clapped into
the same race. The bookmakers make in
dependent states for themselves, and there
is no Sol Lichtenstein or George Wheelock
to slap up 80-per- favor of the book
prices and get all the rest of the layers
to slavishly copy their odds
The jockeys riding at the new, or City
Park track are far better in general grad
ing than the lads taking mounts at the
Fair Grounds More good horses are
aside from the path business, beaten at |
oil on, ne