The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-04-23

Although horse racing Is the sport of
| kings, Of late It has fallen in evil lines
In most of the states IT the n.ion il is
unlawful to bet on races, and therefore
races are not ru.L Tennessee IS mo last
state to put up the legal bars but in
that case an attempt will be made to
have a bettingless meeting. Missouri and
Illinois and Indiana nad ii hard fight to
enforce the ant-raee track gambling laws
but they were enforced, arr in those
states racing is no mere.
In only eight states is racing now car
ried on-this refers to ruaniilg races of
course-but there are few others where
| racing is legal and may be instituted at
any time. New York. Kentucky, Louis
lana, California, Oregon, Montana, Mary
land and the District of Columbia are
now the cities of refuge" for the ponies,
the jockeys and the touts. In Massachu-
sets there are the steeplechases, which
are great annual events. In Pennsylvania
and Delaware there is an effort being
made to get laws which will permit rae
ing on an easy basis. In Georgia the
laws are favorable, but there has been
little racing.
early homes of the thoroughbred, and
Charleston was the site of the first reg
ular race course in this country. A prop
ositiol to construct a course at Charles
ton and to rehabilitate racing there Is
now being considered. Virginia has put
up the legal barriers. Kentucky is the
only one of the old-tlme breeding states
which stil permits racing, and the Blue
Grass state is now the home of the best
horses in the world.
The decadence of racing is probably
chargeable to the two things that have
done more than anything else to aid the
progress of other sports and endeavors-
the newspaper and the telegraph. These
two made the pool room possible and the
pool room has proved an unmiXed evil.
1t has ruined thousands by its attractions
for gambling, it has injured racing and it
has brought genuine sportsmen into dis
repute. If ii had not been for the evils
of the pool room there is little doubt that
racing would have as high standing now
as it had forty years ago. The pool
rooms not only brought public opinion to
bear against the race track, but its eff
feet on racing itself was pernicous. The
all-the-year racing, the interminable num-
Der of cheap races, and the almost incred-
tble multiplication of scandals may DE
traced, in large part to the pool room,
the hand book, and all the other devices
of the get-rch-quiek race gamblers.
The Development of the thoroughbred
in the Chited States makes a story of
absorbing interest. Bule Rock was tie
first blooded horse brought to America.
so far as authentic records establish. He
was sired by the barley Arabian first
dam by Byerly Turk, was foaled in Eng
land in 171S and imported into Virginia
in 1870 by Samuel Patton and Samuel Glst
For many years Virginia and the Caro-
linas were the only colonies which inter
ested themselves in horses for sport. Their
citizens were sprung from the gay cava-
liers, and they inherited their love of
sport from their fathers. In New Eng
land the stern Puritan blood frowned
upon almost every kind of diversion. In
New York the Dutch were content to sit
on the stoop with pipe and mug. The
first horses of any kind brought to Amer
lea came with Columbus on his second
voyage in 1888 The first horses landed
in what is now the United States were
put off on the coast of Florida In 1927
by Cabeza de Yaca These became the
founders of the race of wild horses in
America. jamestown received a stallion
and six mares in 1909. the New Neither
lands had work horses from Amsterdam
sixteen years later, and in 1920 there was
cargo Of utility horses landed at Bos-
ton.
But the jamestown colony was to be
the one to foster the blooded horse. Tho
name of every member of the original
kings council of jamestown appears IN
the American Stud Book their descen-
dants being owners of thoroughbred stall
lions or mares-so general was the breed
ing industry gone into by the sons of the
original Virginians. Lath and Wildair
were two thoroughbreds imported into
New York about 1865 by Mr.. Delaney
but they later went to Virginia also.
Regular racing meetings were held in
Virginia as early as 1885, and George
Washington's name appears as a Judge
at a race meeting before he won his
laurels in the French and Indian war in
1853
However, the first actual racing organ
zation was formed in Charleston, S. c.,
on February 10. 1850. A club vas organ
lied and a course laid out and named
Newmarket course. This was followed
in 1891. Immediately after the formation
of the government under the constitution,
by the brilliant South Carolina Jockey
club. This club had a wonderful career
and its house was the very capitol of
the sporting fraternity of America for
NEGRO KILLS SHOOK