The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1914-03-12
RACE HORSE FAMINE.
Campaigners Foresee Death OF Trot-
ters and Police In This County.

America is facing a race horse fam
! inc. This is the belief of many n.ol
who follow the campaigning trottel
and PAGER as pleasure or as live
| lihood Some believe that it alread,
/ has arrived Along this spring, whet
the entry lists for the Grand Circuit
close, it will appear that the fears Of
any such thing have been groundless
There will be horses enough named
Geers, Cox, Murphy, Snow, Mcdonald
and Andrews will have cough at frs
glance to insure good-sized fields all
the way down the line When race
day comes. however. il will take the
offerings of the trainers who hayt
small stables to fill out the programs
The fact is that at the present time
there is not a trainer who regularly
follows the Grand Circuit. bat that has
commissions to buy stake and class
material that he cannot fill, says
Frank G. Trott in the Boston Globe
Murphy has been buying literally, bu,
he has no more orders than several
other men He simply buys. In 1872
he spent more money for trotters than
for the 1914 season, and just one
horse, Mundy c., landed a race last
year That the others did not make
good cannot be charged to Toms lack
of judgment
The leading money-winning aged
trotters of 1913 were not the ones that
were on the market before the cam
paign opened. With the PAGERS it was
the other way, and the Poughkeepsie
trainer out of the half dozen that he
paid something like 100000 for Sc
cured the top notch money getter.
Joe Marley, "Marque," who as a
member of the Horse Review staff, is
constantly travelling, is one of the
men who sees the famine coming Joe
has the excellent habit of looking or
the bright side of life. so that his
views expressed in the following arti-
Gle cannot be taken as those of Il ca
! lamity however:
Il have been giving the racehorsl
situation some sober thought anc
study of late and | have reached the
\ hot CT
now there will be a dearth OF trotters
and PAGERS in this country. | loot
for racehorse famine such as VT
have never previously experienced
and | look for the prices of even or
binary performers to more than dou
| Bile.
! Let us analyze the causes and rea
sons. With the advent of the automo
bile and its now general usage. cam,
new era and almost revolutionary
| change in respect to the horse as {
roadster and the means of transporta
! ton. For time we didn't feel thu
change. it being so gradual. but with
in three years after autos became pop
ular, we found that the pleasure horse
was being put practically out of bust
ness. Prices for our by-product
meaning horses not good enough Il
race but thoroughly desirable fol
/ driving, fell, and as time went on the,
were displaced almost entirely by the
machines This is a sad acknOWledg
/ ment but every one knows that it Is
true, so why not state it plainly?
LAS a consequence our indifferen
trotters and PAGERS had lost prestige
and one source of revenue to oul
| breeders was materially reduced, foi
such horses became useful only foi
| business purposes requiring the haul
age of light wagons.
But the greater harm is yet to b,
reckoned with Thousands upof
thousands of men used to use stand
ard-bred mares which they used FOL
driving purposes, and eventually, ow
ing to their owners fondness for then
and wish TO perpetuate their gooC
qualities, the majority of these mares
were bred
I'VE are beginning to feel the ef
fects from the causes cited. and VIII
/ in five years more we will eXperienc,
a veritable horse famine, because by
that time good ones will be scarcel
/ than ever, despite the fact that there
are more meetings held than ever be
fore in the history of the harness turf
more demand for racehorscs anC
greater opportunity for them to ear
money On that score we need no
be alarmed. Our sport has not los
it's popularity and so long as this Il
true, we may be certain that the sup
ply of racehorses will be filled at leas
fairly we'll
II look upon the situation which
have described as only temporary, AM
not permanent. but | do believe tina
in about five years the smaller am
less important meetings will have L
be content with much slower time am
far less capable racing material thar
is now available. The ordinary horse
that is not considered quite gooC