The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-28
KEEPING POSTED AT THE RACES

KEEPING POSTED AT THE RACES. A Plea for Some Device to Tell Which |
 Horse Is in Front. "All of this talk lately about the in- lvention of some scheme whereby the spectators at ball games can be in- formed, by signals of the umpire or an electrically manipulated indicating board, whether the umpire has called ball or a strike reminds me that the exploiters of the big races don't ap- pear to take much pains to give peo- pie patronizing them any idea of what is actually going on," observed the man with the travelled stogie, says 'The Washington Star.
 Now, take the racing game. How many people at a race track ever know where the horse they have play ed is in a race at any stage of it, ex- cept at the finish? About one in five hundred, I should say. That's about the proportion of people who go to races with field glasses-one in five hundred. And it isn't any ciach that all of the people with field glasses al- ways follow the race intelligently, They can't be expected to know all of the colors, and are bound to get them mixed up. I have often asked fellows Iwith field glasses focused on the horses to tell me what horse was out in front and they couldn't tell me, merely because they didn't know They only had an eye througia the glasses for the horse they were play ing themselves, and for none of the others.
 Standing in the grand stand or on the concrete space or lawn in front of the stand, not one man in hundred can watch the progress of ace wit1 Iany real understanding of what is coming off. Maybe he can see the lcolors of the horse he is himself play ing if he has a keen paid of eyes, but most generally he can't, All hands crowd forward and crane their necks when it is announced that the horses are off, but, as I say very few of them actually see the relative posi- tions of the horses at the various stages of the journey. All the most people who visit race tracks see is the f1nish-the few bounds right at the end of the race, and even then a great many of them, not thoroughly familiar with the colors, can't really tell the order In which the horses have finished until the numbers are posted.
 "On straightaway courses, of which there are many in New York, even the fellows with the glasses have great difficulty in following the progress of a race, and only the men in the press blk, the expert who know all of the colors and have been at the game for years, are able to pick out the flying horses as they sweep down these straighaway tracks.
 When race is on at Benning, for instance every man is asking his neighbor, from the instant the "They'- re off goes, Who's in front?" and Where's So-and-So?' and Whats that mutt out in front there? and Is there a plug with all-wi1ite colors anywhere near the front?' and all that sort of Ithing. Most of them turn away com pletely dlsgusted with their unavail- llllN SlLOlls lO illIu pul dlly IlllllS dUQul the progress of the race while 1t is on and simply await dumbly the time when the horses get to the sixteenth Ipole, when they hope, by the exercise of a good deal of sharpness of vision or by overhearing the comments of some knowing ones, to find out some thing about the running
 Tt is really an invisible game, rac- Ii ing as it is now carried on, to all intents and purposes, so far as the vast majority of race track visitors are concerned.
 Why then, s31ouldnt some scheme be put in operation to remedy this condition of things?
 Tt would be almost absurdly easy. at that, when you come to think of it. Some fellow with a bull voice could manipulate huge megaphone from the judges stand or from any position directly in front of the grandstand Alongside of this chap could be one of the experts who is familiar with all of the colors, and he could tip the mega phone man off as to the relative posi- tions of the first three horses in the race at every stage of 1t from begin ming to end just as the race is called off in poolrooms. The plan may sound undignified and all that, but I'm lay ing good hat that about nineteen twentiett1s of the people who visit Benning would appreciate such an ar- rangement hull heap, all the same It would do away iwth the necessity for one to prod his neighbors and ask fool questions about the running that the neighbor doesn't know any more about than the prodder and it would give everybody a chance to know just where their bets stand and how they stand from beginning to finish. Cab hage at the three-quarters by length and going easy Carrots second by half-length and curling up. Smokerino third that's the way they do it in poolrooms, and you'll find many keen racing man who has been with the game most of his life who will tell you that he infinitely prefers to play the horses in a well set up poolroom than at a racetrack. on account of the superior comfort of 1t and because when it is announced that the horses are off In a race he knows that he is going to get better l..