The Washington herald., 1918-11-12
MILITARY RACE
A BIG FEATURE
Manager O'Hara Of Bowie
Meeting Will Stage Race
for Mead Officers.

Baltimore. Md. Nov 1.-General
Manager James f. O'Hara. of Prince
Georges Park. Bowie, where the
Southern Maryland Agricultural As
sociation will conduct the getaway
race meeting of the season OF 1918,
November n to 30, Is i'm communica-
ton with Lieut.. Col. Barry. the Divi
sion AdJutant at Camp Meade, and
Col. Humber on the proposition made
by Col. Barry to have race for mill
tary riders at Bowie sometime be-
tween this and the end of the month.
Col. Barry, himself n cavalry Of
1Cer is anxious for the opportunity
OF riding in such a race and he says
that there are number of former
cavalry officers at Camp Meade and
elsewhere in the neighborhood of the
National Capital that would like to
participate IN one.
Because of the scarcity of horses in
the United States and the unfitness of
such as we have for real military
service. owing to their lack of breed
! ing, the proportion of cavalry in the
armies being sent abroad is so small
as to be negligible. The cavalry work
in the campaign in France that is fast
and ultimate disaster has been under
taken by the British. Australian.
Canadian and French allies OF the
United States.
These allies have better mounted
cavalry than We have because they
have paid some attention these forty
or nifty years to the development of
the proper military types.
The main object of Lieut. Col
Barry in requesting that a race for
otficer riders be put on at Bowie
is to stimulate general interest in
horse production. He figures that
every such race will tend to impress
upon the slothful public the fact
that the Importance of breeding
horses of the right sort, thorough
breds and halfbreds. for the army
is always uppermost in the minds
of thoughtful and progressive SOL
diers.
There would have been one such
race as Col. Barry suggests for
Bowie and may be two or three
at Laurel Park if the Maryland
State Fair Corporations October
meeting had not been interrupted
by the epidemic of Spanish infiu-
enza.
The distance Of this military race
Is to he one mile or one mile and a
furlonE. and it will be for horses
, three years old and over. These
horses need not necessarily be stall
lions. 1t is not the idea of Col
Barry and Col. Humber to have
them purchased by the government
after the finish for stud service.
Col. Barry believes that the steeple-
Oh ~
be a large number herea bouts with
out employment after the finish Of
the PimliCO meeting. all of them
eating their heads of. are the sort
, that should fill such a race.
The starters will have to bear SOL
diers, many of them of middle age.
and men of physical substance weigh
ing 80 to 10 pounds. Steeplechase
horses are used to bearing heavy bur
dens. and those that are i'm MARYLAND
just now are thoroughly seasoned
Col. Barry says the size of the field
in this race will be limited by the
number of horses that can be secured
for it. not by the number of avail
able riders. He engages to supply.
from the enCamrment of Meade and
from other posts, twelve riders il
twelve starters can he obtained fif-
teen II there are fifteen horses avail
able and twenty il there are twenty.
General Manager O'Hara realizes
kcenly the interest that would be
aroused by the advertising of such a
race at Bowie. Prince Georges Park
is only few miles distant from Camp
Meade. eight to be exact, and it lies
midway between Washington and
Baltimore on the-famous fnterurban
electric line. Baltimore and Wash
ington just now contain the biggest
population of men and women en-
gagged in war work of various kinds
and interested in anything that per
tains to military development and
progress to be found in the length
, and breadth of the land.