The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-26
TURF CHATTER
BY BERT E. CoLLYER

Chicago, September 25.-From a mem Der of the Jockey club not given to "chattering' the writer has it ''There will be plenty of racing around New York next year" From the same source it is learned that thorough renovating of the solonatic body will be instituted at an early date and a buslness-like programme of procedure mapped out for campaign, the thumb-marks of which spell politics"
 The discontinuation of the sport in New York some three months earlier than the scehdule or at the first sign of a prob able deficit, by the solons of racing, has precipitated a world of comment pro and con. The spotlight anent all this was permanently turned from Saratoga, where the season was abruptly terminat- ed to Empire City, where, with the ces- sation of the running sport, a trotting meeting. run along lines palpably within the new law and backed by the publicly delivered good wishes of Governor Hughes ito a successful continuation. Is there any reason why a running meeting along correlatively similar lines should not have been given? If there is a reason it should be made public. If there is not, surely something else should be said.
 When a similar crux struck English racing two or three years ago, the re- formers were scared back into their holes by the dauntless advance of the most prominent men in the empire-including the then King, since alas, deceased-all of whom insisted that racing be let alone as sport of the people. Where were the men of this type in New York state when the utterly absurd, utterly ignorant crusade was started against racing? What was done to explain the situation to the people? What was the cause of the cringing collapse? Possibly it is best to drop this part of the subject here, the fact remains-the love of dividends out lasted the sport in the hearts of those want to be pointed to as pillars of the turf"
 When the trouble of the early '9os struck the running turf it was the trot- ting men who served as breakwater. It was a trotting man who framed the Percy-Gray bill, and forced it into law, with his marvellous Where no other pen alty Is provided" minimizing the charge
 
 standing this wholesale evasion of the spirit and intent of the law, we have prominent men galore who stood up and took their dividends without trernor. dividends amounting to over 60 per cent per annum, with books hidden from the Lexow committee as though the said books would have spread a pestilence through the ultra-virtuous body.
 The running men have stopped racing because there Is nothing in it," and be- cause they are afraid of being arrested" The trotting men have gone right ahead, racing within the law and standing ready for the test case" dead certain that in such an honest test case the conviction would be merely nominal. The fact that the trotting men are able to fulfill the first requisite of test case, l. G., to go into court with "clean hands," has not a little to do with their decision.
 Such are the beridden surroundings of the running racing in New York in 1910. If it is to be revived in 1911 it seems al- most certain that 1t will be with new men and under new surroundings. It will be purged of dirty alliances and 60 per cent dividends. The top heavy stakes, pro- mulgated for the benefit of the greedy millionaire private stallion" owner. will be eliminated; the purses will be equal ized, and at last after long years rac- ing will be a sport and not dirty in- cOrpordteu InOnopoiy, pduiy mhHdSeo, with fraud frequently winked at Cor not known when seen) by the incompetents in the seats of the mighty.
 After being raced for three seasons in the select society of the Grand circuit, the bay mare Bisa finally won @ race on the Big Ring. taking the 2:14 trot at Charter Oak park. reducing her record from 2:13H to 2:101z. and beating the bay gelding Beveraldo, who was supposed to have a first mortgage on first money in the event Bisa was first raced three years ago. when a s-year-old. by John Young, who trains the horses of Allen Farm. where she was bred. At that time she was up against the sensational Gen. eral Watts Sin both the Kentucky stake and the Kentucky futurity at Lexington. but she of all the high class S-year-olds out that year gave the General race and was second to him when he set the worlds record for his age at 2:06N. where 1t remained until Colorado B. trotted in 2:0615 at Readville.
 Bisa was not raced as 4-year-old and that astute Yankee reinsman, Walter Cox. purchased her for one of his patrons the following winter s12.ooo in cold cash for