The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-10
QUITTING SELLERS
Glass Horses Being Kept Out OF
Cheap Events in N. Y.
Short Grass Best Finisher on
American Turf Today.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, July 10.-Horse owners
operating in New York state are be-
ing cured gradually of the habit of
racing class horses in the cheap SELL
ing events. But the treatments are
o,,ite extensive. Very often it has
cost an owner more money to retain
winning horse than the purse that was
won.
Just the other day an owner entered
a horse worth at least $1,000 in a
$500 selling event. That horse out
ahead. The purse amounted to some
thing like $3.50. For a few moments
that owner was quite gleeful over the
coup he had engineered. Then ne
realized his folly.
Other horsemen began bidding Tor
his steed. Up and up went the price
The owner didn't want to part with MS
horse and so he had to meet each new
boost. He finally kept his racer by
bidding something like S1,2O5. That
meant he had to turn over to the rae
ing association the difference between
$400-the entered price-and $l'zoe,
a loss of $805 against the gain OF
$3.50 purse.
When a horse is bid UP and retained
by his owner, the owner turns over TO
the racing association the difference
between the entered price and the last
money pro rata among the owners OF
all the other horses that ran in the
race. Naturally, the owners of beaten
horses always are joyful when Win
ner is bid up and retained
Costly to 'Sharpers:''
Earlier in the season the sharp
owners. gambling against the chance
of other horsemen bidding for their
horses, were successful. But the prac-
tice became so common after time
that men who owned nothing but
cheap platers became peeved. They
put in bids for the winning horses
that were raced out of their class. 1t
frequently happened that three or four
winners each day were bid up.
Very often it has happened that the
! auction price of a horse has jumped
to double or triple the figures for
which he was entered to be sold. In
the majority of cases, the owners have
retained their ponies, but nearly al
ways it cost them more than they won
in the race.
However, this unfair trick of enter
ing $1,000, $1,000 or $500 horses in
| $500 and $500 races has ceased grad
| uaIly during the past few weeks. The
| slick owners have learned their lesson.
| The races are becoming tighter 1t
| isn't so much case of one class horse
against a field of dubs. as it was be-
| fore. Most of the fields are uniform
! being made up of horses that be-
| long to the same class and, of course,
| the spirit of racing has been revived
again.
Great Stretch Horse.
Short Grass, an Irish horse owned
| by Emil Herr, ranks today as the
greatest finisher in the country. Moth
| ing approaching him has been seen on
the tracks this year. Many veteran
/ turfmen regard him as the best of all
| time.
Short Grass hasn't won many races
this year merely because his jockeys
| have made the horrible blunder OF
keeping him too far in the rear before
the turn is reached, or timing his
squirt bit too late. The endurance OF
that imported thoroughbred is mar
velous
typical instance of what he can
do was shown in the running of the
Carter handicap at Aqueduct on In
dependence day. A quarter of a mile
from the finish, he seemed hopelessly
| last in an eleven horse field. Ahead
great George Smith, Phosphor, the
Splinter. San Marsh, Harry Shaw,
Trial by Jury, Ormesdale, Gamer, CO.
| quette and Gillies-every one of whirI-
1 wind.
Four hundred yards from the finish
! line and nearly ESQ feet in the rear
that was Short Grass position when
he was called upon to loosen the won
derful speed that is in his legs. And
/ how he did goi In six strides he had
passed Gillies and Coquette; in a half
dozen more he shot past Gailer and
High Noon. While the huge crowd
| thunderd its encouragement, Short
! Grass passing the trailers one by one,