Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-26
DEATH At THE TRACK
Thoroughbreds That Have to
Be Killed.
MISHAP TO P ACETTl
SIMILAR OCCURRENCE TO AN
ORNAMENT COLT.
Peril to Horses and Jockeys in the
Observation-Disclosures
of a Veteran Trainer.

In the first steeplechase run at the Ben
ming track during the present meeting
horse was so badly hurt that he had TO De
DESTROYED on the following day to put MIN
out of his misery. The horse was haneu
Pacetti. He was the rank outsider IN the
hetting. but he made the l to favorite, a
horse named The Lad, stretch his neck
all the way to the very last jump, to winch
obstacle Pacetti led by clear daylight Al
ter going over the final hedge Pacetu was
seen TO falter, and he rapidly fell back I'M
til all the horses still on their feet passed
him. The jockey on Pacett pulled the IN
iured horse up in the stretch and dlsnouht-
ed There was a hole in one of Pacett
shoulders big enough to hold clinched hst.
The horse had after getting over the last
Jump, swerved into one OF the outJattlhs
fence posts and ruined himself The jockey
led Pacettt past the stand to the paddock,
the horses blood squirting on to the track In
thick streams with every step ne TOOK.
Highstrung women In the stano Who
couldn't help but see 1t all dissolved INTO
tears over the spectacle, and even rugged
phlegmattc race followers turned away un-
able to gaze at sad a sight.
similar occurrence that took place at
the Benning meeting a couple OF years ago
had a painful impression upon those VINO
witnessed It. The horse that then met his
death in the full view of thousands OF per-
sons in the grand stand wasn't mucn OF an
animal. viewed from the standpoint or what
the turfman calls class but he was
willing and game little colt-by Ornament
that always did the best he knew.
The field in which the colt ran was Dig
one and right within ten yards or the wire
the little horse, getting the worst of lot
of extremely rough riding, was damned
against the inner rail. His nigh front foot
struck hard against the bottom OF a ran
post, and the colt was done 1or. his aLhie
.1-a.+. hot li.
The field swept past the judges stand, the
doomed colt bravely trying to hobble on
three legs after the flying horses. But the
agony was too great for him, ana ne prop
ped himself pltiably against the ran anu
whinnied.
At a nod from the judges stand track
policeman stepped across the course, pulled
his service gun, and, in full sight or the
great holiday crowd in the grand stand, put
a bullet between the suffering colt eyes.
The colt Ieaped into the air, with much
the same sort of convulsive forward fling
az Is made by man planted against
wall and shot at by rife armed execution
party, and fell over on his side, dead.
little while after the colt had fallen
and the crowd had gone away from the
track q midget of seventy-pound stable
how. a freckle-faced tyke still in his child
hood for all his brave showing on the backs
of race horses, who had ridden the low
lying colt on the occasion of the only VIC
tory the horse had ever achieved, raced
across the field from the stables, knuckling
his eyes, from which the tears were stream
ing. The little chap In the garish sweater
tumbIed beneath the rail out upon the track
and fell in a heap across the dead colt
neck sobbing with all the wildness of
child'S despair
Even the self-contained turfmen standing
around couldn't refrain from coughing bit
suspiciously behind their hands at that gen.
timely affecting picture. Some of them,
rough chaps who would almost rather have
been shot themselves than exhibit the emo
Il III flany,x lnlyn
and cursed In their throats to give them
selves countenance before their fellows.
The Death of Highball.
The death on a New York track. by a
similar accident, of that marvellous thor
oughbred Highball, couple of seasons ago,
was a thing that nobody who witnessed it
could ever forget No man or woman
with a normal sense of pity, viewing the
helpless misery of the lion-hearted High
ball-Wjlling as he whinnied that he was,
TO 60 on and continue his race on the three
legs left to him, and with his doom upon
hinl-wiu ever be able quite to efface the
moving and painful impression OF that
scene. Many of the holiday visitors who
saw it have never visited race track since.
On the way back to New York from the
races that afternoon scores of overwrought
women were heard to VOW and declare that
they would never again look at a race as
of men occasional track visitors, not In
famed with the betting spirit, who an
nounced that they. too, had had enough Of
racing.
But 1t Is the steeplechase race that keeps
many impressionable people entirely away
from race tracks. Plenty OF renowned
turfmen, whose prophecies in other respects
have come true time and again, are pre-
dieting nowadays that the steeplechase
race will not endure much longer. Holiday
visitors at race tracks no longer care to
see men and horses risking broken necks
and backs with such wanton recklessness
as riders and animals must practice in
steeplechase races. It Is too much like
looking at a bullfight, and American folk
don't take the delight that some other
peoples do in witnessing spectacles that
SAVIOR of the cruel
It is q perfectly safe assertion that not
one-quarter of the people seated In the
Benning grand stand nowadays ever really
look at a steeplechase race.
The women, especially, deliberately turn
their backs upon races OF this kind. They
simply fear TO see men and horses going
down at the Jumps People don't visit
race tracks TO have their nerves tortured