The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-03-29
SAMPLERS AND THE TRoTTERs.

Purchase of Dr. Strong Between Heats
 at Readville Cause of His Deser-
 tion.
 Is D. E. Smathers sincere in his in- tention to abandon tie trotting turf, and, if so, what caused the New York CT to quit the light harness horse game? asks the Chicago Tribune's Memphis correspondent. Smathers has been one of the leading owners on the Grand Circuit for several years and was a plunger< Perhaps the largest single wager he made was on the field against Boralma to win the Transylya- mia, and after betting twenty thousand dollars with Thomas w. Lawson, own CT of Boralma, Smathers offered to bet fifty thousand dollars that the Bostoni- an's horse would be defeated, but Law son declined to accept the latter wager
 There were few professionals who could drive horse better than Sma- liners, and often during the Grand Cir cult meetings he would be seen in al sulky in the forenoon working cat some of his horses. His stable was successful last year, the most promi- nent members of his string being Ma, jor Delmar, 1:59 If; John NJ, POP 3-4; Sphinx s., 2:05 IA, and Dr. Strong, 2:07 1-2. John M. was a pacer,. conee- ded to be the King pin'' of side wheel CTS. This horse won sixteen races in 1903 and retired at the end of that sea son with an unbaaten record. While not so successful in 1904, he won the lions share of the races in which he started. < The Smathers horses were not only successful in professional races. but also in amateur events, Major Delmar. winding up last season by winning the gold cup ill straight heats from the. trotting queen, Lou Dillon. Some per- sons think that Smathers quit the trot-5 ters to devote all of his spare time to his big stable of runners. That may be the reason, but others think that buy ing Dr. Strong out of the Massachu- setss stakes at the Readville meeting last summer was the real cause of his whispered around that he would be called before the board of review to. explain the purchase of the horse. <
 sniathers Wagered twenty-five thou-5 sand dollars that the gray trotter5 would win the big stake, but when George C., driven by Ed Geers, won the first heat, Smathers grew doubtful of the ability of Dr. Strong to win with Gahagan driving him. He parted with eight thousand dollars to buy the horse after the first heat, and put up his own driver, George Spear. Dr. Strong failed to connect with the long end of the purse that day, but proved a good money winner later in the season.
 During the 1903 Lexington meeting. Srnathers played Caspian heavily to win the Pennsylvania race. but Kent :loonled up as a dangerous factor and he bought Kent out to protect the mon, ey he had already Wagered., This sale during the progress of the race caused a great deal of talk and the National Trotting association passed a rule pro- hibiting the repetition of such a traSp saction. The Readville sale of Or. Strong to Smathers became known to the judges, who held a meeting in Bos- ton that night to consider what should be done, but the president of the asso- citation requested the judges not to take action on the matter, and while given a little publicity at the time it was hushed up as soon as possible.