Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1911-04-07
THINKS RACING IS KILLED.

as a breeder Of the thoroughbred horse
and successful winner on the English turf,
recently said while in New York:
II think horse racing in this country is
killed altogether because of this legislation.
| do not think it will ever recover.
mo. Without betting, think horse
racing in the United States is ended for
good Betting is thing that will never
be stopped. If a man cannot bet one way,
he will another. There is gambling going
on in business. Take life insurance. for
instance. You bet that you are going to
die at a certain time. The insurance COM
pany bets that you won't. The whole
thing is gamble all the way through"
The Chicago Horse Review. the foremost
journal published in the interest of the
lieht-harness horse, makes the following
sharp criticism Of the methods which
brought about the downfall of the racing
of the thoroughbred:
AN announcement was made last week
by ths officials OF he eastern JOCKEY Cub.
the areanization which controls thorough
bred racing over the metropolitan tracks
md Others affiliated with diem, hat no
Meeting "a be held q, those courses this
season. The fat marks the virtual, if
somewhat belated. finale of the downfall
of running racing in this country. The
debacle is now complete. so far as the east
is concerned-and with the east out of
the contention the situation becomes an
other drama of Hamlet minus the melan-
choly Dane.
IN making this announcement, Mr..
August Belmont, the chairman of the
Jockey Club, INDUCED in some rather Bit
ter remarks directed against those people
or parties to whom the suppression of
racing is attributed. The substance of
these animadversions was that the cutlery
against gambling had been used only as a
cloak. that the real object of the move
ment had been not to suppress gambling,
but TO kill racing itself, that this object
had now been attained and that farther
racing has been rendered impossible until
rational legislation, the outgrowth Of the
reaction against present conditions, bound
to occur at some future time, comes to the
aid of the sport.
We could easily write book, instead
of a brief editorial, upon the collapse Of
thoroughbred racing, its causes and con-
sequences. But we will confine ourselves
only to a few observations The first of
these is that the hypocrisy which Mr.. Bel
mont charges as having actuated those
who conducted the warfare against the
running race tracks is not without fOunda-
ton. We never have believed, and we do
not now believe. that altruistic yearnings
for the propagation of the 'uplift' and the
improvement of public morals were behind
the movement. 1t was a POLITICAL not a
social or moral movement. so far as those
who engineered it were concerned. Poll
tics had become putrid in the Empire
State. They positively reeked with cor
ruption, and housekeeping was in order.
At such times ascendant rings and COM
bines are usually ousted by some other
insurrectionary combine which seizes upon
the most plausible pretext which it can
blazon upon its banner as the watchword
of great reform movement In the case
under consideration it was the race tracks
which were pressed into this role-and so
effectually did they perform the necessary
service that the 'reformers' rode into power
as on a tidal wave, which wave, at the
same time that it retired the 'stalwarts
from the seats of the mighty. swept the
race tracks upon the rocks and left them
there. mass of wreckage.
THE ancient adage is to the effect that
The rain falleth upon the just andthe I'M
just alike And the Jockey Club has en-
deavored to take refuge behind it and pose
as an innocent victim of political expedi-
ency which masqueraded as reform. That
it has been a victim there is no gainsayine.
But an innocent victim that is an alto
gether different matter. On the contrary,
only an innocent could for moment en-
terrain any such proposition. The fact is
that the Jockey Club had invited its own
downfall-may, indeed, be said to have
deserved what has been visited upon il.
The form of entertainment which it was
offering to the public long since had ceased
TO be sport in anything but name. Il
was game pure and simple. whose be-all
and end-all was to get the money'-that
and only that; and SO long as by hook OF
crook the money was got, how this was
done mattered nothing provided the police
or the magistrate did not interfere. The
high-fiown rhodomontade about improving
the breed of horses which the Jockey Club
used as a front had ceased to deceive
anyone and become matter Of common
jest. and sport, except as a ghost, had
ceased to be present at its councils Under
its egis racing had come to exist solely
so far as the public was concerned. as q
means Of gambling and the race tracks
and horses themselves were no more than
the apparatus Of faro or roulette.
Had the truly sporting aspect Of thor
ouehbred racing been carefully conserved
and interest in it as such fostered, 1t NIGH
have survived. But the public had beer
sedulously educated to consider that it ex
listed solely as vehicle for the betting o.
money upon long shots and good things.
How well they have been thus educated
was shown when an attempt was made t.
conduct racing without betting undel
these conditions not enough people could
be induced to pay admission fees to q
track to meet its expenses for upkeep. tC
say nothing Of paying purses and stakes
What is more, owners Of running horse:
had been SO thoroughly imbued with the
idea that the only reason for campaignin,
stable was the possibility Of the gain.
TO be made in the betting ring by putin,
one over the plate that II was impossible t.
interest them in it upon any other basis
Without support either from the puhlic nj