Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-04
THE P|CKET'S
RACE SIGNIFICANT
Classic Winner in 1904 in Fine
Form and to Be Worked
for Suburban.

NEW YORK, June 4--smaI though the
field for the Jockey Club weight forage
stake today may be, 1t will be all the better
in that it will tend to make of this always
interesting feature a true run contest
Whether 1t is worth while for the owner
of dangerous candidate for Suburban hon.
ors to run him today and risk penalty for
the far more desirable classic Is for such
owner to decide
AS 1t happens, The Picket. one of the
probable starters today, Is handicapped at
100 pounds. and under the conditions of the
Suburban he Will take UP only half the four
pounds penalty which a victory today
would impose for the Suburban. Hence 1t
is that this good horse, who has outlived
on the turf scores of his contemporaries
of three seasons ago. may today be the
winner of Observation-Disclosures race and that
may not to any appreciate extent injure
his Suburban chances. 1t may, on the otner
hand, help him for that race.
De Mund's Fast Trial Before Race.
There Is no doubt that the task of train
ing high-priced racer for a given event
is fraught with great responsibility, and
hence when a good colt like De Mund runs
phenomenally fast trial at three furlongs
one day before his stallion stake engage
ment, as Is said to have been the case with
Mr. Rainey's $4,000 colt, some excuse
might be given for his defeat In the stake
on Saturday. His trainer never intended
to have De Mund worked so fast. it Is
said. but the exercise boy could not re-
strain the colt hence the unnecessarily fast
trial, which, in the opinion of good horse
men. would make some difference to De
Mund for his race next day.
This does not by any means weaken the
general argument of old horsemen who
maintain that early maturity means also
early decay, and as the season advances
other two-year-olds as yet unheard of may
beat most of those now before the public.
1t Is only In accordance with precedents.
One gratifying feature of the weeks rae
ing at Belmont Park Is the good work at
the barrier AS far as could be seen no
horse was beaten by the start during the
week, which of itself Is refreshing OF
course much of this is due to the fact that
the jockeys realize that at Belmont Park
the start is not necessarily everything In
the two-year-old races there Is hardly any
doubt that the best horses have been in the
placed division right along. This is one
fact which tends to reconcile the public to
80 many straightaways, only a part of
which can be seen to the satisfaction of the
onlooker. The essential part is. however
that which occurs during the last quarter
mile, and the occupants of the field stand
as well as of the grandstand see all the
best parts of these races,
Abuses Of Selling Races.
Abuses of the privileges enjoyed by men
who owe their whole existence to the turf
are met with daily Was 1t ever contem-
plated by the persons who devised selling
race conditions that man could day after
day send to the post animals not alone far
outclassed. but actually unfit to start, &C.
cording to the evidence of capable witnesses
apparently for the sole purpose of claiming
good horses beaten in selling races?
This Is alleged to have been done over
and over again, and when the officials have
been asked to adjudicate on the matter
they have declared themselves helpless.
Rather than that men should be con-
tinually mulcted by the adventures of the
turf the entire conditions In which selling
races are framed should be revised. Time
was when the well-known abuses connected
with selling races were rebuked openly by
prominent racing men, who bid high upon
horses entered at far less than their real
value. They did not bid for the purpose OF
reselling at profit, but to demonstrate to
greedy horse owners that they were taking
advantage OF the great majority of turfmen
by entering their horses at ridiculously low
figures Such a campaign II now in force
would be welcomed, but no one desires to
see the riff-raff of the turf practically black
mailing wealthy turfmen.