Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-23
LOCAL HORSEMEN
ON THE SPEEDWAY
No Better Course of the Kind
in the Coun-
try.
OesirabiIity of Having the Local
Contests Earlier in the
Year.
By L. D. Sale.

The devotees of light harness sport again
demonstrated their devotion Tuesday by
being present in large numbers to witness
the trials of speed over the New Century
| speedway for the Phillips speed wagon.
And they were well repaid for their pains.
1t is unfortunate however, that the club
delayed the contests for the prize late in
the season. as the climate in this latitude in
December is always of an uncertain char
acter. None but genuine lovers of the
| horse would have ventured out Tuesday
while the mercury was tending toward the
zero point, much less stood on the cold,
sport proceeded
The contests themselves were interesting
from start to finish and several of the fin
ishes were close enough to be exciting.
The time made was excellent for the season
of the year, for horses do not perform as
well in cold weather is they do in midsum
mer, when they sweat out more freely and
cool out Jess rapidly. The next matinee
will take place on Christmas day and, If
the weather is not forbidding and the track
is in good shape, the contests should draw
hundreds to the course. When all is done
1t doubtless will occur to members of the
club that summer and early fall are bet
ter seasons for speed contests of the ma
tuye in which TIE club INDUCES than later
in the year.
There is no reason why the speedway
should not be in continuous use during the
summer and fall months, instead of being
practically deserted, as 1t was last sum-
mer. If it is racing pure and simple that
owners of horses want, the speedway is
at their disposal for the asking. But there
seems to be a notion in the minds of nearly
every man who owns a little speed that he
or rtJoh TO th1 opl c
spring appears and there "raZoo" his horse
around hard track until he has neither
legs nor anything else to recommend him
for the task to which he Is to be assigned.
1t Is not a pleasant thing to say, and
very unpleasant thing to know, but the alb
solute truth is that not over per cent of
the horses owned In the District of Column
bia are equal to the task of earning enough
money to pay their feed bills any race
track fifty miles from home. And yet men
who are counted shrewd on every other
business proposition will be found season
after season spending their valuable time
and their money racing horses that have
not a chance to win dollar unless the
| other mans horse drops dead.
X
The standard of speed Is being raised
higher each year Time was-and not so
long ago-when $50 and 2.25 trotters and
2.20 and 2.1S PAGERS could go out during the
county fair season and pick up quite
bunch of money. Those days are gone,
never to return. BY a course of scientific
breeding and development a new list has
been created. The 2. 10 class is becoming a
slow class for trotters, and the 10 class is
rapidly becoming a slow class Tor PAGERS.
The world moves and the harness horse
is keeping up with the procession. Good
horseS-horses that can go out and get the
money-are extremely high, and men who
desire to purchase horses with the inten
ton of racing them must bear in mind that
| if they want the finished article they must
pay the price 1t was the faculty of know
ing a good thing when he saw it and the
| nerve to pay the price that made the Jack
Crabtree string last season invincible.
The sum of 5000, paid for the once
erratic Nutboy. 2.07h, was but a fraction
| of what he earned for his owner in ninety
| days. which was upward of $4,000 in
| purses alone. A like sum was doubtless
pulled out of the pool box The little mare
Princine. that has recently shown a ca
! pacity to trot miles in better than 90.
| was offered to Washington man for
$1,000. He hagged about the matter and
backed and filled long that Crabtree
| stepped in and took her. Today she could
| paid for her. Another resident of Wash
, ington offered $1,000 for My Star. 2.O3%.
| The owner wanted 5000 for him The
Washington man hesftated so long in nall
| ing the offer that Crabtree stepped in and
| took the gelding. In his hands he paced to
| a worlds record for green PAGERS and more
| than earned his purchase price for his new
| owner before the season closed. The moral
| of this story is that the man who sees
horse he wants and allows few hundred
dollars to separate him from the animal
| he wants should not hesitate too long or
| he is lost. Men have been known to refuse
| to buy morse because the owner would
| not throw in the halter with the beast-a
| case where buyer and seller We're fools.
| kE
The fact that Washington has a speed
| way, the like Of which cannot be found
! elsewhere. will doubtless have a large in
| 1uence against the purchase of hoppled
PAGERS in the future. Not more than one
PAGER out OF five hundred that has worn
| hopples can race fast enough without them
! to warm his blood. Hoppled horses are of
| little or no account on speedways, as
| hopples are barred in actual contests As
1 the years come and go the speedway is
| bound to be the most popular course in
| Washington for men who own speed. Rul-
| ing out hoppled PAGERS therefrom will make
would-be purchasers more careful when
| they buy PAGERS, and, In the end, as speed
| ways are bound to multiply, the hoppled
| horse will gradually disappear. The reason
| for this is obvious. for when a horses USE
fulness on the track Is gone, nine times out
| Of ten he Is sent to the sales ring. II he
] can go to his clip without having his legs